Footloose high school invites Kevin Bacon to prom, gets a yes
As far as elaborate promposals go, this one is pretty ambitious: Students at Utah’s Payson High School—which, once upon a time, was the filming location for Kevin Bacon’s ’80s hit Footloose—have successfully wooed the star to collectively attend the school’s upcoming prom with them.
“I’m gonna come. I gotta come!” a gamely cheerful Bacon declared on Today this week, fulfilling the wishes of the Payson student body, who launched a multi-step campaign of dance videos and flash mobs to get the actor there, both to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Footloose, as well as to memorialize the original school building, which is being shut down this year as the school relocates. The savvy youths got Bacon right in a big Hollywood celebrity’s most sensitive spot, too: The charitable foundation, linking lots of their efforts to Bacon’s SixDegrees.org, which runs programs to do things like distributing “building kits” to people in need.
Bacon praised the Payson kids for their #BaconToPayson campaign in his video message to them, saying, “I have been so impressed with everything that’s been going on there with this crazy idea to get me to come back. I’ve been amazed at the work that all of you have been putting into this, with the musical and the flash mobs and the re-creations. It’s really inspirational, so thank you. Thank you. And I’m gonna come. I gotta come!”
Meanwhile, our simultaneous #LithgowToHellPayson campaign, which aims to get Bacon’s Footloose co-star, John Lithgow, to also attend the prom, shutting the whole thing down with a fire and brimstone sermon against the sinful horrors of dancing, has yet to find much traction online. Alas!
