10 Years Ago in MODE

10 Years Ago in MODE

by Mitchell L. Hillman, Jr.

It seems like only last year that I met Scot & Gloria at the Capitol Region Business Fair. It’s hard to believe it happened way back in 1987, just after a fledging magazine called MODE began with humble roots. Since that time, MODE has grown to what you hold in your hands today. Since that first issue in July, it has truly been the beginning of a "new age" both for the universe and for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Appropriately enough for MODE, 1987 was officially the year of the reader. Like a sign from above, fate smiled on the early days of this new monthly rag. Scot said, "let there be readers," and there were readers. And it was good.

In those pre-Internet days of 1987 it was a different world — a larger world. IBM had just unleashed the power of PC-DOS version 3.3 upon the globe. Communism was still strong, the Cold War was still on, and the Iron Curtain flowed through Eastern Europe while two Germanys gazed at either side of a now-remembered wall. Yet, Gorbachev had just announced Glasnost and many saw this as the beginning of the end for our Red super-power friends.

President Reagan had signed the deal to sell arms to Iran (strangely enough, a country "he" had freed hostages from at the beginning of his reign, but of course, he didn’t remember a week later and still can’t recall his involvement today). In April, the US Justice Department barred former Austrian Chancellor, Kurt Waldheim, from entering this country for his aid of Nazi Germany in World War II. In June, Pope John Paul II received Waldheim with open arms.

Bringing it all back home, America was a different place ten years ago, as well. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos in 1987. The Beatles catalog was released on compact disc, and the Sgt. Pepper CD was released exactly twenty years after its original release. Donald Regan had resigned as Chief of Staff (ending those horrible years of Reagan/Regan confusion). We even got to see Oliver North lie through the gap in his teeth as he testified for six days with the realization that he was the government’s patsy in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Mike Tyson had become the WBA Heavyweight champion before quitting the ring for odd jobs of sexual harassment, wife beating, rape and doing time. Wayne Gretsky had just scored his 1,500th NHL point and Hulk Hogan had just defeated Andre the Giant in Wrestlemania III. The Fox Network began broadcasting in April few noticing, at first. Meanwhile on NBC, Shelley Long left Cheers for a career move that didn’t.

We were entertained on the silver screen that year by such cinema classics as the Last Emperor, Broadcast News, Wall Street, Full Metal Jacket and Amazon Women on the Moon. Americans shelled out more money for Three Men and A Baby than any other movie. Of course, right behind that was the equally comedic Fatal Attraction (a dangerously obsessive affair is always good for a laugh, until you start weeping openly out of fear). This was also the year that blessed movie houses with Spaceballs, Good Morning Vietnam, Some Kind of Wonderful, Beverly Hills Cop II, Crocodile Dundee II and the Superfluous Superman IV.

Meanwhile, through the idiot box we peered into a million pixels of 21 Jump Street, Thirtysomething, Beauty & the Beast, and Max Headroom. And who could possibly forget, Hooperman? (The answer to that is everyone, by the way).

In those pre-grunge days, before the sales scam system was used for the Billboard Charts, the music world was held in flux between chart toppers such as Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and Whitesnake. An era that can only be described as the golden age of college radio. On the cooler, collective, underground side of that year were whisperings of bands of great influence and import—U2’s Joshua Tree, R.E.M.’s Document and INXS’ Kick were the more mainstream monsters of what would soon be pigeonholed as "alternative rock." From the Smiths to the Pixies, Public Image Limited to New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen to the Cure, popular music for the college crowd was no longer popular music. It wasn’t long before industry scouts hopped on bandwagon after bandwagon and ruined the whole damn thing, but it was nice for a while. R.E.M. was right that year, it was the end of the world as we knew it.

In headlines that year, John Gotti was acquitted of racketeering. Jim Bakker resigned from the PTL after a sex scandal with Jessica Hahn, while Gary Hart watched his political aspirations shrink from an aircraft carrier to a dinghy after a boat ride with Donna Rice. This was back in the days when sex scandals were relatively rare events, before everyone started having them. Michael Jackson made his first attempt to buy the Elephant Man’s remains, Johnny Carson married his 4th wife, and Steve Miller’s star was unveiled on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame while his career was subsequently veiled.

Yes, 1987 was only the beginning of a great many trends from the popularization of alternative rock to the through-the-roof growth of sleaze media—the world has changed more than you think with a decade of MODE. What a long, strange…

…Oh, wow, did I goof. I just got an e-mail from Scot Giambalvo, MODE’s publisher, asking if my "A Year Ago in MODE" article was done—it hasn’t been ten years? Good. I was really worried because the last 10 years just seemed to fly by. This just goes to prove what my college roommate, Joe Healey, always believed: the 1980s were a very good year. Come to think of it, 10 years ago I wasn’t even writing magazine stories. I was writing confused teen poetry and with the exception of a few gems, as I recall most of it was just. Why, back then, all I wanted to do was cut the soles of my shoes off, sit in a tree and learn to play the flute…