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Tag: home alone

  • Catherine O’Hara’s Friends and Collaborators Pay Tribute

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    The friends, former collaborators, and countless admirers of Catherine O’Hara are paying public tribute to her after her death on January 30 following a brief illness. The comic actress was an Emmy Award winner and a beloved entertainer across generations. Hollywood and beyond mourned her 50-year career, including her co-stars from Home Alone, her fellow nominees from her recent project The Studio, and longtime collaborators from what ended up being her final project, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

    Below, find all the celebrity tributes to the legendary Catherine O’Hara.

    Schitt’s Creek co-creator Dan Levy spoke on behalf of him and his father Eugene Levy on Instagram. “What a gift to have gotten to dance in the warm glow of Catherine O’Hara’s brilliance for all those years,” he wrote. “Having spent over fifty years collaborating with my Dad, Catherine was extended family before she ever played my family. It’s hard to imagine a world without her in it. I will cherish every funny memory I was fortunate enough to make with her.” Busy Philipps commented on his post “sending you and your family and her family so much love.”

    The comedians remembered the “sweetest angel” when they raised a toast in her honor during their comedy show in Austin, Texas on Friday night. “I met her when she was 18 years of age, and all these years later, she’s been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with,” Short said. “God bless her.” The two raised their glasses as the audience cheered.

    Burton, who directed O’Hara in both Beetlejuice films, shared a photo of them together, alongside the cast of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. He wrote, “Catherine, I love you . This picture shows how much light you gave to all of us. You were a special part of my life and after life.”

    Martin Scorsese directed Catherine O’Hara in After Hours, a “one bad night” comedy that has achieved cult status over the years. “To lose Catherine O’Hara… it feels impossible to me, and to millions of others as well, I’m sure,” the director said in a statement obtained by IndieWire. His daughter, Francesca, posted a screenshot of their FaceTime when she presumably shared the news. “For me, and for most of my friends, it’s SCTV: all I have to do is think about one of the characters she created, like Lola Heatherton or Dusty Towne, and I’m laughing. Catherine was a true comic genius, a true artist, and a wonderful human being. I was blessed to be able to work with her on After Hours, and I’m going to miss her presence and her artistry. We all are.”

    Balaban, who co-starred with O’Hara in many a Christopher Guest film, said he was “devastated” by her passing and praised the actress for her “gift of loopiness,” something he ascribed to being Canadian. “Catherine O’Hara had an extraordinary kindness that so many Canadians seem to have,” he told Page Six. “She also had the gift of loopiness that so many Canadian comic actors have, too — Eugene Levy, Marty Short, John Candy, for example.” Balaban suspects that the Canadian loopiness and kindness both come from “having to wear a woolen hat with earflaps for too many months of the year.”

    “Catherine was as smart as a person can be, but never showy,” he added. “And effortlessly creative with material. She had great generosity, which she would often use to bolster another actor’s performance…And you have to love a person who, after they beat you at a big, big hand of poker, apologizes.”

    In an Instagram post, Keaton said he and O’Hara “go back before the first Beetlejuice.” He also shared his condolences with O’Hara’s husband, Bo Welch. “She’s been my pretend wife, my pretend nemesis and my real life, true friend,” he wrote. “This one hurts. Man am I gonna miss her.”

    Baldwin, who co-starred with O’Hara in Beetlejuice, called the actor “one of the greatest comic talents in the movie business” in a statement to Page Six. “She had a quality that was all her own and my sympathy goes out to Bo and their family,” he said. His wife, Dancing With the Stars contestant Hilaria Baldwin, posted a TikTok of Baldwin and O’Hara on the set of the 1988 film.

    McKean worked with O’Hara going all the way back to SCTV — a troupe that has already lost John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Tony Rosato, and Harold Ramis. “Only one Catherine O’Hara, and now none. Heartbreaking,” he wrote on Twitter. “Catherine’s knowledge of humanity was always at the center of her comedy, no matter how absurd the character or loopy the material. She could play heartless because she was warm, brainless because she was brilliant, careless because she truly cared. Everyone loved her and everyone learned from her. This is a deep loss.”

    She was nominated for an Emmy for her work on Seth Rogen’s award-winning series The Studio for playing his former boss, studio executive Patty Leigh. “I told O’Hara when I first met her I thought she was the funniest person I’d ever had the pleasure of watching on screen,” Rogen wrote in a tribute on Instagram. “Home Alone was the movie that made me want to make movies. Getting to work with her was a true honour.” Variety reports that season two of the series had just started filming.

    Macaulay Culkin starred as O’Hara’s son Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone films. He mourned O’Hara on Instagram with side-by-side photos of them together when he was a child, then again as an adult. “Mama,” he wrote. “I thought we had time. I wanted more. I wanted to sit in a chair next to you.” In the comments, he added, “I’m mad about this…”

    Actor-director Ron Howard directed O’Hara in the 1994 film The Paper and wrote on X that “This is shattering news.”

    Pedro Pascal and Catherine O’Hara acted together in the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us. “Eternally grateful,” Pascal wrote on Instagram. “There is less light in my world, this lucky world that had you, will keep you, always.”

    O’Hara worked with Theroux on the 2024 film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. He posted a photo of her on-set chair from that production.

    Amy Sedaris and O’Hara both voiced characters in the 2005 movie Chicken Little, but Sedaris’s admiration went beyond that. “Catherine O’Hara was such an inspiration to me,” Sedaris wrote alongside a clip of O’Hara in Waiting for Guffman on Instagram. “I was obsessed with her and SCTV.”

    Actor Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird) talked about loving O’Hara during press for his 2025 film The Naked Gun, then posted a tribute when she died. “She was my Meryl Streep,” he wrote in his post. “I could watch her in anything. Didn’t matter how good or bad the film or show was. I wanted to see what she would do.”

    Rita Wilson and O’Hara never worked together, though they did come up in Hollywood at similar times and knew each other. Wilson paid tribute to O’Hara on Instagram. “A woman who was authentic and truthful in all she did,” Wilson called O’Hara in her post. “You saw it in her work, if you knew her you saw it in her life, and you saw it in her family.”

    Comedian Kevin Nealon and Catherine O’Hara crossed paths multiple times. In 1991, she hosted Saturday Night Live while he was still in the cast. He wrote about her on X. “From the chaos and heart of Home Alone to the unforgettable precision of Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek, she created characters we’ll rewatch again and again,” he wrote.

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    Jason P. Frank

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  • 12-year-old boy stops burglar in his home

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    A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house. 12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.A stranger was walking from room to room.”I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said. It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.”I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.”He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.”We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.””You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said. The suspect now faces burglary charges.He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.

