As 2024 comes to a close, I’ve thought a lot over the past year about another year: 1984. Yes, 1984.
What had me thinking were two recent political events felt keenly by readers of The American Spectator and any American focused on the political scene this election year.
Though I had little to no interest in politics, I did like Reagan. Everyone did, even the minority that didn’t vote for him.
The first was the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. As readers here know, I immediately wrote about the event as I watched it live on television with my wife as we looked on in horror in fear for the lives of Trump, the spectators, and our 16-year-old son who was attending the rally. It was an intensely personal moment, and especially so because Butler is my hometown.
That’s right, my hometown. How weird it has been to tell that to people since the Trump shooting. I was introduced at an event in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago as, “He was raised in Butler, Pennsylvania.” The audience gasped. But at least, praise God, the would-be next president of the United States wasn’t killed there that day. In fact, if he goes on to have a great second term, perhaps the Butler moment will be seen as providential.
The Butler moment got my mind rolling back to memories from that town, particularly the year 1984.
I moved to Butler at age four, starting kindergarten there. My parents relocated from a small coal mining town called Russellton in Allegheny County just outside Pittsburgh. My dad took a job in the steel industry. Ironically, the first text message that I got when Trump was shot came from the first person that I met when I moved to Butler in 1971. It was my lifelong friend Bob, my next-door neighbor in Westwood Manor III. Bob’s text said simply, “Butler! Only in Butler!”
It’s a town with a rich history. The home of Armco Steel and Pullman-Standard, the famous Pullman railroad car was invented there, as was the Jeep. Growing up there, the town was filled with characters. I can’t begin to describe what it was like — what they were like: my friends, my best friends, the girls that I knew, our girlfriends. We were a crew. Growing up there was a blast. I can’t say we were good kids. I was a bad kid. I somehow barely graduated and was lucky I didn’t end up in jail. Oh, we had fun — a lot of fun. Too much. I’m lucky I’m alive.
In fact, Donald Trump is lucky he’s alive. He’s fortunate that he, too, survived his time in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Ultimately, I somehow graduated from high school: Butler High School class of 1984. There’s that year: 1984.
The other political event that has had me thinking about 1984 was Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election on Nov. 5. Trump’s sweeping triumph of 2024 reminded me that this is the 40th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s even more epic victory, the outcome of a reelection campaign that resulted in Reagan winning an astounding 49 of 50 states. Reagan took nearly 60 percent of the vote and crushed Walter Mondale in the Electoral College by a whopping 525 to 13.
The only state he didn’t win was dopey Minnesota. And you can’t say that he lost Minnesota merely because it was Mondale’s home state. The reality is that Reagan never won Minnesota, in 1984 or 1980. He twice won California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even Massachusetts, the most left-wing state in the country. But he never won Minnesota, the nation’s most politically bizarre state.
Still, Reagan’s victory was historic. In the decades prior to and approaching 1984, many Americans thought of the year in terms of the dystopian novel by George Orwell. There was dread that 1984 could become 1984. But Reagan’s rise and triumph ensured the exact opposite. In his second term, Reagan would defeat the forces of totalitarianism. He ensured that our 1984 was the anti-1984.
At the time, I wasn’t much interested in politics. We had been assigned to read 1984 in high school, but my circle of drinking buddies and druggie burnouts didn’t read it. We cracked open beers, not books.
The film of the day that best reflected the atmosphere at Butler High School would be a cross between Fast Times at Ridgemont High (set in California) and a movie that nicely captured western Pennsylvania high-school football life, All the Right Moves (filmed on location in Johnstown, PA). As to the latter, western Pennsylvania has long been a haven of football greatness. I could demonstrate that by listing name after name. To simplify it, here are just some local quarterbacks of the day who went to the NFL Hall of Fame: Johnny Unitas, George Blanda, Joe Namath, Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, and Joe Montana. The latter two exploded onto the NFL scene at precisely this time. It was the 1984 teams of Marino and Montana (the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers) who squared off in Super Bowl XIX.
Though I had little to no interest in politics, I did like Reagan. Everyone did, even the minority that didn’t vote for him. We knew that it was a happy time for the country. Perhaps the partying life my friends and I and our girlfriends engaged in reflected the merry attitude of the country. It was a good time to be an American. (I would argue that the best decades of the 20th century to be an American were the 1980s, the 1950s, and 1920s — all decades the Left hates.)
As I noted here recently in writing about reviews of our movie, Reagan, based on one of my books, today’s Left even finds ways to hate the positive Ronald Reagan of that film. (A sign of how much I personally changed after 1984 is that I went from being a Butler bum in high school to a leading biographer of Ronald Reagan. Go figure!)
