Podcasts · Reality Life with Kate Casey

Ep. - 1736 - ST. ELMO'S FIRE: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE BRAT PACK CLASSIC (PART ONE)

7 Oct 2026 · 1 h 13 min · Episode 1736

Carl Kurlander, co-writer of St. Elmo's Fire, joins me for the first of a two-part conversation about the true story behind the 1985 Brat Pack classic. It all started with a summer job as a bellhop at the St. Elmo Hotel in Chautauqua, New York, and a waitress named Lynn he couldn't stop thinking about. Carl takes us from an 18-page short story he mailed to her, to a freak scholarship at Universal Studios, to fetching gazpacho for director Joel Schumacher, the mentor who would become his co-writer and, at times, his tormentor. He reveals how a blizzard drive from Cleveland to D.C., a laundry room in an anarchist collective, and a disastrous night on Mulholland Drive all ended up on screen.

Reality Life with Kate Casey

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