    LONG ISLAND, N.Y. —

    A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.

    They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house.

    12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.

    A stranger was walking from room to room.

    “I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said.

    It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.

    After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.

    “I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.

    Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.

    “He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.

    “We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”

    Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.

    To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.

    Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.”

    “You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said.

    The suspect now faces burglary charges.

    He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.

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  • 12-year-old boy stops burglar in his home

    [ad_1]

    A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house. 12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.A stranger was walking from room to room.”I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said. It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.”I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.”He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.”We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.””You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said. The suspect now faces burglary charges.He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.

    LONG ISLAND, N.Y. —

    A family on Long Island, New York, is crediting their 12-year-old with saving the day.

    They say he did all the right things when someone broke into their house.

    12-year-old Tristen Taylor of Medford was home alone in his bedroom midday Tuesday when he heard the kitchen window break and footsteps inside the house.

    A stranger was walking from room to room.

    “I said, I have to get out the house,” Tristen said.

    It may sound like the Christmas classic “Home Alone,” but unlike the holiday movie, there were no traps or pranks — just quick thinking, a fast police response and a child who did all the right things.

    After getting away through a ground-floor window, he called 911. As the man rummaged through the house, Tristen hid behind the garage.

    “I was on the phone with them, waiting for them to get here,” he said.

    Suffolk County police arrived in less than three minutes, catching the thief red-handed.

    “He is our little hero,” said Timothea Taylor, Tristen’s grandmother.

    “We were very proud that he was able to keep his composure and call the police as quickly as he did. Basically, without even thinking about it, he automatically called 911.”

    Tristen’s family credits movies he’s seen, plus his good instincts.

    To his neighbors, he’s also a hero for stopping a brazen burglar.

    Mike Campanella, a neighbor, said, “I would hope my son would have done the same thing, when someone is breaking into the house — caution is to get out and then call the police.”

    “You just have to be brave and call them,” Tristen said.

    The suspect now faces burglary charges.

    He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Wednesday.

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  • Video: Homebuilder in Utah builds replica of the house from “Home Alone”

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    “Home Alone” is one of the most classic Christmas movies of all time, and it inspired a homebuilder in Utah to pay homage to the legendary film.A Utah builder decided to live his lifelong dream and build the ‘Home Alone’ home.”I mean, it could be viewed as certainly nerdy for somebody to go and invest seven million dollars into a home that’s based on a movie that they happen to love when they were kids, right?” Nathan Shaffer said.If the brickwork and windows don’t provoke a Christmastime déjà vu, the Oh-Kay Plumbing van with the Wet Bandit sticker will.A replica of the McCallister home Kevin was left alone in. “I remember watching it and a lot of us connected with that kid because it was like, dude, what would that be like to kind of be on our own,” Shaffer said.There aren’t many lookie-loos yet, but Shaffer’s crew will host community events where young and old can step into Kevin McCallister’s shoes.“We want them to just come and like be looking and using their creativity, right, to kind of use their imagination to find the things from the movie,” Shaffer said.Architect Josh Warner said the exterior is nearly identical.But since the interior was actually a soundstage, they modeled 60 to 70 percent off the real Chicago house — thanks to an online listing when it went up for sale.While there is no basement, there is an attic and a movie-style veranda with glass walls.

    “Home Alone” is one of the most classic Christmas movies of all time, and it inspired a homebuilder in Utah to pay homage to the legendary film.

    A Utah builder decided to live his lifelong dream and build the ‘Home Alone’ home.

    “I mean, it could be viewed as certainly nerdy for somebody to go and invest seven million dollars into a home that’s based on a movie that they happen to love when they were kids, right?” Nathan Shaffer said.

    If the brickwork and windows don’t provoke a Christmastime déjà vu, the Oh-Kay Plumbing van with the Wet Bandit sticker will.

    A replica of the McCallister home Kevin was left alone in.

    “I remember watching it and a lot of us connected with that kid because it was like, dude, what would that be like to kind of be on our own,” Shaffer said.

    There aren’t many lookie-loos yet, but Shaffer’s crew will host community events where young and old can step into Kevin McCallister’s shoes.

    “We want them to just come and like be looking and using their creativity, right, to kind of use their imagination to find the things from the movie,” Shaffer said.

    Architect Josh Warner said the exterior is nearly identical.

    But since the interior was actually a soundstage, they modeled 60 to 70 percent off the real Chicago house — thanks to an online listing when it went up for sale.

    While there is no basement, there is an attic and a movie-style veranda with glass walls.

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  • Macaulay Culkin and ‘Home Alone’ Director Chris Columbus Share Set Secrets, Dismay at Franchise’s “Really Bad Sequels” and Ideas for a New Movie

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    In honor of the 35th anniversary of Home Alone, star Macaulay Culkin and director Chris Columbus sat down for a conversation about the film‘s past, present and future.

    Somehow marking the very first time they’d discussed the hit movie together, the pair united for a screening at the Academy Museum on Saturday where they began at the beginning, with John Hughes first bringing the script to Columbus. That came after the filmmaker had quit Hughes’ National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation — with Columbus admitting, “I had to call John Hughes and say, ‘I don’t get along with Chevy Chase. I don’t think I can make a movie with him’” — and thinking he may never direct again.

    Of course he did, with Home Alone becoming a smash hit and a holiday classic still to this day, something Columbus credits to “a feeling of timelessness about the look of the movie and the feel of the movie.” It’s also in the elaborate traps that 8-year-old Kevin McCallister lays for thieves Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) that were done so realistically that “every time [the stuntmen] did a stunt, it was not funny. We’d watch it and we thought they were dead.”

    The stars also got in on the action. In the scene where Pesci’s character’s head catches on fire, the actor had to wear a special cap; Columbus remembered “when we offered it to Joe, he said, ‘There’s no way I’m wearing that fucking thing.’” Producer Mark Radcliffe then “brought out his 9-year-old daughter, put the cap on her and we put the torch on her to actually show Joe Pesci, you’re gonna be OK, Joe, this is fine,” which eventually convinced him. And Stern had a real tarantula crawl on his face, but couldn’t scream because the spider “would then bite and get upset;” he had to pretend to scream and have his vocals added in post, the filmmaker revealed.

    The conversation also touched on possible ways Culkin and Columbus could return to the franchise; they both stopped after 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, but the movies carried on, with 1997’s Home Alone 3, 2002’s Home Alone 4, 2012’s Home Alone: The Holiday Heist and 2021’s Home Sweet Home Alone.

