I still think about how in 1979, A high school principal in San Diego gave permission for a 22 year old to pose as a teenager and enroll as a student to research his book.
Posted by ExpiredHotdog@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 40 comments
Also, how it became an iconic movie that I still quote to this day, and how that same man’s earlier life inspired another iconic movie 19 years later.
Tinytiger1973@reddit
I have this out-of-print book. It has people and events that aren't included in the movie.
AnnaT70@reddit
You're lucky! I read that book in high school and so wish I still had my copy. I remember Crowe's introduction vividly (telling the principal some Kris Kristofferson stories to butter him up), and while I like the movie, the book is so much richer.
Tinytiger1973@reddit
I've always loved the movie and wanted to read the book it was based on. I couldn't get it from the library as it was out of print. So I broke down and bought a copy on eBay for $40. Worth every penny.
The book also fully explains why Linda Barrett is so obsessed with being men acting "mature"/being mature in general. It is rather enlightening as to her character.
VRTravis@reddit
Just looked because I want to read. They are $200 for the paperback all day. Even on Amazon. $400 for the hardcover.
Tinytiger1973@reddit
I bought my copy in 1999.
Calamari_is_Good@reddit
I recommend Cameron Crowe's autobiography that came out recently. It mainly covers his time working for Rolling Stone and ends around the time he wrote Fast Times. It's pretty fascinating how a kid, basically, ended up on tour with major acts of that era.
CitizenChatt@reddit
Made a movie about it too. (The band parts at least)
OldJames47@reddit
For future reference, that movie is Almost Famous.
It’s also the second movie referenced by OP.
Calamari_is_Good@reddit
I do love that movie!
Tinytiger1973@reddit
Oh, thank you so much for this recommendation! I'm a huge reader and I hadn't heard about his autobiography. I'll definitely have to check it out.
Same_Lack_1775@reddit
What is the second movie?
OldJames47@reddit
Almost Famous
1266sqk2000@reddit
I remember a guy I went to junior high (6-9th) who drove himself to school. I still got out of high school before him.
No-Property1871@reddit
🤣🤣
Automatic-Nature6025@reddit
In 2000, a 25 year old local cop (female) posed as a 17 year old student at a Virginia high school in order to infiltrate a supposed drug ring. Although the local news praised it as innovative, clever, and effective, it resulted in little more than some upset kids, parents, and an interesting story. Some students claimed that the officer had sex with a 17 year old boy whom she dated at the school.
Elliott2030@reddit
Lin Manuel Miranda did a show for This American Life about this kind of thing in New York. She convinced a good kid to buy her some pot (which he located because he liked her, not because he had any), then arrested him and his college acceptance was revoked. Awful story (but the musical is good).
21 Chump Street: The Musical
Sweetness_Bears_34@reddit
My son graduated from that high school
u4got2wipe@reddit
I graduated from that high school
Dr_Newton_Fig@reddit
Wonderful!
Free_Landscape_5275@reddit
Hello
Throttlechopper@reddit
Negative-Appeal9892@reddit
There was a woman (age 28) at my school (class of 86) who dropped out and then came back to get her HS diploma. She was cool.
ExpiredHotdog@reddit (OP)
Just like Alexis Rose! She was cool too, but all the kids knew she was 28.
Status-Effort-9380@reddit
It’s such a great book; but, yeah, the whole project is questionable. I can’t believe he was given permission to do it. Why was he given permission? I’d like to hear the principal’s reasoning there.
SirkutBored@reddit
If you look at that period of Cameron's life, this bit like the rest, the phrase it was a different time doesn't really do it justice.
ExpiredHotdog@reddit (OP)
According to the book, it sounded like the principal was just so impressed that Cameron had spent time with famous musicians that he didn't need any other convincing.
Glass-Nectarine-3282@reddit
The answer is that it was 1979. People cannot relate to what school was like back then. I'm sure this was mildly controversial like the interview shows, but people figured what kind of problems could really happen.
tunaman808@reddit
I've read multiple interviews with Crowe in which he said the principal was actually very skeptical and against it... however he apparently loved hearing Crowe's stories about hanging out with rock stars. Crowe just kept telling anecdotes until he finally agreed.
The principal also apparently completely forgot about all this and was shocked when Crowe came to his office to tell him he was done and leaving the school.
MaximumJones@reddit
Life's the same, I'm moving in stereo...
Waffuru@reddit
Unrelated to the movie, the first time I heard this song in stereo absolutely blew my mind. I had a mono tape player and a mono headset to listen to it with, one of those kinda beige things that plugged into your ear. I always loved the song, but when I finally heard it in stereo... holy heck.
Fillmore80@reddit
I could hear the song as I read this.
ExpiredHotdog@reddit (OP)
Most paused scene, according to another grown man playing a high school student.
ShookMyHeadAndSmiled@reddit
Someone on this sub (or its non-union Facebook equivalent) posted asking for 80s movies recommendations for his teenage daughters. All the hits were mentioned multiple times; your Breakfast Clubs and Goonies and Better Off Deads and whatnot.
Criminally underrepresented, and I mean I had to scroll dude, was Fast Times. Can you imagine having teenage daughters and no one offered up the one movie from the era with a realistic depiction of the trials of Stacey Hamilton and her smasmorsion. It is for me the ultimate 80s movie.
Mouse-Direct@reddit
True story: when I was in high school in the 80s in rural Oklahoma, there were actual 22-year-olds, who were real students trying to finish HS.
LonesomeBulldog@reddit
When I was a freshman in a Texas HS, a senior graduated that year (‘87) and he was either 21 or 22. He got a 2 page spread in the yearbook for graduating. He was famous for signing his own report card and handing it directly back to the teacher.
Mouse-Direct@reddit
Whoa. Wonder how he’s doing now?
IronBallsMcChing@reddit
He's running a couple companies called Tesla and Space X.
1funnyguy4fun@reddit
When I was in elementary school, we had a kid who wasn’t allowed to participate in track and field day because he was old enough to be in middle school.
ExpiredHotdog@reddit (OP)
That's wild. I've never heard of one that old. There was a senior at one of my high schools in the early 90s who turned 20 during the school year, though.
Mouse-Direct@reddit
We also had one special Ed teacher for 15-20 kids age 7-22. They were not mainstreamed and were all in the same classroom.