Highland Park is an affluent Chicago suburb known for being the backdrop of films like 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and 'Risky Business'
- A shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, left six dead and at least 31 injured.
- The city is part of Chicago's affluent North Shore region.
On July 4th, Highland Park — an affluent community north of Chicago that was the backdrop to iconic films like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" — became the site of a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade that's left six people dead and at least 31 people injured.
Police said a gunman opened fire from a rooftop during the Highland Park parade. They arrested a person of interest in the shooting following a two-hour manhunt in the northern Chicago area.
Prior to the event, which follows a recent string of high-profile mass shootings in the United States, the affluent Highland Park was known for serving as the backdrop of a number of iconic 1980s films.
Highland Park is in Chicago's affluent North Shore region
Highland Park lies about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, part of the city's affluent North Shore region, and has a population of about 30,000.
The city boasts shops and restaurants, areas like the Ravinia District, which hosts historic outdoor music venue Ravinia Festival, and the newly opened The Lot, an outdoor dining and entertainment space in downtown Highland Park.
According to US Census data, 84.7% of the city's residents are white (not Hispanic or Latino), 8.9% are Hispanic or Latino, 2.9% are Asian, and 0.8% are Black. The city also has a large Jewish population. It has a median household income of $147,067, just over double the state's median household income of $68,428.
Highland Park was a big '80s filming location
Highland Park has served as the backdrop to multiple iconic films, many of them hits from the 1980s. Director John Hughes, who helmed "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1983), "Weird Science" (1985), and "Sixteen Candles" (1984), was known to favor the North Shore as a setting for some of his films.
In "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," an iconic Highland Park location known as the Ben Rose House features as the home of the character Cameron, played by Alan Ruck. In the film, Cameron memorably sends his father's prized Ferrari careening through one of the home's glass windows.
According to a website maintained the Lake County, Illinois Convention & Visitors Bureau, the homes of the characters Gary and Deb from "Weird Science" are located in Highland Park. According to IMDb, Jake's house in "Sixteen Candles," where a party takes place, is located in Highland Park as well (though the Lake County website places the address in nearby city Northbrook).
Jon Avnet, a producer on "Risky Business," which premiered in 1983 and starred a young Tom Cruise, told the Chicago Tribune near the film's 30th anniversary in 2013 that Highland Park's affluence was a key part of the setting of the film.
"This is where it was always set," Avnet told the Tribune. "It was basically white boys off the lake. The chase, the locations, the houses we used — they were the perfect settings for this to come to life. Going through the main part of town looking at the-then-cinema, they're very iconic to what we were looking for and they obviously were Highland Park."