    Columbus got honest about his thoughts on those films, telling The Hollywood Reporter before the onstage conversation that his problem returning to the franchise is “it’s been revisited with really bad sequels. Sorry to insult anybody, but they’ve completely fucked it up. It started with Home Alone 3 and then it just went downhill from there; Home Alone 3 is sort of the best of the bunch of the bad movies.” He partially blamed their failure on using wires in action scenes, which “give a false sense of the stunt,” and as Culkin pointed out, “also they didn’t have us.”

    Despite this, Culkin has recently been speaking publicly about a sequel idea he came up with, which he elaborated on at the event. “I like the idea that maybe Kevin’s older, that he’s like a widower or something like that. He’s raising his kid and they don’t really get along, he’s working all the time. … it’s almost like a Liar, Liar kind of thing,” the actor mused. “There’s one of two ways you can do it. One, he actually leaves the kid behind by mistake; he calls up his mom like, ‘So sorry, I get it now.’ Or I leave him behind on purpose, like, ‘Oh, that made me the man I am today.’”

    Culking continued, “Then he locks me out of the house and he’s setting up traps and things like that. And I think I see them coming because, you know, I’m the expert. It also explains why I don’t call the police or locksmith because I’m embarrassed my kid is beating me and this is my gig. And I think the house would be kind of a metaphor for getting back into the kid’s heart kind of thing.”

    Chris Columbus, Macaulay Culkin and Academy Museum director of film programs K.J. Relth-Miller.

    Academy Museum Foundation/Andrew Ge

    Columbus, though — who said he’s “heard about 600 different ideas” over the years of how to continue the story — thinks it would only be worth it if Culkin, Pesci and Stern all returned, as Culkin joked, “Joe Pesci is 82; I’m pretty sure he would still take a fall, right?”

    The filmmaker elaborated to THR that two decades ago, he considered an idea where Harry and Marv were getting out of jail after 20 years and “they’re bitter, they’re angry, and they want revenge. And who do they want revenge on? Macaulay. And at that point, I thought Macaulay could have a kid, sort of Kevin’s age, and it would be his own kid dealing with these two guys.” Columbus added, though, “I don’t think Joe Pesci would be interested. I haven’t seen Dan Stern since 1992, I don’t know if he would be interested. The problem is when you’re doing a film like this, a lot of it is really based on cast; part of it is based on the cast at that age, at that particular time, and I don’t think you can duplicate that.”

    The pair finished out the conversation by answering questions from kids in the audience, as Culkin talked about showing the movie to his own children — who don’t realize that he’s the star.

    “They don’t even call it Home Alone, they call it Kevin. They’re like, ‘Wow Kevin’s really funny’; I go, ‘He’s also handsome, somebody that your mom [Brenda Song] might be into,’” he joked. “I showed my oldest — he wanted to see a picture of me and my siblings, so I pulled up this old photo; it’s all my siblings and he looks right at me and he goes, ‘Who’s that? That looks like Kevin.’ I go, ‘Oh, no, nobody, here’s your aunt.’”

    Culkin continued, “Their little cousin was over, she’s 5 years old. They told her, ‘We’re gonna watch Kevin tonight.’ And she turned to me, she goes, ‘You’re Kevin.’ I said, ‘No you’re Kevin, shut up!’ I’m trying to keep the magic alive.” He left the stage by giving Home Alone 2‘s signature line, telling the crowd, “Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.”

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    Kirsten Chuba

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  • Macaulay Culkin Still Has (Actual) Scars From Home Alone, 35 Years Later

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    At the event, he revealed another anecdote: To this day, he has a scar from filming the movie, courtesy of co-star Joe Pesci.

    “He bit me during rehearsal. The thing you have to remember [is] I’m not really on screen with Joe and Dan [Stern] for a lot of the movie. They’re off doing everything. I was just talking to the ether, so I didn’t know him all that well,” he commented. “This is one of the last days of filming and I’m hung up there, so vulnerable,” he laughed, recalling the scene where his character Kevin McCallister is caught by the Wet Bandits and dangling from a coat hook, “and [Pesci] goes to Dan, ‘Dan, you want to run lines?’ So, he even asked me, I was like, ‘Yeah, sure,’ because I don’t have any lines in that scene.” He said, ‘I’m [going to bite] these fingers off one at a time,’ and then sank his teeth into my finger. I was like ‘Ahhh!’ You should have seen his face because he knew he bit a nine-year-old. A nine-year-old coworker,” Culkin said.

    Pesci, he said, apologized.

    “I was like, ‘Oh yeah, just don’t do it again,’” he recalled of his reaction. “So, yeah, it actually left a mark. It’s 35 years later, and I still have this little divot right here. This is Joey Baby’s tooth. Not the gold one, the regular one. He gave me a souvenir. It’s a nice story to regale you guys with. It’s worth it now, but back then it was just like, ‘Who is this creep?’”

    The actor explained that he holds no grudges against Pesci, though he did say he’s contemplated taking revenge now, decades later.

    “He plays golf with a neighbor of mine, and he was always talking, ‘Joey’s coming over,’” Culkin said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, you guys should just come over, ring my doorbell, and it’ll be fine.’”

    “I want my kids to set up traps for him,” he explained. “They’re only really into that—you ever show kids this movie, next thing you know the next month, all they do set traps for you? I get reported back to me all the time. My kids are starting to do that now, too.”

    Originally published in Vanity Fair Spain.

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    Marita Alonso

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  • Macaulay Culkin Open to ‘Home Alone’ Sequel and Shares Idea: Kevin McCallister Faces Off Against His Son to Get Into Their Locked House

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    Macaulay Culkin said during a recent stop on his “A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin” tour that he “wouldn’t be completely allergic” to returning as Kevin McCallister in a “Home Alone” sequel. Although he added: “It would have to be just right.” Fortunately, Culkin already has a pitch for a sequel that he would be interested in doing.

    “I kind of had this idea,” Culkin said. “I’m either a widower or a divorcee. I’m raising a kid and all that stuff. I’m working really hard and I’m not really paying enough attention and the kid is kind of getting miffed at me and then I get locked out. [Kevin’s son] won’t let me in… and he’s the one setting traps for me.”

    Culkin’s “Home Alone” sequel idea is to more or less replace the robbers with Kevin McCallister, as he battles his own son to reenter their home during the holidays. The actor said “the house is some sort of metaphor for our relationship” and his character has to “get let back into son’s heart’ kind of deal. That’s the closest elevator pitch that I have. I’m not completely allergic to it, the right thing.”

