40 years ago: 'Footloose' fought for the right to dance

The 1984 film told the story of how Kevin Bacon convinced a small town to abandon its dancing prohibition

When I was a senior in college, my colleagues from our university paper and I went to a college newspaper conference in New York, and I remember two things distinctly about it: The first was that they showed an episode of The West Wing, then its first season, and I got to meet Martin Sheen, Allison Janney, and Dule Hill. The second was the story told by some students who attended a midwestern bible college and wrote for the newspaper there. 

It turned out that at their college, dancing was verboten. And when these young journalists had tried to editorialize in favor of dancing, the college administration had come down on them and blocked it. 

My reactions were two: I would never complain about my day-to-day inconveniences as a college newspaper editor ever again- and wow, Footloose is real.