Today a little piece of my childhood passed away...
I was doing my daily peruse of The New York Times when I read that Charles Laufer passed away on April 5th. This may have gone unnoticed save for the following tagline: "Founder of Tiger Beat." Suddenly, memories of my teen-age bedroom flashed before my eyes.
Posters of Duran Duran, Loverboy, C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, John Schneider (I know, but it was the '80's...it was either Dukes of Hazzard or Dallas and Larry Hagman just never did anything for me.) The special editions were the best because they had bonus photos AND valuable information to arm myself for the inevitable meeting I would have someday with these heart throbs. After all, knowing Matt Dillon's favorite breakfast cereal or how he prefers blue toothbrushes to red ones could be crucial if I was going to be his wife. I'm just sayin'...
When I was in 8th grade my friends and I were enamored with the book The Outsiders. When it was made into a movie I think we literally swooned. No kidding, we swooned. And we purchased the special edition of the magazine with all the behind-the-scenes footage and secrets. As this was before the days of cable television, "Entertainment Tonight," MTV, VH1, and "E! Entertainment", thanks to Mr. Laufer and Tiger Beat, I was hip to the world our stars lived in and had the pictures to prove it.
Back then, we were totally oblivious to the way these guys truly lived...we were allowed to have our innocent school-girl crushes sans knowledge of spoiled Hollywood behavior on their part. I believe today's youth has been robbed of such enjoyment, as today's young stars Twitter and Facebook and our media puts all their dirty laundry (and in the case of some non-panty wearing starlets, body parts) out for the world to see.
I have outgrown Tiger Beat. I even chastised my favorite magazine in the world, Vanity Fair, a few months ago when they put Justin Bieber on the cover with a feature story within. But I would be remiss if I did not admit to a thrill seeing Rob Lowe on this month's cover with an excerpt of his new book detailing the audition process for his role as Sodapop Curtis and the lifelong friendships he made on the movie set of The Outsiders. In fact, I think I will go to NetFlix and see if I can watch the movie now, for old times sake.
In the meantime, peace be with you, Mr. Laufer. Thank you for decorating my teenage bedroom and thank you for the memories.
Awh I have chills! My old favorite magazine. My walls were covered! And Duran is still, to this day, my favorite band :)
ReplyDeleteMy dad wouldn't buy my sis and I that "garbage" so my mum would get us a Tiger Beat and tell us to say we got it from a friends. Isn't that awful, lol.
ReplyDeleteI always combed through for pictures of JTT (remember Jonathan Taylor Thomas?) and Tom Cruise, speaking of the Outsiders. Did you know Tom removed the cap on his front tooth (an injury from high school wrestling) so he would have a chipped tooth in the movie. He thought it would make the character more "tuff". See how valuable those 'garbage' magazines were.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane
I bought this copy of VF at Kennedy on the way home and immediately tore through Rob Lowe's article. I'm a couple of years younger than you (New Kids and Cory Haim covered my walls) but the Outsiders made me swoon swoon swoon too! I think I'm going to have to get that book Rob Lowe wrote. Need more tidbits about his life back in the day. It's Tiger Beat for grown ups :-)
ReplyDeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words about my sister's shower!
Angela,
Parisienne Farmgirl