    The “Home Alone” franchise turned Culkin into one of the most popular Hollywood child stars of the 1990s when the first movie became a box office blockbuster with $476 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1990. He returned for the 1992 sequel “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” Culkin’s director, Chris Columbus, made headlines in August when he told Entertainment Tonight that a new “Home Alone” movie should never be made.

    “I think ‘Home Alone’ really exists as, not at this timepiece, but it was this very special moment, and you can’t really recapture that,” Columbus said. “I think it’s a mistake to try to go back and recapture something we did 35 years ago. I think it should be left alone.”

    Both Culkin and Columbus did not participate in “Home Alone 3,” the largely-forgotten 1997 installment. A fourth movie was released directly to television in 2002. Disney attempted to reboot the franchise in 2021 with the Disney+ exclusive movie “Home Sweet Home Alone,” starring young “Jojo Rabbit” breakout Archie Yates. Reviews were not kind to the remake, perhaps proving Columbus’ point right.

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    Zack Sharf

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  • Today in Chicago History: Holy cow! After 11 years with White Sox, broadcaster Harry Caray moves to Cubs.

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    Here’s a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 16, according to the Tribune’s archives.

    Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

    Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

    • High temperature: 73 degrees (1952)
    • Low temperature: 6 degrees (1959)
    • Precipitation: 1.2 inches (1928)
    • Snowfall: 0.9 inches (1920)
    Sea lions arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo by train in July 1889. Nineteen of the 21 animals shipped to Chicago from Santa Barbara, California, survived. (Chicago Tribune)

    1903: “Big Ben” escaped to Lake Michigan. The 600-pound male sea lion, who arrived at Lincoln Park Zoo from California a year earlier, scaled the 3-foot iron fence around his enclosure and headed 200 yards into the lake. Worried a hunter might shoot the animal, keeper Cyrus DeVry offered a $25 reward for Big Ben’s safe return. The animal was spotted at many different locations, including 2 miles off south Chicago, where he tried to board the dredge tug Mentor. The final sighting was April 25, 1904, when the sea lion’s body was discovered 15 miles south of St. Joseph, Michigan.

    Mick Jagger, left, sings while guitarist Mick Taylor, center, and Keith Richards, right, show just how completely contrasting two different techniques can make a single instrument sound during their performance on Nov. 16, 1969 at the International Amphitheatre. (Dave Nystrom/Chicago Tribune)
    Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, from left, Mick Taylor and Keith Richards on Nov. 16, 1969, at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. Editors note: this historic print shows age damage. (Dave Nystrom/Chicago Tribune)

    1969: The Rolling Stones played the International Amphitheatre as part of the band’s first United States tour in three years (a day before the band played two shows at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). Three weeks later, the tour would end in tragedy at the Altamont Speedway in California, with an audience member being stabbed and beaten to death by Hells Angels members who had been hired by the Stones to provide security.

    The Rolling Stones in Chicago: A timeline of the band’s 55-year fascination with the city’s blues

    But in Chicago, the Stones were in prime form, with their hero, Chuck Berry, as one of the opening acts. The band lineup for this tour included guitarist Mick Taylor for the first time, as a replacement for Brian Jones, who died a few months earlier.

    Harry Caray puts on a Chicago Cubs hat at a press conference on Nov. 16, 1981, after he signed a two-year contract to broadcast Cubs games. (Walter Kale/Chicago Tribune)
    Harry Caray puts on a Chicago Cubs hat at a news conference on Nov. 16, 1981, after he signed a two-year contract to broadcast Cubs games. (Walter Kale/Chicago Tribune)

    1981: Broadcaster Harry Caray brought his antics to the North Side after 11 years as the voice of the Chicago White Sox. Caray signed a two-year contract with WGN radio and television to announce Chicago Cubs games.

    “After several weeks of talking and negotiating, we made him an offer about two weeks ago,” said Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. “The money was acceptable to him, but he said he wanted to think about it. That was the first time we had any indication he was anything but anxious to come back.”

    Caray remained with the Cubs until his death on Feb. 18, 1998.

    Ald. William Henry, 24th, with his car near Independence Square Fountain in Chicago on Aug. 18, 1988. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)
    Ald. William Henry, 24th, with his car near Independence Square Fountain in Chicago on Aug. 18, 1988. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)

    1990: Chicago Ald. William Henry — known at City Hall as “Wild Bill” — was indicted on charges he extorted cash and luxury cars from a car rental firm, took bribes from a West Side janitorial company and put “ghost workers” on the city payroll in exchange for kickbacks.

    The Dishonor Roll: Chicago officials

    The West Side politician pleaded not guilty and told reporters that his indictment was a ”smear campaign.” Henry died in 1992, halting the case against him.

    Travelers walk through a grandly decorated terminal at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Dec. 3, 2024, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
    Travelers walk through a grandly decorated terminal at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Dec. 3, 2024, in Chicago. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

    Also in 1990: “Home Alone” premiered. The Tribune gave the modern Christmas classic, which was shot in 62 days in the city and suburbs, three stars.

    Want to drive past the ‘Home Alone’ house? Or the church? A tour of 12 filming locations around Chicago.

    The film was written and produced by John Hughes (“Sixteen Candles,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “The Breakfast Club” and more), who was by then deep into his oeuvre of using Chicago-area sites to illuminate his scripts. This one arrived after “Uncle Buck” (which was also shot here) and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (which wasn’t) but before “Dutch” and “Curly Sue.”

    Vintage Chicago Tribune: Revisiting ‘Home Alone’ sites with the film’s location manager

    Want more vintage Chicago?

    Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago’s past.

    Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com

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    Kori Rumore

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  • The ‘Home Alone’ house is on the market — without the booby traps — for $5.25 million

    The ‘Home Alone’ house is on the market — without the booby traps — for $5.25 million

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    The house made famous by the 1990 blockbuster film “Home Alone” has hit the market in Winnetka, Ill., with a $5.25-million asking price.

    The 671 Lincoln Ave. residence, 20 miles north of downtown Chicago, was the site for the Christmastime comedy in which 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) defends the family home from burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) after being left behind when his family leaves on vacation.

    Dawn McKenna Group calls the listing “a rare opportunity to own one of the most iconic movie residences in American pop culture.” Built in 1921 and boasting 9,126 square feet of living space, the abode features full amenities — five bedrooms, six full baths, a home cinema, full gym and an indoor half-court for basketball — minus the movie’s trademark booby traps.

    The current owners bought the home in 2012 for $1.59 million and renovated it in 2018, preserving its exterior and memorable features like the staircase McCallister slides down in numerous scenes, Dawn McKenna Group said online.

