The Discotheque problem

I do not remember all the details. However, some time in 1977 or 1978, my neighbor Rick Dutton, with a couple of other guys from the Woodgate area, wanted to open a discotheque dancing bar, since disco was all the rage back then. They wanted to put this bar discotheque in the Korvette Shopping Plaza, an outdoor strip shopping mall in Matteson, since they all lived in Matteson. I was part of the Zoning Board of Appeals of Matteson that had to grant a special use permit. Most of the problems at our ZBA meetings were about signs by companies in Matteson, or the problem of houses and boundaries around fences. The only people who showed up for them, were the people concerned, usually with a lawyer. For this discotheque problem, our meeting room was overflowing. Right next to their proposed discotheque was the Matteson Public Library at 4240 Lincoln Highway in Matteson. The current stand-alone public library building was not completed until 1993 at 207^th and School Streets near Oakwood Park. The big legal question was music and dancing. We had no music dancing venues in Matteson at that time. Besides, a lot of people complained about putting a discotheque next to a library. However, Dutton and his lawyer pointed out that there was live country music on Saturday nights at Dettmering’s bar. What were we to do?

The wedding marriage of Mike Klein and Grace Mergen

Later in 1978, we went to the wedding of Michael Klein, Margaret’s youngest brother who was born in 1952, to Grace Klein, who was four years younger than him, on September 30, 1978. Mike was 26 and Grace was 22. Mike was born when I was in seventh grade and Grace was born when I was a junior in HS. They were a lot younger than me. We went to the wedding in Dell Rapids and stayed out on the Klein farm. A wedding in Dell Rapids is like a big family event. The Mergen family was from Dell Rapids, but Grace lived in town with her many brothers. Both Mike and Grace had gone to St. Mary’s in Dell Rapids. There was another big thing happening. Margaret’s parents were going to move off the farm since Pete Klein, Margaret’s father, had turned 65 in June. Mike was going to run the farm and Grace was excited about living on a farm, since she had been raised in the town of Dell Rapids, not a farm. Thus, it was going to be a new live style for Margaret’s parents. Her father would help Mike, just as Mike had been helping his father since he graduated from high school, eight years earlier. Mary and Pete Klein were going to live in the town of Dell Rapids, since they bought a house there. Mike was going to pay a mortgage or rent to his parents. I am not sure how that worked, but Mike was excited about being a farmer. I think all the Klein family was happy that the farm was going to stay in the family. I have a bunch of photos with Joy and Margaret out on the farm, with all the tractors and cows. Margaret always liked going back to the farm, where she grew up. The wedding on September 30 went fine since it was at St. Mary’s in Dell Rapids with a lot of people there, since both Mike and Grace came from big families. The reception was in the large back yard of the Mergens. I think that they were going to have a street dance that night. I can not remember exactly. However, there was one custom that I had not heard of until this wedding. Grace’s brothers and some other guys from town stole Grace from the reception. I know that Joy was worried about her. However, Margaret reassured Joy and me that this was a local custom, “to steal the bride” from the reception. They were going to bring her to a couple of bars in town. Eventually after a couple of hours they did come back with Grace riding in the back of a pickup truck in her wedding dress. We had a good time there as Margaret got to meet her brothers and sisters and their families, while Joy got to know a little bit about her cousins. A good time was had by all. Do you go to many weddings?

The results of the Camp David Accords

What were the results of this agreement? The UN General Assembly rejected this Framework for Peace in the Middle East, because the agreement was concluded without participation of the UN and the PLO. It did not comply with the Palestinian rights of return, their self-determination, and national independence, and sovereignty. However, the Camp David accords changed Middle Eastern politics, especially the perception of Egypt within the Arab world. Egypt had the most powerful Arab military and a history of leadership in the Arab world under President Nasser (1918-1970). Thus, Egypt had more leverage than any of the other Arab states to advance Arab interests. However, because of this Accord, Egypt was subsequently suspended from the Arab League from 1979 until 1989. Jordan’s King Hussein saw this Accord as a slap in the face when Sadat volunteered Jordan’s participation in deciding how functional autonomy for the Palestinians would work. Sadat effectively said that Jordan would have a role in how the West Bank would be administered. With the Arab world opposition building against Sadat, Jordan could not risk accepting the Accords without the support of its powerful Arab neighbors, like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. King Hussein consequently felt diplomatically snubbed. One of President Carter’s regrets was allowing Sadat to claim that he could speak for Hussein, but by then the damage was done to the Jordanians. The Camp David Accords also prompted the disintegration of a united Arab front in opposition to Israel. The normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt went into effect in January 1980. Ambassadors were exchanged in February. The boycott laws were repealed by Egypt’s National Assembly the same month, and some trade began to develop, but less than Israel had hoped for. In March 1980 regular airline flights were inaugurated. Egypt also began supplying Israel with crude oil. The Accords were another interim agreement or step, but negotiations that flowed from the Accords slowed. The inability to bring the Jordanians into the discussions, the controversy over settlements, the inconclusive nature of the subsequent autonomy talks, and domestic opposition in Egypt and Israel all played a role in slowing the process down. This led to a cold peace between Egypt and Israel. Although most Israelis supported the Accords, the Israeli settler movement opposed them because of Sadat’s refusal to agree to any Israel presence in the Sinai Peninsula. Nevertheless, 85% of the Israelites supported the Camp David Peace Accords. President Sadat’s signing of the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978 and his shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Begin led to his assassination on October 6, 1981, by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Egypt’s Suez Canal. The surviving assassins were tried and found guilty of assassinating the president and killing ten others in the process. They were sentenced to capital punishment, and were executed on April 15, 1982. Thus, this Camp David Accord was the peace that never was. It was an agreement between two men, not two countries. Have you ever heard of a peace agreement that blew up?

