The True Story Behind Footloose (2024)

Kevin Bacon may have felt conflicted about the success of 1984 film Footloose but it launched his film career. The X-Men: First Class actor is known for his iconic dancing numbers in the movie directed by the legendary director and choreographer Herbert Ross. Footloose follows Chicago teenager Ren McCormack and the culture shock he receives after moving to the small yet fictional town of Bomont with his mother. After moving, Ren quickly discovers the town council's staunch opinion on the ban on dancing and rock music.

Bomont's outlawing of dancing is fueled by Reverend Shaw Moore and his wife, Vi. Ren befriends their daughter, Ariel, who frequently goes against her parents' wishes with her reckless behavior. Ren discovers the town's ban on dancing stems from Ariel's older brother's death in a car accident after a night of dancing and alcohol. But while many remember Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero," written solely for Footloose, many forget the real-life inspiration behind the popular film.

Updated by Christopher Raley on May 28, 2024:Footloose is an iconic Kevin Bacon film, though viewers may not know that the film was influenced by real-world events. This feature was updated to discuss other details about the story which inspired Footloose and to meet CBR’s current formatting standards.

• Elmore City's dance ban dated back to the end of the 19th century and reflected a time when cities throughout the United States enacted bans on dancing as a way to curb alcohol use.
• Many Christian denominations in the Bible Belt preached against dancing, saying that it incited sexual arousal and contributed to sex outside of marriage.
• The town was bitterly divided over the issue, so much so that local rancher, Raymond Temple, did not speak about his role in the debate until 2020.

Footloose, which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year, was based on the true story of Elmore City, Oklahoma. The small town's dancing ban dated back to 1898 to control alcohol consumption and the rowdy activities associated with it, so instead of having a prom, students at Elmore City High School held a banquet every year. At that time, it was the custom for junior class members to plan the junior/senior banquet. According to one student, Rachel Bailey, who graduated just before the ban was overturned and later became the mayor of Elmore City, "It was so frustrating to have raised $450 for a band and having to sit there with our arms folded, tapping our feet and not being able to dance."

It wasn't until the school year of 1979-'80 that students at Elmore City High School brought the ban to the school board due to their frustration with not having a prom. Three juniors on the planning committee were determined to see the ban overturned: Mary Ann Temple-Lee, Rex Kennedy, and Leonard Coffee. Like Footloose, the odds were stacked against them because dancing was preached against from most pulpits in the region.

While in Footloose, a local minister heads the anti-dancing movement, in 1979 it was a minister in nearby Hennepin who seems to have been the most vocal opponent. The Reverend F.R. Johnson of the United Pentecostal Church said, "No good has ever come from a dance. If you have a dance somebody will crash it and they’ll be looking for only two things – women and booze." Rev. Johnson also suggested that it is well-nigh impossible for teens to "hold each other" without becoming "sexually aroused."

However, the Elmore City school board was not unanimously for the ban. In fact, they were split along denominational lines. Methodists were for lifting the ban while Baptists and members of the Church of Christ supported the ban. Some board members hadn't made up their minds. This reflected the town, which Bailey described as "bitterly divided."

But the student-run planning committee had a few aces up their sleeves (even though gambling was almost certainly banned as well). They had the support of their principal, Dean Worsham, who had been in the position since 1962. The students also had the support of some teachers and sponsors for the event.

Perhaps most importantly, though, they had the support of school board president and local rancher, Raymond Temple, who also happened to be Temple-Lee's father. It wasn't until 2020 that Lee acknowledged his side of the story because the debate had been so contentious.

Lee said that, because students didn't have a dance to go to, they would go to a mountain near his property and hold a dance there. Naturally, the event was unsupervised, which meant that adults attended these informal dances and brought alcohol with them. Ironically, the ban on dancing had made for just such a situation as Rev. Johnson had warned his parishioners about.

Temple supported the student dance because he wanted to see an end to the unsupervised and dangerous parties on the mountain. In Temple's own words: "My motive was to keep those kids off that mountain."

With the support of some community members and teachers, Temple and Worsham, the student committee took their request to the school board. The board ended up in a tie, so it came down to the school board president to break it. Temple cast a tie-breaking vote to lift the dance ban. In an epic one-liner fit for a film, Temple declared, "Let 'em dance." The town later hosted the first dance since the ban was enacted in 1898.

How Residents' Stories Inspired Dean Pitchford with Footloose

• On his trip to Elmore City, Dean Pitchford had trouble finding the town because it was so small.
• While the Oklahoma town inspired Footloose, the movie was actually shot in Utah.
• Leonard Coffee is lukewarm about Kevin Bacon's performance and prefers the actor's work in Tremors.