    Trip Advisor lists the “Home Alone” property as “#1 of 20 things to do in Winnetka.” While a wrought-iron fence keeps tourists off the property, it’s possible to take a street-view selfie. The owners have not been shy about their famous home: In 2021, they offered up the place for just $25 a night on Airbnb.

    Right next door, at 681 Lincoln Ave., fans will find Old Man Marley’s house from the same movie. It was listed for sale at $3.1 million in 2014, though it’s unclear whether the property ever changed hands. Roberts Blossom, who played Marley in “Home Alone,” died in 2011.

    Don’t have a spare $5.25 million to spend on your “Home Alone” experience? Try the 2006 game released for PlayStation and defend against a home invasion yourself. Or pick up a “Home Alone” Lego set. Created in 2021, the 3,955-piece set includes a Kevin McCallister figurine and a tree-house zip line that can be used to facilitate his escape.

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    Jireh Deng

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  • It’s Time for the Annual Christmas Question: How Is the McCallister Family So Rich?

    It’s Time for the Annual Christmas Question: How Is the McCallister Family So Rich?

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    With Christmas around the corner, many families are participating in annual traditions, such as watching holiday movies, decorating cookies, or singing carols. ‘90s kids have created their own unique tradition in recent years: rewatching Home Alone and wondering how in the world the McCallister family is so rich.

    Home Alone was released in 1990 and went on to become one of the most beloved Christmas films of all time. Practically every ‘90s kid grew up watching the McCallister family around the holidays. A lot of Christmas classics, like Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, are timeless films that remain relevant to both children and adults. However, Home Alone is the kind of film that looks completely different when you watch it as an adult than when you watched it as a child. As a child, you probably thought Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) was a genius and longed for the day when you might be left home alone to do whatever you pleased and build cute little booby traps.

    Rewatching the film as an adult, your thought process is a lot different. It’s a little more like: Ummm, why is this little eight-year-old more vindictive and sadistic than most serial killers and horror movie villains? He literally just woke up and chose violence. Your thoughts will inevitably turn to the McCallister family’s finances. How did you never notice that this family was probably in the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans?

    Just how rich are the McCallisters?

    Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone
    (20th Century Studios)

    Many of us ‘90s kids grew up with Home Alone, Cheaper by the Dozen, and The Brady Bunch. It was just normal for us to see families with a bajillion kids and not think much of it. However, now that most of us can’t even afford one person (ourselves), you start wondering how these families afforded all those kids. The McCallister family already has five children of their own, plus two cousins who appear to be staying with them while their parents are in Paris. Then there’s an aunt, an uncle, and their four kids who are also temporarily staying with the McCallisters. Huh, having 15 people in one house and traveling with them sounds pretty expensive. Where did they say they were going on their trip again?

    Paris. 15 people went on a trip to Paris. Just the thought of paying for a trip to Paris for 15 people is enough to make most adult viewers lightheaded. We also can’t forget that plane ticket prices were higher in 1990 than today, and the four adults sat in first class. The Washington Post estimates that the same flight today would cost about $25,200, but back in 1990, the McCallisters would’ve paid roughly $35,620. So, the McCallisters spent on one flight what many people earn in a year nowadays. Not to mention the thousands of extra dollars they spent on food, transportation, and emergency flights home to get Kevin.

    However, it was Kevin’s uncle, Rob (Ray Toler), who paid to fly out all 15 people. So he’s the only wealthy member of the family, right? Not quite. Isn’t the house that Kevin lives in awfully big, though? In fact, as adults, we all probably realized that it wasn’t a house at all. It’s a full-fledged mansion in the suburbs of Chicago. Today, the mansion is worth a whopping $2.3 million. While housing prices have risen, The New York Times still estimates a family would’ve needed an annual household income of at least $305,000 to afford that house in 1990. Plus, by Home Alone 2, the entire family is jetting out to Miami for Christmas, while Kevin spends an estimated $26,000 in New York City, all on his father’s credit card.

    What do the McCallister’s do?

    Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
    (20th Century Studios)

    It’s a bit sad as an adult, watching Home Alone and having to tell your childhood self, “Sorry, but you’ll never be Kevin because you’re not part of the wealthiest family in America.” Plus, the film makes a little less sense considering the family’s income. This family is filthy rich, and we’re supposed to believe they didn’t have a whole team of nannies, cooks, and housekeepers at their home 24/7 to care for Kevin? They didn’t just shrug and decide to buy another kid when they realized Kevin was gone? They didn’t send their private jet to get him?

    But the biggest question you’ll be left with is how the McCallisters attained their fortune. The films never reveal what Kevin’s parents’ professions are. It’s quite rude. I just watched this family spend more in one day than I’ve earned in my life, and they won’t tell me how? At the same time, it could make the movies a bit more fun to watch, considering the fan theories about the family’s mysterious wealth. A prominent theory is that Kevin’s family is involved in organized crime, which explains their fortune, why their home was targeted, and how Kevin learned his brutality. Even The New York Times acknowledged it couldn’t rule out this theory.

    There’s also the possibility that they simply inherited their fortune. What are the odds that both Kevin’s dad and uncle are extremely wealthy? The wealth was probably passed down from the dad’s side of the family. Other theories suggest the family was involved in the commodities market, while, according to the movie novelization, the parents worked in hedge funds and fashion design.

    I think the theory that the father was in the mafia is a little more satisfying, though. You can watch the Home Alone series and smirk at the McCallisters enjoying their mansion and Paris and Miami trips, knowing that they’re probably going to jail and their son’s going to be a mob boss by age 12.

    (featured image: 20th Century Studio)

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

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    Rachel Ulatowski

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  • How Wealthy Were the McCallisters in ‘Home Alone’? The Federal Reserve Says They’re in the 1 Percent

    How Wealthy Were the McCallisters in ‘Home Alone’? The Federal Reserve Says They’re in the 1 Percent

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    It’s been 33 years since Home Alone was released on the big screen. and fans are just now getting an answer to an age-old question: How wealthy was the McCallister family?

    Not only did the famous movie family — Peter (John Heard) and Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) and their five children, including Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) — live in quite a large home, but they were also headed out on a trip to Paris in the 1990 film.

    So The New York Times decided to get to the bottom of it, working with three economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago — Max Gillet, Cindy Hull and Thomas Walstrum.

    Since the McCallisters’ home is an actual real-world property in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, the economists were able to compare data from household incomes in the Chicago area in the 1990s, the house’s property value and mortgage rates as well as taxes and insurance.

    ‘Home Alone’ house

    Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    They determined that a household with an income of $305,000 in 1990 — or about $665,000 in 2022 — would have been able to afford the home, assuming the family did not spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. That makes the home only affordable for those in the top 1 percent of Chicago-area incomes, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

    Zillow also estimated the Home Alone house would cost about $2.4 million in 2022, and Realtor.com listed the home in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the United States.