The Camp David Accords of 1978

In September, 1978, there was a lot of optimism about a peace accord in the Middle East. The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1913-1992), following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland. These two framework agreements were signed at the White House witnessed by President Jimmy Carter. The second of these treaties led directly to the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty. This framework that dealt with Egyptian–Israeli relations was easier since both participants were present. The first framework dealt with the Palestinian territories, but without the participation of the Palestinians. President Carter’s Secretary of State Cyrus Vance’s had three goals: 1) Arabs had to recognize Israel’s right to exist in peace; 2) Israel had to withdraw from the occupied territories gained in the Six-Day War; and 3) Israel’s security would not be threatened. In 1977, President Anwar Sadat startled the world by announcing his intention to go to Jerusalem and speak before the Jewish Knesset. Prime Minister Begin’s response to Sadat’s initiative demonstrated a willingness to engage the Egyptian leader, because Egypt could help protect Israel from other Arab countries. Accompanied by their capable negotiating teams, both leaders converged on Camp David for thirteen days of tense and dramatic negotiations in September, 1978. Carter’s advisers insisted on the establishment of an Egyptian–Israeli agreement which would lead to an eventual solution to the Palestine issue. However, Begin and Sadat had such mutual antipathy toward one another that they only seldom had direct contact. Thus, Carter had to conduct his own microcosmic form of shuttle diplomacy. The first part of the framework was to establish an autonomous self-governing authority in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The Accords recognized the “legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” with a process to be implemented guaranteeing the full autonomy of the people within a period of five years. This full autonomy was to be discussed with the participation of Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. The withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza was to occur after an election of a self-governing authority to replace Israel’s military government. The Accords did not mention the Golan Heights, Syria, or Lebanon, so that this was not the comprehensive peace that Carter had in mind, and was later interpreted differently by Israel, Egypt, and the United States. Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the representatives of the Palestinian people would participate in negotiations on the resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects. They agreed on transitional arrangements for the West Bank and Gaza for a period not exceeding five years for the autonomy of these inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza. This Israeli-Egyptian framework outlined a basis for the peace treaty six months later, in particular the future of the Sinai Peninsula. Israel agreed to withdraw its armed forces from the Sinai, and evacuate its 4,500 civilian inhabitants, and restore it to Egypt in return for normal diplomatic relations with Egypt. This was easier to do, since it only involved two countries. Have you ever heard of a good peace treaty?

