February 17th, 1984. Footloose premieres in theaters and this crazy plot has Oklahoma roots.

Original Footloose Trailer

I had no idea this movie was based off of a somewhat true story. If you have never seen Footloose, the plot is simple. Ren McCormack (played by Kevin Bacon) moves to the town of Bomont which has banned rock music and dancing in the town. I was not a kid of the 80's, so when I heard about the plot of this movie, I thought it was the dumbest thing ever. Turns out, this was real thing that happened in Oklahoma and Hollywood thought it would make an interesting movie.

Elmore City, Oklahoma First Legal Dance in 1980

Now Bomont is not a real town, but the film was actually shot in Utah. However, Oklahoma was the actual inspiration for Footloose. Back in 1980, Elmore City High School did not have a prom. Then a boy by the name of Rex moved to town (yeah not like Ren in the movie). He inspired the classes of the high school to come together and get them to have a prom. Just like in the movie, the churches in town were actually pissed about a potential dance in town and tried to get it to stop. The story went viral in the 80's and that's when Hollywood picked up the rights.

Elmore City, Oklahoma Now Loves Dancing

Back in 1980, dancing in this town was quite a headache. Nowadays, they love it. For the past several years, they have been doing the Footloose Festival. Where some of the people that inspired the film, still live in Elmore City and help put it on. The next one is coming up on April 20th if you want to plan a road trip and dance in the town that once said dancing was illegal.