Don't You Forget about Maine North High School

     I was cruising the interwebs(aka: Facebook) today and happened upon this picture right here:

     That is a picture of the establishing shot of The Breakfast Club, and while I will admit that at first I thought this might have been another Back To The Future situation(no matter what anybody tells you Marty McFly does not come back to the future until OCTOBER 21, 2015) but then I went ahead and checked it for myself, and this is 100% true.  Roll tape:

     In the pantheon of films shot in Chicago, The Breakfast Club is a member of the Hall of Fame.  It was one of the John Hughes Brat Pack films, which means that this is about as stereotypically 80s as you can get.  Originally the studio didn't want Hughes to even direct the film, as they didn't feel him experienced enough(even though this was after Sixteen Candles had come out, so go figure.)  Eventually they relented, and the film was shot.  As had become Hughes' trademark, the film was shot in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago.  This time the action took place at "Shermer High School", which was actually the decommissioned Maine North High School over in Des Plaines.

     Built in the middle of a population surge in Maine Township, the school was built in 1970.  After things had leveled off, the school district had too many schools and too few students.  After a furious push by the other high schools in the district to stay open, Maine North was left the odd man out and closed after the 1980-81 school year.  When John Hughes wanted to film his new film there, he was given access to the empty building to do so.  After production on the film wrapped, Hughes came back again 2 years later to film Ferris Buehler's Day Off.  Today the building still stands, and is in use as an office for the Illinois State Police, among other things.