In sum, all of this has served to make me quite nostalgic in 2024 for all things from the year 1984: politics, films, music, sports, and remembering friends and best friends and girls and girlfriends who I’m saddened to have lost touch with. I’ll wrap up with a few favorites and highlights of that year, which many of you from that era can also relate to:
As for 1984 films, I came across a list of the top movies at the box office that year. Remarkably, there were a staggering 169 films listed. I remember the vast majority, as would most people who lived through the era. Before the fragmentation of the entertainment universe into niche audiences and multiple streaming platforms, watching movies in crowded theaters was still the predominant venue for mass entertainment. Movies were a glorious, shared cultural treasure.
Still, it’s amazing that there were so many (click here to review). Topping the list at $220 million was Ghostbusters, followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the worst of the Indiana Jones films. A more interesting grouping is the top 50 list compiled by IMDb, which uses a different ranking metric. Its top five include The Terminator at number 1, followed by Amadeus, Once Upon a Time in America, and then Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters.
Do I have a personal favorite among those? Yes, Amadeus. Sure, much of the film is apocryphal, but it was a masterstroke of brilliance to structure the film around a literal confession to a priest by Antonio Salieri, the Italian composer who came to loathe Wolfgang Amadeus so much that he scorned both the prodigy-genius and ultimately God as well. The opening scene with Salieri shouting the dead Mozart’s name after an attempted suicide, with the intense Symphony No. 25 thundering, is riveting.
Other notable movies from 1984 were Beverly Hills Cop, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Karate Kid, Sixteen Candles (click here for a great scene), The Killing Fields, Bachelor Party (Tom Hanks from his comedy days), Purple Rain, Splash, This Is Spinal Tap, and a Cold War favorite, Red Dawn.
As for music, Billboard’s number one song for 1984 was Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” not a song that I personally liked. As a Butler dude, my musical preferences were rock. Other notables reflecting the variety of that year were Van Halen’s “Jump,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” The Thompson Twins’ “Hold Me Now,” Quiet Riot’s “Cum on Feel the Noize,” and Madonna’s “Lucky Star” and “Borderline.”
A word on Madonna: This era was still the cute Madonna before she became raunchy and lost all innocence. Personally, my favorite Madonna song was 1985’s “Crazy for You.” After that, Madonna decided that slutty was better than pretty. She went full skank.
I’ll wrap up with sports, on which I could go on and on.
Without a doubt the biggest matchup of the year was in the NBA, pitting the two legendary teams of the decade. On June 12, the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in a historic seven-game contest that ended at the Boston Garden with fans storming the parquet floor. Dennis “DJ” Johnson and Larry Bird calmly sunk all their free throws in the closing minute to put the game away. Bird averaged 27 points and 14 rebounds and won the series MVP. I remember watching that game in Myrtle Beach in a packed, wild hotel room with a bunch of my buddies and girls we met. It was our graduation trip.
Those were two phenomenal teams who ultimately sent 10 players to the NBA Hall of Fame, with the standouts being Bird, Kevin McHale, Magic Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They were two dominant sports franchises.
A similar battle of greats faced off in the NHL, with the Edmonton Oilers defeating the defending champs, the New York Islanders. Those two teams produced a staggering 13 Hall of Famers, including legends like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, and Paul Coffey (all of Edmonton).
In college basketball, Georgetown, then the beast of the Big East — the greatest basketball conference in history — won the national championship, led by Patrick Ewing and coach John Thompson. In college football, a no-name BYU squad went undefeated to secure its only national championship. The best college football memory of the season, however, was the Hail Mary pass by Boston College’s Doug Flutie to beat Jimmy Johnson’s defending champions Miami Hurricanes on November 23. Flutie won the Heisman.
As for the NFL, I noted the 1984 Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers, with the marquee matchup of Dan Marino versus Joe Montana in Super Bowl XIX on January 20, 1985. Marino had a sensational second year as quarterback, setting the NFL single-season throwing record with 48 touchdown passes and 5,084 yards. There had never been a QB season like it, though Marino would surprisingly never win a Super Bowl. For Montana, known as “Joe Cool,” a different kind of passer but likewise superb, this was his second of four Super Bowl rings.
Major League Baseball hosted one of the most underrated World Series matchups ever, as the Detroit Tigers, which won 104 games under former Cincinnati Reds legendary coach Sparky Anderson, defeated in seven games a San Diego Padres team led by former Oakland A’s coach Dick Williams. The teams included future Hall of Famers Alan Trammell and Jack Morris (Tigers) and Goose Gossage and Tony Gwynn (Padres). Other standouts included the Tigers’ Lou Whitaker and a young Kirk Gibson, who later made history as a Dodger by homering off Oakland A’s pitcher Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series.
Those are just some of my memories from a memorable year: 1984. I could say more, but I’ll stop.
How about you? Did you live through 1984? What are your favorites? Like me, are you missing that year? Personally, looking back, I’d take 1984 over 2024 anytime. Bring me Back to the Future, dude. Wait, that was 1985. Also not a bad year. Give me the 1980s. I want my 1980s back.
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