Don't you forget about her: Molly Ringwald visits Lorain County Community College, Oct. 24

[Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.]

Photo by Collette Lash

Collette Lash

 

Cleveland Movie Blog writer Charles Cassady, as he has confessed before, has a certain ironic association with YA movie goddess Molly Ringwald. Back when he graduated from college (Syracuse University, if you must know) with a relatively valueless degree (Journalism, if you must know), he at least had a monthly column in a NY-based entertainment magazine and a promise that he was going to be flown out to do an interview with Miss Ringwald, then at the height of her John Hughes-collaboration movie career.

Not a bad start for a new graduate setting out on a fresh, exciting career, Cassady thought.

But, right after Cassady arrived back in Cleveland, the ad agency behind the magazine informed him the interview was off. Then it shut down the magazine altogether. It was a harbinger of how Cassady’s subsequent decades would unfold, as a series of heartbreaking personal and professional setbacks.

The good side: after years of intense therapy, Charles does not blame Molly Ringwald personally for his pain and torment. He is convinced she is a nice person and had nothing to do with ruining his life, not really. Molly Ringwald need have no fear of Charles Cassady when she comes to Lorain County Community College’s Stocker Arts Center on Friday, Oct. 24.

For one thing, after his series of layoffs from the media, Charles could not possibly afford admission to the event, with tickets ranging from a student-with-ID rate of $10 to premium orchestra-pit seats of $36.

(Secondly, the grotesque facial scarification Charles inflicted on himself in honor of “Ducky” from PRETTY IN PINK would most certainly alert security before anything regrettable might happen)

It is expected that Molly Ringwald, in addition to speaking about her roles on stage and screen, will perform numbers from her recent jazz CD. The multi-talented actress is also an author, and copies of her music and book will be available later for signing, as will audience opportunities to take informal pictures. The Stocker Center mentions, however, the Miss Ringwald will not autograph miscellaneous other memorabilia brought by fans.

(And rumors that Charles Cassady’s house, near the seedy west side of Cleveland, has numerous locked chambers, able to secretly imprison and keep alive an abducted female performing artist for as long as ten years, if necessary, are untrue. That was the other guy. Charles Cassady has no unnatural designs on Molly Ringwald, he really doesn’t)

Curtain time for the event is 7:30 p.m. The Stocker Center is located on the LCC campus, at
1005 N. Abbe Road in Elyra. Phone (440) 366-4040 or go online to www.stockerartscenter.com.

Charles Cassady is fine with Molly Ringwald, just fine. And doctors and parole officers say he is making progress on the Ally Sheedy issue as well.