This past week, two huge events took place on Fairfield’s campus.
First, the student body was stunned to learn of the retirement of our president, Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. As if that wasn’t enough excitement, we were also stunned to host the commendable actor (but somewhat lacking musician) Kevin Bacon and his brother, The Other Guy, known by their tens of fans as The Bacon Brothers.
In celebration of the 25-year career Father Kelley has had here at Fairfield, I felt there could be no better way to honor both Mr. Bacon and our illustrious president than to play a little “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” with our very own APK.
In fact, I don’t even need six degrees. I’ll do it in three.
Impossible, you say? Well, difficult, for sure, but not impossible. Just because Father Kelley has never starred in any films does not mean that he can’t be linked with some of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
Remember the 80s? While most of us were still in Underoos and watching “He-Man” or “She-Ra” on television, Father Kelley was hob-knobbing with “The Gipper” himself, President Ronald Reagan.
That’s right, Fairfield University hosted President Reagan on Oct. 26, 1984, and Father Kelley was there to greet him as he stepped off of his helicopter on Bellarmine Hill. Reagan was in town to do some campaigning during that tumultuous campaign year which included the (unfortunately) unsuccessful congressional bid by Fairfield’s very own professor of politics, John Orman.
It turns out that Ron Reagan, in addition to ending the Cold War, was also an extremely accomplished actor during the golden age of film. He played the great American protagonist Neil Dillon in the classic “Girls on Probation” in 1938, and also starred as Lt. Bancroft in what was perhaps his opus, “Smashing the Monkey Ring” in 1939.
Ronald Reagan was also in “The Young Doctors” with Eddie Albert in 1961. Albert didn’t have quite the career Reagan did, what with not being elected president and so on. He did, however, make one extremely important decision in his career. This decision was to star along side, you guessed it, Kevin Bacon in “The Big Picture” in 1989, a film penned by Christopher Guest, the lead guitarist of Spinal Tap.
There. Three degrees.
In conclusion, Spinal Tap is awesome.
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