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

The new pope in 1978 was Polish. At only 58 years of age, he was the youngest pope since Pope Pius IX in 1846, who was 54. I had known about Karol Wojtyla since my 1960s Louvain days, since many of the Louvain teachers at Vatican II, were so surprised about this Iron Curtain Polish Krakow bishop who knew so much current western European theology in the early 1960s. Now the world knows about him. Karol Jozef Wojtyła was Pope John Paul II from 1978 until 2005, 27 years as the head of the Roman Catholic church. Karol Wojtyla was the youngest of three children, born in Wadowice, Poland. In 1938, Wojtyła enrolled at the Jagiellonian University, where he learned as many as 15 languages. After his father’s death, he started thinking seriously about the priesthood. In October 1942, he began courses in the clandestine underground seminary run by the Archbishop of Krakow. In 1946, Karol was ordained by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, who sent Wojtyła to Rome’s Pontifical International Angelicum to study while he lived in the Belgian Pontifical College during that time. Wojtyła earned a STL in 1947, and a doctorate in 1948, with his thesis “The Doctrine of Faith in St. John of the Cross.” Wojtyła returned to Poland in the summer of 1948 for his first pastoral assignment in the village of Niegowic, 15 miles from Krakow, at the Church of the Assumption. In 1949, Wojtyła was transferred to the parish of Saint Florian in Krakow. He taught ethics at Jagiellonian University and subsequently at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1954, he earned a STD writing a dissertation titled “Reevaluation of the possibility of founding a Catholic ethic on the ethical system of Max Scheler,” who emphasized the study of conscious experience. Wojtyła developed a theological approach, called phenomenological Thomism, that combined traditional Catholic Thomism with the ideas of personalism, a philosophical approach deriving from phenomenology. In 1958, Wojtyła was named auxiliary bishop of Krakow, the youngest bishop in Poland at age 38. From October 1962-1965, Wojtyła took part in the Second Vatican Council, where he made contributions to two of its most historic and influential products, the Decree on Religious Freedom, and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. In 1964, Pope Paul VI appointed him the Archbishop of Krakow. In 1967, Paul VI announced Wojtyła’s promotion to the College of Cardinals. John Paul II attempted to improve the Catholic Church’s relations with Judaism, Islam, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the spirit of ecumenism. He maintained the Church’s previous positions on such matters as abortion, artificial contraception, the ordination of women, and a celibate clergy. Although he supported the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he was seen as generally conservative in their interpretation. He put emphasis on the family and identity, while questioning consumerism, hedonism, and the pursuit of wealth. He was one of the most travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, John Paul II beatified 1,344 people, and canonized 483 saints, more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the preceding five centuries. By the time of his death, he had named most of the College of Cardinals. He has been credited with fighting against dictatorships for democracy and with helping to end communist rule in his native Poland and the rest of eastern Europe. Under John Paul II, the Catholic Church greatly expanded its influence in Africa and Latin America and retained its influence in Europe and the rest of the world. Since Vatican II, the two most important constitutions of the contemporary Catholic Church were drafted and put in force by John Paul II, the 1983 Code of Canon Law, and the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church. Do you remember St. John Paul II?

The election of Pope John Paul II

The papal conclave held from October 14-16, 1978, was triggered by the death of Pope John Paul I at age 66 on September 28, 1978, just 33 days after he was elected pope. The conclave to elect John Paul I’s successor ended after eight ballots. The cardinal electors selected Cardinal Karol Jozef Wojtyła, the Archbishop of Krakow, as the new pope. The third pope in 1978, Wojtyła accepted his election and took the name John Paul II. Ten days after the funeral of Pope John Paul I, the doors of the Sistine Chapel were sealed and the conclave commenced. It was divided between two particularly strong candidates for the papacy, Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, the conservative archbishop of Genoa, and Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, the liberal archbishop of Florence, and a close associate of John Paul I. This conclave had the same number of cardinals as the first conclave of 1978, 111. Only Albino Luciani himself (who became Pope John Paul I) was absent from this conclave after having attended the first conclave of 1978, but the presence of Cardinal Wright at this conclave made the numbers the same. Supporters of Benelli were confident that he would be elected. In early ballots, Benelli came within nine votes. But the scale of opposition to him meant that neither Siri or Benelli would receive the two-thirds majority for election. Among the Italian contingent, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, the Archbishop of Milan, was the only viable compromise candidate, but when he started to receive votes, he announced that if elected he would decline the papacy. Cardinal Franz König, the influential and widely respected archbishop of Vienna, suggested to his fellow electors a compromise candidate, the Polish Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, whom König knew and by whom he was highly impressed. Thus, some cardinals who were supporters of Siri rallied behind Wojtyła. Wojtyła ultimately defeated Benelli, who was supposedly the candidate Wojtyła himself had voted for. On the eighth ballot on the third day, Wojtyla got 99 votes. He accepted his election. The new pope, in tribute to his immediate predecessor, then took the name of John Paul II. He became the first non-Italian pope since the Dutch Adrian VI, who reigned from 1522 to 1523. Everyone in Chicago, the most Polish town in the USA, and Poland was happy with the new Polish pope. Do you remember the election of a Polish pope?

Pope John Paul I (1912-1978)