    Though the film never revealed what the parents did for work, the novelization, written by Todd Strasser and based on the screenplay by John Hughes, made Kate McCallister a fashion designer since there were mannequins in the house and Peter McCallister a businessman because it was “a safe bet,” said Strasser.

    He added that he never really thought to explain how the McCallisters got their money and just assumed they were “upper middle class” but not “super rich.”

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    Carly Thomas

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  • Dogman Gives Caleb Landry Jones His Joker (And Catwoman) Role

    Dogman Gives Caleb Landry Jones His Joker (And Catwoman) Role

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    With 2023 marking the year of Luc Besson being legally cleared of all sexual misconduct charges brought against him by Sand Van Roy, perhaps it’s ironic that the movie he should choose to come out with posits that, in this life, you can only trust bitches. That is to say, dogs. And sure, there are some male ones in the film, too, but nonetheless, the antithetical-to-his-denial-of-misconduct quality is there. And yet, dichotomy and duality is at the heart of Dogman, which marks Besson’s twenty-first film since he began releasing them forty-two years ago (with the short film, L’Avant-dernier, serving as his 1981 debut). And it seems with this one, Besson is determined to have it characterized as a “return to form,” which, certainly, it is. Even if a form that borrows heavily from many other recent tropes. Not least of which is Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in 2019’s Joker. 

    Caleb Landry Jones, who delivers the performance of his career thus far, is only too ready to emulate that trope as Douglas Munrow a.k.a. the eponymous “Dogman” himself. And yes, like Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman (or even Danny DeVito’s Penguin), he gravitates toward this particular type of animal because it is the only living creature that has ever shown any type of kindness or affection toward him. This starts from an early age (as it did for Penguin with his penguins), which we learn about through the device of retelling it from the present to a psychiatrist named Evelyn (Jojo T. Gibbs). It is Evelyn who is called (in the middle of the night, of course) into the New Jersey detention center where Douglas is being held until they can decide, first and foremost, what his gender is. Initially arrested while wearing Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” getup (adding a dash of Harley Quinn in Birds of Prey into the pastiche), the police are too confused by Douglas to understand that he’s merely a cross-dresser who happened to be on his way to perform at a drag show that night before he was so rudely interrupted by someone seeking to destroy the perfectly imperfect insular world he had built with his coterie of dogs. 

    Naturally, we don’t get to that portion of the story until the end, after Douglas has rehashed his entire harrowing ordeal of an existence to Evelyn. Somewhat surprised that he’s so willing to talk to her (and often confess to various crimes in the process), he eventually tells her that the reason why he does is because pain recognizes pain. And for Evelyn, whose own story goes far more unexplored, that pain threatens to return in the form of her physically abusive ex-husband, who’s been skulking around her house to try to see their son, even though he’s been forbidden by a judge from doing so. But again, Besson isn’t making this movie about a Black woman. It is, as usual, the story of an alienated white man. But, at the bare minimum, Besson didn’t take the Todd Phillips approach by making him a conventionally straight incel. Granted, Douglas has his own romantic desires for a woman go unfulfilled, but it says something that he’s at home among the drag world after spending much of his youth in a cage studying women’s magazines. The ones his mother had to hide from the sight of Douglas’ violent father, Mike (Clemens Schick), behind the wall of the dog cage.

    It is this cage where Douglas will be forced to make a home when Mike exiles him there. This because Douglas’ traitorous older brother, Richie (Alexander Settineri), snitches on him about feeding the dogs when they’re not supposed to be. For, in case you couldn’t guess, the only reason someone as hateful as Mike would own dogs is to use them in fights. Ergo, starving them just before one so that they’ll be extra bloodlusting. Incidentally, the word “Dogman” can also refer to a person who raises dogs for the sole purpose of dog fighting. 

    In a certain sense, that’s what Douglas ends up doing, too. For he raises his fellow brothers and sisters (telling his father he prefers the dogs to his own family, which is how he ends up being exiled to the cage in the first place) to fight for him. To serve as the protectors he never got in his parents—the people who are supposed to love and protect you at all costs. Instead, Douglas must receive that from the family he “makes” in his canine brethren. Retreating entirely into the pack after his father shoots a gun at him, not only clipping a finger off, but lodging a bullet in his spine that 1) can’t be removed without risk of death and 2) permanently paralyzes Douglas. 

    As the rest of his youth unfolds, Douglas is shuffled around, landing in a home where he meets the only woman he’ll ever love: Salma Bailey (Grace Palma). It is she who teaches him about theater, and how it is the gateway to being anything and anyone you could ever want to be. This is, undoubtedly, what affirms his love of dressing up as women, ultimately leading him to performing once a week at a drag club. But only for songs that allow him to remain stationary (he can stand without a wheelchair for the length of a song), thus performing as “old-timey” women like Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich (this being a very Besson touch). In the scenes leading up to Douglas’ eventual discovery of the club as a haven that will allow him to make some (legal) income, he admits to Evelyn that it was hard, at first, to find work. What with his wheelchair-bound status. This is part of what leads viewers to believe that it might have been a more discriminatory time in the U.S. (i.e., the 90s). But, to that end, perhaps the oddest aspect of Dogman is its sense of time. Although Douglas tells Evelyn he’s thirty years old, the year of his birth is shown as 1991. Theoretically, that ought to mean we’re in 2021, and yet, the use of VHS tapes for the security cameras that show his dogs stealing from rich people makes it feel like it’s meant to be set in some earlier time, when it was so much more difficult to catch a criminal (and, again, so much easier to discriminate in the workplace). But then, other details, like Evelyn talking on a cellphone with headphones while driving, continue to suggest a more current time period. 

    And yet, just as we don’t really question how or why his dogs can understand and react to the words Douglas is telling them, we don’t much question the holes in the fabric of Dogman’s space-time continuum. Besson is too good at delivering a filmic feast for the eyes to distract from such an anomaly. This includes using the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” to soundtrack Douglas’ fruitless job search before finally showing us a man in Annie Lennox drag (the suit and cropped orange hair, obviously) singing along. Eventually, Douglas finds himself in that same club where the Lennox impersonator is lip syncing and implores the owner for some work, declaring that if you can perform Shakespeare, you can perform anything. 

