Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Extract - The Godfather Was a Girl

The Godfather was a Girl is a fun new book that looks at the real people some popular characters were based upon. It's full of surprising and fun facts and well worth a read.  

The following is taken from The Godfather was a Girl by Eamon Evans (Hardie Grant Books)

Ferris Bueller
‘Geeks, sportos, motorheads, dweebs, dorks, sluts, buttheads … they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.’

But do they know he’s a Republican? Ferris Bueller, a free-spirited high-school student known to enjoy the occasional day off, was probably based on Edward McNally, a former senior counsel to George W Bush.

Now a well-known Washington lawyer, McNally grew up on the same Chicago street as Ferris creator John Hughes, and also attended the same high school. Like Ferris, however, he didn’t attend it very often. One semester (during which he wagged twenty-seven times), McNally and his best friend Buehler even borrowed his dad’s sports car for the day, just like the fun-loving Ferris. Afterwards the pair attempted to wipe 113 miles off the car’s odometer by raising it on a pair of jacks and driving in reverse. And, just like Ferris, they failed.

These days, incidentally, kids would have every reason to wag that high school. Located on Chicago’s Shermer Road, Glenbrook High appeared as Shermer High in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science and The Breakfast Club. In 2003, it also appeared in many newspapers. Over thirty students were expelled for covering their juniors in paint, poo, pee and animal guts, then throwing in some punches for good measure.

The Godfather was a Girl by Eamon Evans is available from Shearer's Bookshop

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