The events in Elmore City filled tabloids internationally and gained the attention of Dean Pitchford. Educated at Yale, Pitchford had recently had success as the lyricist for 'Fame,' the title song from the musical, when he began working on drafts of a screenplay based on the events in Elmore City.

But Pitchford was a lyricist, not a screenwriter. Recognizing that his draft needed more, he traveled to the Oklahoma town and stayed a week to learn about the residents' experiences with the prohibition of dancing. Inspired by their stories, Pitchford wrote the final draft of the screenplay for Footloose.

There are some characters in Footloose who were inspired by the real-life people of Elmore City. In fact, the name Ren is an amalgam of junior class officers Kennedy and Coffee. The movie also features the religious-driven disapproval of dancing and the angst of a divided town. But the cast of real-life characters have pointed out the movie's exaggerations and downplayed the wild side of the kids in Footloose.

Coffee and Temple-Lee dated in high school, which may be why Temple-Lee is commonly thought of as the inspiration for the character of Ariel. However, Temple-Lee dismisses the notion. "There’s no way I would do the things she did because my dad was so highly respected in the community," she said. Despite the discrepancies, both Bailey and Worsham have declared the movie pretty accurate.

More Oklahoma Towns Than Elmore City Had Dance Bans

As an interesting side note, Elmore City was not the only Oklahoma town to have a ban on dancing, nor was it the first to have the ban protested. Residents of Henryetta, about 132 miles northeast of Elmore City, clashed over the issue when a dance was planned in the abandoned building of a department store. The anti-dance faction drew attention to a ban on dancing that dated from 1957.

However, about 700 dancers declined to follow it and held the event in September 1978 (ancient bans notwithstanding). There is no indication that this event inspired the students of Elmore City, but Henryetta was destined to become the town with a dance ban that wouldn't die.

After the 1978 dance protest, the town, no doubt caught up with the post-modern zeitgeist, modified the ordinance to ban dancing only in areas 500 feet or closer to a school or a church. According to The Guardian, organizers of a Valentine's Day dance in 2017 canceled the event when they realized the venue for it broke the town ordinance. But they need not have worried since both the town Mayor and the Police Chief said they had no intention of enforcing it, and the City Council promptly voted to abolish it.

The student-led victory for dancing in Elmore City touched on themes that resonated throughout small-town America through Footloose, but the dance revolution took a while to catch up to a few other Oklahoma towns. Ames and Rush Springs both finally lifted their bans in 1987 and 1991, respectively. In the case of Rush Springs, it was an 80-year-old resident who brought a petition to the city council. In Ames, the change came despite advertisem*nts that declared that 75% of "fallen girls in America" had become so because of dancing.

The anti-dancing fervor that gave birth to the story feels more distant than ever, making any hopes of a sequel problematic. While Elmore City never saw the profits of Footloose, the town recreated the 1980 prom to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Additionally, Elmore City hosted its first Footloose Festival in 2012. The festival has hosted many dance-based celebrations and even a Festival Queen competition.

The Footloose Festival is now an annual event, with activities like a pancake breakfast, 5K run, and a car show. Recent festivals have also included an 80s Outfit Contest, corn hole tournament, mini-bike grad racing, and lawn mower races. People of all ages dance at the Footloose Festival, making it a success story that can be celebrated for years to come.

Footloose

PG

Music

Drama

Romance

Footloose is a 1984 drama/romance/music film starring Kevin Bacon as Ren McCormack, a teen forced to move from big-city Chicago to the small town of Bomont. Bomont is a profoundly religious town that has banned dancing and rock music due to the "evils" it can cause in the city and the youth by Reverand Shaw (John Lithgow). However, when Ren runs into a young woman named Ariel (Lori Singer) and falls for her, he discovers she's the daughter of the Reverand and is forbidden from seeing her. So Ren decides to break the rules and introduce Ariel and his new friends to the magic of dance at a far away bar. With a fresh outlook and a desire to enjoy their youth (and experience their senior prom), the teens will band together to dismantle the overly restrictive rules and bring music and dance back to the town of Bomont. Footloose has enjoyed a cult following as years have progressed and has also had a remake in 2011. The film was released in 1984 courtesy of Paramount pictures.

Director

Herbert Ross

Release Date

February 17, 1984

Cast

Kevin Bacon , Sarah Jessica Parker , John Lithgow , Dianne Wiest , Lori Singer , Chris Penn , Frances Lee McCain

Writers

Dean Pitchford

Runtime

107 minutes

Main Genre

Music