FAME — released 45 years ago today on May 16, 1980

I want to live forever

Saw it in the theater as an 11 year old (my folks never knew what they were buying me tickets to see), and much was lost on me, but the last 5 minutes have stayed with me for 45 years as one of my favorite closing scenes of any film.

Show me your tetas, Coco. Tres jolie!

I loved it when I saw it in the theater and immediately ran out and bought the soundtrack album afterward. The music holds up to this day.

But I laugh now when I look back at Paul McCrane's character. He was so angsty, like he was the only homosexual attending the New York High School of the Performing Arts.

None - I was in the level II NICU at Vancouver General Hospital; I still weighed less than two pounds despite being born three weeks prior. I didn't weigh a kilo (2.2 lbs) until [italic]Airplane![/italic] was released June 2. IMO this was not a coincidence. 😄

Two mornings later my mom and her best friend heard Mt. St. Helens explode while they were having coffee at 8:35 precisely. According to the USGS ash fell on all of Washington state, so it's not inconceivable minute amounts of it was high in the atomsphere over the Lower Mainland too - 25 minutes north of the border by car - alebit nothing like southern Washington.

To clarify they were enjoying coffee outside on the deck.

And this has to do with Fame, how, R5?

I saw it in the theater and loved it then when it came on cable I watched it over and over . I love it and always will. While I was never a show queen or drama geek I totally related to the fact they all desperately wanted to be something else .

I was familiar with the NY High School of Performing Arts because my cousin went there. I found found the film to be exhilarating because it featured a school of talented students that comprised of the great melting pot of a wide various of ethnicities of NYC.

I saw this with my mother when it came out. I was 13. I was completely embarrassed when Irene Cara drops her top and wanted to kill myself during the "gay" stuff.

I really got into it after the first half hour but I thought that “Hot Lunch Jam” was corny and that Doris had a bad audition. And Leroy’s temper tantrum when he was smashing things up made me roll my eyes. Grounds for expulsion in real life. But as the movie went on, I really got into these characters and how they grew.

And like a poster above, I really liked how much the student body actually looks like a real bunch of diverse New Yorkers.

Were we supposed to believe Montgomery had his own place above Times Square? Did only Doris and Bruno have parents?

Did you all catch a cute young Michael DeLorenzo dancing around in several scenes?

I never saw the film, nor did I want to, but the title song played nonstop on the radio. And wasn't this the movie in which Irene Cara's raisin titties traumatized people?

Cara’s delivery of “Out Here on My Own” is amazing.

Yes, R14.

The aforementioned Hot Lunch Jam.

Saw it by myself, went to the first Sat matinee at NY"s Ziegfeld Theater where it opened exclusively. Was in 70MM and the sound was amazing. Totally sold out crowd and a line around the block for the next show..

R15, I agree wholeheartedly. That song made me feel less alone as a very unhappy adolescent gayling, like I wasn’t the only one alone in the world.

She sings it live on David Letterman’s daytime show, and she sounds fantastic. Stick around for her performing Hot Lunch Jam at the end.

I wish she’d had a better career after Fame, but at least she got Flashdance.

NB: Out Here on My Own was written by Lesley Gore and her brother.

God, I love this movie. Almost every song is perfect. One of the last things I did before my mother drove me to freshman year at college in August 1980 (the year the movie was released) was play Out Here In My Own.

My favorite line from any movie is Naomi Finsecker’s Doris, we’re in!”

R18 I may have seen it at the Ziegfeld as well. It was the best place in Manhattan to see a film.

I always feel so mixed about it. It's really not very well written. There are parts that made me cringe even back then when i first saw at age 14, that even then i had to chalk up to bad writing. Why would Doris have been allowed into the school after her horrible sobbing audition? Why was Anne Meara's character such a terrible teacher that Leroy somehow got through multiple years of h.s. without her discovering he couldn't read? Why would the cafeteria workers thrill to the sight of the children dancing on the tables during their first day of school?

On the other hand, the cinematography was amazing: I love the feel the film gave of the crumbling old school building, of Montgomery's enormous empty Times Square apartment, and of Ralph's horrifying Bronx neighborhood (which looked like the worst parts of London during the Blitz).

Met Leslie Gore at The Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market and got to tell her how much I loved her song ""Out Here on My Own" that she wrote with her brother Michael Gore. They were nominated for an Oscar for Best Song but Michael won for "Fame" with his partner Dean Pitchford.

Loved the movie but ugh, Doris Finsecker changing her name to Dominique DuPont? Always annoyed me. But I still get chills thinking of “I Sing the Body Electric”.

Was saddened when Irene Cara was not remembered for ‘Fame’ on a recent “Jeopardy!”. I want to dismiss the film but am always pulled into it when it’s aired on TCM.

REMEMBAH!

r7 🤷‍♀️ Nothing but I enjoyed the snippets I saw on TV as a little kid and I still love the theme song.

Irene Cara left us too soon. RIP.

I took the bus to go see "Fame" by myself when it came out. I was a kid who had aspirations to become an actor and was looking forward to seeing this movie. I even ditched school and read my copy of "How To Break into Motion Picture, Television, Commercials and Modeling" by Nina Blanchard.

[quote]Irene Cara's raisin titties

This thread is useless without screenshots.

Michelle Sutlovich’s dancing to Fame was much better than anything in the movie.

R21- I was 8 years old in 1974 when my parents took me to the Ziegfeld to see Earthquake in SENSURROUND.

I thought Gene Anthony Ray and Antonia Franceschi were the highlight, super acting and dancing. They were a couple in the movie; gay and Lesbian in real life.