    But it isn’t just a Shakespearean or even Joker influence at play as the plot of Dogman progresses. There’s also some notable Home Alone booby trap action going on in act three, as Douglas rallies his canine army to defend him against a gang boss he enraged at the outset of the narrative. And all because he was trying to do a good deed for a sweet old lady who was being milked for too much “protection” money by these New Jersey goons. But, as it is rightly said, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Douglas has learned that time and time again, yet can continue to tolerate existence because of the purity and goodness he sees in dogs. And they, in turn, show him the loyalty and devotion he’s never found in any human. Indeed, they’ll go to the ends of the Earth to stick with their “master” (even if Douglas probably sees himself as more of an equal). In this regard, one could even bill Dogman as something like a deranged Homeward Bound. As another recent dog movie, Strays, also happens to be. 

    During the expectedly violent (because: Besson) denouement occurs, it’s apparent that Besson seeks to make his character Shakespearean in his fatal flaw of being a romantic, even after all he’s experienced to know better. And, because Besson loves martyr figures, he lays the Christ imagery on thick at the end, as though we needed to be reminded that Douglas most certainly possesses a bit of the Balthazar (though a donkey, not a dog) from Au Hasard Balthazar characteristic: being consistently beaten down by life despite doing no harm, yet continuing to persist in the face of his often literal bruisings. Unlike the Joker, however, this hardening of the spirit doesn’t turn him evil, per se, only makes him yet another threat to society and its insistence that “being a good boy” will get you far.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Home Alone 2: New York’s Nothing But Fun on Borrowed Dough… Until It Runs Out

    Home Alone 2: New York’s Nothing But Fun on Borrowed Dough… Until It Runs Out

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    Among the many “reassessments” of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, complete with its implausible representation of realistic geographic proximity, one that hasn’t really been called out is the idea that everyone “hearts” New York when Daddy’s credit card is still working. In fact, the only reason Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) doesn’t immediately despise NYC is because he “just happened” (thanks to the careful plot device curation of John Hughes) to need some batteries for his Talkboy. The batteries, of course, being located in his dad Peter’s (John Heard) man bag that Kevin ends up holding onto in the midst of getting on the wrong flight. And what else would Peter keep in there but his fully-loaded wallet? Here it bears bringing up that while everyone likes to meme about Peter McCallister being rich—because how else could he afford a house like that and all those vacations with so many mouths to feed?—the McCallister family is decidedly middle-class by 90s standards. The family only seems “rich” in the present because it’s impossible for most people to keep their head above water in this post-capitalist society still clinging to Empire “ideals” of capitalism. That said, money and exuding the appearance of wealth was arguably more important in the 90s—and easier to carry off for “average” people.

    Not to mention faux rich ones like none other than Donald Trump himself, who illustriously cameos at the twenty-six-minute-forty-five-second mark to give Kevin the oh-so-difficult-to-discern information that the lobby is “down the hall and to the left.” And yes, it’s a wonder Trump could manage to complete that scant amount of dialogue without biffing it. The reason for his appearance stemmed from buying The Plaza Hotel in 1988 for 407 million dollars (of money borrowed from banks—because Trump is the epitome of the “American dream”… being secured through shady means and fake money). It didn’t take long for Trump’s lack of business acumen (despite cultivating a reputation to the contrary) to show up in the form of renovating and operating the hotel at a considerable loss… specifically 600 million dollars’ worth of loss by 1992, the very year that Home Alone 2: Lost in New York would come out. Yet Trump, forever concerned with appearances, still had the gall to appear in the movie as The Plaza’s “owner” despite already negotiating a prepackaged bankruptcy deal with his conglomerate of bank creditors, ultimately “led” by Citibank. One that was arranged in November, the very month of the Home Alone sequel’s release. How poetic indeed.

    So it is that Trump’s appearance in the movie is emblematic of a larger truth about America in general and New York City specifically: it’s never about actually having money, so much as radiating the illusion that you do (see also: Anna Delvey). Kevin, too, embodies this with his confidence, the very word giving birth to “con,” which means both to win someone’s confidence and to have the confidence to believe in one’s own lies. As Kevin does when he approaches the front desk at the hotel with a whole backstory ready to provide that allows him to rather seamlessly use the credit card that will secure him so much ephemeral fun on this impromptu Christmas vacation. Sure, “Concierge” a.k.a. Mr. Hector (Tim Curry) is overtly suspicious because he’s probably jealous he never came up with such a scheme when he was younger, but suspicion alone is not enough to make one turn away potential income for their place of business. Proving, as always, that money—even the fake money known as credit—talks.

    Until, of course, it’s reported as stolen. A revelation that brings a Grinch-esque smile to Mr. Hector’s face because, like most broke asses, he gets his jollies from reining in those who might enjoy themselves thanks to money they didn’t earn. It’s from this moment (at approximately the forty-three-minute mark in the movie when the word “STOLEN” flashes on The Plaza’s machine after Mr. Hector does a check on it) forward when Kevin starts to understand just how much New York actually blows without money at one’s disposal. And sure, there have been many attempts, via various localized “free event” websites, to help people delude themselves into believing they can have a good time with little to no disposable income, but, after a while, you’re just that sad poor person who’s clearly only at the place in question because something about it was free or cheap (relatively speaking).

    To intensify the reality that having no money in New York is fucking bleak, Kevin then comes face-to-face with the notorious Pigeon Lady. She, too, has deluded herself into believing that the best things in life are free in the “greatest” city in the world, showing Kevin that you can be cultured even without money by taking him to the attic (where other discarded things are kept) in Carnegie Hall and declaring, “I’ve heard the world’s great music from here. Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti.”

    But, as any insolvent person living in NY has found out, the loopholes to enjoy “free” activities have become increasingly few and far between. To boot, you’re never going to be “seen” without scores of dough, even if only on credit. That’s why the Pigeon Lady tells Kevin, “People pass me in the street, they see me, but they try to ignore me. They prefer I wasn’t part of their city.” And why? Because she’s moneyless “riffraff.” Might as well be dead if you’re broke—that’s the takeaway New York imparts on those who can’t manage “the grind.” Those who do find more “under the table” ways to survive are, in turn, met with fear and vitriol, as indicated by Kevin’s telling reactions to the prostitutes and deranged homeless people orbiting the periphery of Central Park (for, again, this was a period in NY history that was seedier, and far less sanitized than it is now, especially by Central Park).

    In the years since this movie was released, even “alternate methods” of moneymaking in the “big city” have become progressively impossible. So it is that in the past couple of decades, the “I ‘Heart’ NY” slogan has given way to “I Can’t Afford to ‘Heart’ NY.” Neither could Kevin, in the end. For the conclusion of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York is for his dad to unearth the amount Kevin charged to his room at The Plaza—a whopping (even now) $967.43 (ballooned to that price by the addition of a $239.43 gratuity). So sure, New York is all fun and wonderment on Daddy’s dime. Until, inevitably, Daddy cuts off the purse strings. For even he’s too broke for New York.