[quote]Was saddened when Irene Cara was not remembered for ‘Fame’ on a recent “Jeopardy!”. I want to dismiss the film but am always pulled into it when it’s aired on TCM.

KEN JENNINGS: "And now, we come to our final 'Jeopardy':... 'Although she was much more famous as a singer, as an actress she was perhaps best known for baring her infamous 'raisin titties,' to the horror of gay male teenagers everywhere, near the conclusion of the beloved 1980 movie 'Fame'....'"

***utter depressed stillness from the three confounded contestants as the Merv Griffin music for 'Final Jeopardy' plays***

[quote] This thread is useless without screenshots.

You may think you want to see a still of them, but really, you don't. They are so hideous they will transform any and all beholders into stone, much like the face of Medusa.

R30

Somewhere in the Caribbean, a cruise ship is introducing their longtime choreographer…

I Sing The Body Electric is one of the best closing scenes of any movie ever. I hope it’s included in that other thread running right now.

The scene gives every major character a beautiful moment (or more) of their own during a rousing song that perfectly captures the movie’s theme.

All five of the Best Song nominees that year could have easily come from Fame. In addition to the two nominated songs, Dogs in the Yard, Is It Ok If I Call You Mine, and Body Electric would have been worthy nominees. But the Academy limits nominees to only two songs from one movie, which I guess is fair.

R13 Yes. And did you catch Isaac Mizrahi auditioning at the beginning?

r34 I looked up that scene. Her breasts are fine, guys. Not all women have large ones.

The TV show was completely defanged as it had to be for network TV (and then first run syndication) in the 80s. And it was hilarious they had a big show in every episode.

It's a big, beautiful/ugly mess. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I remember seeing it in the theater and being so relieved to see Irene Cara singing in the final scene. I thought maybe she had been killed by the creep whose apartment she went to.

Is the heavy black girl singing at the end the same one who was hula dancing for her audition?

That school had lax admissions standards.

I always found the final scene confusing. Why is Mongtomery singing a solo? Wasn't he in the drama department?

Why is Lisa singing? Wasn't she in the dance department? Okay, maybe I can buy that one, since she was kicked out of dance and maybe she found her niche in music.

Holland Taylor was only 37 years old when she appeared in her no-line cameo in the movie, but damn, if she didn't look like she was in her 50s even back then.

Seeing it in the movie theater was revelatory. I was like "there's a school fot people like me?!!!"

[Quote]I remember seeing it in the theater and being so relieved to see Irene Cara singing in the final scene. I thought maybe she had been killed by the creep whose apartment she went to.

Same here! That's why I'm borderline about this movie. You see something happen to a character and you never see the reaction. I thought she was dead as you not only don't see any immediate followup-you don't see her again until the final scene.

Fuck you, Alan Parker! Irene Cara deserved more screen time.

The movie was designed just to be vignettes of life in the school over the four years which is why no subject was dwelt upon too long. Coco made a mistake and apparently chalked it up to lesson learned and moved on.

[quote]Were we supposed to believe Montgomery had his own place above Times Square? Did only Doris and Bruno have parents?

It was late 70's Times Square. His place was a dump.

Baby remember my name… remember, remember.

[quote]REMEMBAH!

Look up the street and you can see the Broadway marquee of where Sandy Duncan was thrilling audiences in"Peter Pan".

The song Fame was played in all the discos at the time, ad nauseam.

"45 years ago" in 1980 was 1935! 😲

The song was rereleased on 45 when the TV series came out and I spent a week begging my parents to take me to Caldor so I could get the single. And then I played it over and over.

R48 - not only was Times Square a dump, but Montgomery’s absentee mother is a famous actress who undoubtably paid his rent.

The high school aspect of the movie is almost as bad as “Grease” as they all look and act like college students.

I occasionally see Lee Curreri out and about in my neighborhood here in L.A.

Is this the same movie where Lucy Lee Flippin gets interrupted while eating her lunch?

Irene had pancake Barbara tits

That’s Flashdance, r57. But, I can imagine her doing the same thing in Fame, and Shirley Mulholland cussing her out.

“You done me a favor, shithead! You saved me four fuckin’ years in this ass-licken’ school!"

Debbie Allen’s part in the film is so small but damned if they didn’t make her almost the main character in the series.

R14 YES

. . .

We tried to get Irene to join our group.

This movie introduced us to Maureen Teefy who would go on to have a decent career in the 80's as well as Boyd Gaines and Paul McCrane of ER fame.

The studio pushed Irene Cara hard for an oscar nomination but they should have gone with Anne Meara. I loved Gene Anthony Ray's performance as well. Hot Light is the best song and dance in the movie.

Remember that the DL saying, "he had a hot ass, but couldn't live forever" was originally referring to the death of Gene Anthony Ray, so DL will always be in his debt.

R60, I know! I was way too young to see this film when it was released (I was 6 and it was Rated R), but loved the soundtrack album and watched the tv show. I somehow got to see the movie when I was in my early teens and surprised to see that Debbie Allen had like two lines in the entire film since she was basically the star of the tv show.

I thought the movie was only OK but LOVED the TV show. I mean I fucking loved it. So did my sister so we bonded over watching it. Now don't throw anything at me but Erica Gimpel was a much better Coco.

Does anyone remember that horrible contestant on American Idol who attempted to sing "Fame" in a Broadway singing voice.

R67 I WILL CUT YOU !

Sue in the Middle. I love her.

I fear bones was not a fan