    Ironically enough, the movie’s beloved screenwriter, John Hughes, would end up dying in Manhattan. While taking a morning stroll on West 55th Street… just a stone’s throw to The Plaza. Perhaps he came across an obscene price point somewhere along the way that contributed to his heart attack, and made him realize that even when you’re rich, living in New York is financially untenable. Particularly when considering what one gets in return for all their payments (including the emotional ones).

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • ‘Home Alone 2’ and the Wild, Weird Origin Story of the Talkboy

    ‘Home Alone 2’ and the Wild, Weird Origin Story of the Talkboy

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    On a Tuesday morning this past July, journalist Kirsty Bosley popped into the tattoo and piercing shop Infinite Ink in Coventry, England, to get her 17th (or perhaps it was her 18th?) piece of body art—a treat to celebrate her recent 35th birthday. For years, Bosley had wanted a tattoo that nodded to her favorite childhood movie, but the design had never fully coalesced in her mind. But then she began brainstorming with tattooist Mike Williams. Together, they ran through a laundry list of references, winks, and in-jokes. At one point, someone even floated the idea of an overflowing sink. Then the perfect piece of ephemera popped for Bosley: a Deluxe Talkboy recording device.

    Bosley was just five years old when director Chris Columbus’s 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York hit theaters, but she not only has vivid memories of the cinema date with her older sister, Kelli, to see the new release (“I got in trouble for drinking all of my Ribena before the movie started”), but she also recalls her elation at being gifted the recorder Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) uses to outsmart the adults.

    “Having a part of that movie in my hand was just such a special, meaningful thing,” Bosley says of the Christmas present, adding that it may have even influenced her future career trajectory. “I often say to people, as a journalist, it was my very first ever Dictaphone. I used it to interview everyone about Christmas and what it meant to them. It’s one of my most vivid memories of childhood.”

    This week, Home Alone 2 marks 30 years since its release, and Bosley isn’t the only one who feels a deep nostalgic pang for the toy, an iconic item that became just as recognizable shorthand for the franchise as the image of a screaming Culkin with his hands slapped to his cheeks. Browse social media and you’ll find scores of millennials waxing eloquent about the Talkboy—how they asked Santa for one but never found it under the tree; how they made mischief with its voice-warping capabilities; how there’s something of a Talkboy-owner-to-podcaster pipeline. These collective memories are all the more remarkable when you realize just how many variables had to perfectly fall in place for them to happen. Indeed, the Talkboy was actually an eleventh-hour creation dreamt up by producer-screenwriter John Hughes and a handful of toy-company executives just weeks before the movie started filming. And its ascendance—from Macgyvered prop to the hottest (and hardest to find) holiday toy, to its eventual discontinuation and later comeback as a cherished collector’s item—is the stuff Hollywood legends are made of.

    After the stunning box-office success of the 1990 Christmas caper Home Alone, in which eight-year-old Kevin is left behind by his vacationing family and must defend his house against a pair of bumbling burglars known as the Wet Bandits (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), a sequel was all but a foregone conclusion. So Hughes got to work writing the follow-up. This time around, Kevin wouldn’t technically be left home alone but would rather find himself accidentally separated from his family at the airport, erroneously boarding a flight to New York while the rest of the McCallisters headed to Miami.

    According to Nancy Overfield, then senior vice president of marketing, licensing, and merchandising at 20th Century Fox, Hughes knew that in certain situations—say, while booking a suite at the Plaza Hotel—Kevin would need to pass himself off as an adult, so he included in his script a futuristic recording device that would allow the youngster to change his voice.

    “John was very specific about wanting it to be something beyond what any kid would have—for it to be aspirational,” Overfield recalls of the as-yet unnamed toy in an interview with Vanity Fair. While Hughes had a good idea of what he wanted, actually bringing it to life was another matter.

    Meanwhile, Overfield was facing a dilemma of her own: Just weeks before filming was to begin, the Home Alone 2 toy-licensing deal she’d been negotiating with Mattel fell through (“my career did flash before my eyes,” she recalls), and she was left scrambling to find another manufacturer to produce branded merchandise. Ultimately, it would be Vernon Hills, Illinois-based Tiger Electronics that would solve both Overfield and Hughes’s plights.

    At the time, Tiger was best known for its licensed handheld gaming devices (Think: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Beauty and the Beast, Michael Jordan), and Overfield knew the company’s cofounder Roger Shiffman from working on an earlier deal for the Howie Mandel animated vehicle Bobby’s World. With the enticement of escalating royalties to limit Tiger’s risk, Overfield says, Shiffman agreed to take on the last-minute Home Alone 2 license, which also included products like Monster Sap (the squirting goo Kevin uses to slip up the burglars) and a screaming backpack. But that still left the problem of the mystery recording device.

    Hughes and a team at Tiger Electronics got to work hashing out a solution. Within a very short amount of time, they landed on a winning design that met all of Hughes’s criteria.

    The silver hardshell device fit in the palm of a child’s hand and came equipped with a slot-like handle on the back for an easy grip. It featured a telescoping microphone and a cassette tape for recording sounds and conversations. A tuner allowed those recorded snippets to be slowed down or sped up for playback, creating a groggy, low-pitched tone or a squeaky, chipmunk-like cadence, respectively.

    “John went crazy for it,” Marc Rosenberg, then senior vice president of marketing for Tiger Electronics, recalls. “He said, ‘There’s only one problem: I need this thing in two weeks.’”

    And so, in a matter of days, the company fabricated and delivered a prototype suitable for the movie.

    When Home Alone 2 finally hit theaters on November 20, 1992, it was another smash, earning a reported $31 million in its opening weekend alone. The Talkboy, which retailed for $29.99, also hit store shelves that holiday season. (There was not, as some online rumors suggest, a letter-writing campaign for the toy to be manufactured—that had always been planned.) The sales were moderate, not booming, that year, and came with a few minor hiccups.

    “I got a call from a friend of mine at Toys “R” Us saying they had a problem with the Talkboy,” Rosenberg says. “Parents were complaining that they bought it and there was a bunch of swear language on it. And I thought, What are you talking about? It comes with a cassette tape that’s got nothing on it.”

    As it turns out, a few mischievous types were making liberal use of the Talkboy’s “try me” feature in stores, Rosenberg says. Even when Tiger changed the packaging so that someone would have to buy the toy first to use it, some enterprising scamps purchased the recorder, left expletives on the tape, and returned it to the store. Kids!

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    Amy Wilkinson

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