Most people forget that there was a John Paul I before there was John Paul II. Pope John Paul I was born Albino Luciani. He was pope for 33 days in 1978, the shortest reign in papal history. Thus, there was three popes in 1978, the first time since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Pope Clement VII in 1523. Before the August 1978 papal conclave that elected him, he expressed his desire not to be elected, telling those close to him that he would decline the papacy if elected. Upon the cardinals’ electing him, he felt an obligation to say yes. He was the first pontiff to have a double name, choosing “John Paul” in honor of his two immediate predecessors, John XXIII and Paul VI. He explained that he was indebted to John XXIII and to Paul VI for naming him a bishop and a cardinal, respectively. Furthermore, he was the first pope to add the regnal number “I,” designating himself “the First.” In Italy, he is remembered as “the smiling pope.” Albino Luciani was born in 1912 in Forno di Canale in Belluno, a province of the Veneto region in Northern Italy. He was ordained a priest in 1935. He became a professor and the vice-rector of the Belluno seminary in 1937. In 1947, Luciani got his Doctorate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. In 1954, he was named the vicar general for the Belluno diocese. In 1958, Luciani was appointed Bishop of Vittorio Veneto by Pope John XXIII, so that he participated in all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). In 1969, Luciani was appointed the new patriarch of Venice by Pope Paul VI and he became a cardinal in 1973. Luciani was elected on the fourth ballot of the August 1978 papal conclave. Conservatives were supporting Giuseppe Siri, who favored a more conservative interpretation of Vatican II. Those who favored a more liberal interpretation of Vatican II’s reforms supported Giovanni Benelli, who had created some opposition due to his alleged “autocratic” tendencies. During the days following the conclave, the cardinals were generally elated at the reaction to Pope John Paul I, some of them happily saying that they had elected “God’s candidate.” After he became pope, John Paul I had set six plans which would dictate his pontificate: 1) renew the church through the policies implemented by Vatican II; 2) revise canon law; 3) remind the church of its duty to preach the Gospel; 4) promote church unity without watering down doctrine; 5) promote dialogue; and 6) encourage world peace and social justice. He was the first pope to speak in the singular “I” instead of “we.” Instead of a coronation, he inaugurated his papacy with a “papal inauguration.” He seemed to be on both sides of many of the sexual moral issues. John Paul I was a friend to the Muslim people. Luciani stressed the need to answer the universal call to holiness as based on the invitation in the Second Vatican Council. John Paul I impressed people with his personal warmth. He was the first pope in decades not to have previously held either a diplomatic role or Curial role. On September 29, 1978, on what would have been the 35th day of his pontificate, John Paul I was found dead in his bed at age 66 with reading material and a bedside lamp still lit. He had probably suffered a heart attack the night before. John Paul I’s funeral was held in Saint Peter’s Square on October 4, 1978, celebrated by Carlo Confalonieri. In his eulogy of the late pope, he described him as a flashing comet who briefly lit up the church. He then was laid to rest in the Vatican Grottoes. Since then, there have been all kinds of conspiracy theories about his death. Do you remember Pope John Paul I?

The first papal conclave of 1978

The papal conclave held on August 25-26, 1978, was the first of the two held that year. It was convoked to elect a successor to Pope Paul VI, who had died in early August. After the cardinal electors assembled in Rome, they elected Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, as the new pope on the fourth ballot. He accepted the election and took the name John Paul I. This was the first conclave since the promulgation of Ingravescentem aetatem in 1970, which made cardinals who had reached the age of 80 by the day the conclave began ineligible to participate in the balloting. There were 15 cardinals excluded by that rule. There were 111 voting cardinals: 55 from Europe, including 26 Italians, 16 Latin Americans, 15 North Americans, 12 Africans, 9 Asians, and 4 from Oceania. Several authors have provided what they claim to be the vote totals at the conclave, since the cardinals were not required to destroy their notes that they took during the conclave. Cardinal Giuseppe Siri of Genoa was ahead on the first ballot with about 25 votes, and Cardinal Luciani was second. On the second ballot, Cardinal Luciani pulled ahead of Siri with about 40-50 ballots, with Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli, President of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, and Cardinal Aloísio Lorscheider of Brazil, the head of the Episcopal Conference of Latin America, third and fourth. On the third ballot Luciani pulled further ahead with 60-90 votes. Thus, the final fourth vote was around 96-101 votes for Cardinal Luciani. The number of votes cast for Luciani on the final ballot was so great, as there was very little opposition at the end. Most of the Italians favored Albino Luciani, the Patriarch of Venice, while Luciani is believed to have favored Lorscheider. Time reported that the Dean of the College, Carlo Confalonieri, who was excluded from participating because of his age, had been the first to suggest Luciani. Cardinals Karol Wojtyła, Aloísio Lorscheider, and Bernardin Gantin reportedly served as scrutineers during the balloting. Pope John Paul I invited all the cardinal electors to remain in conclave for another night and dined with them, occupying the same chair as he had at their earlier group dinners. This was the first conclave since 1721 in which three future popes participated, John Paul I, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI, and the first since 1829 in which two did so. What do you know about papal conclaves?

The death of Pope Paul VI (1897-1978)

Pope Paul VI died on August 6, 1978 in Castel Gandolfo at the age of 81. By the time the Pope died, he was already confined to bed due to a flare up in his chronic joint arthritis and could not get up to personally celebrate Mass. Pope Paul VI wanted a simple burial. Thus, he was buried in a grave beneath the floor of Saint Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican Grottoes near the tombs of other popes. Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was born in the village of Concesio, in the Province of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy, in 1897, a year before my father was born. He was ordained a priest in 1920. In 1922, at the age of twenty-five, Montini entered the Papal Secretariat of State. Thus, he never had an appointment as a parish priest. Montini had just one foreign posting in the diplomatic service of the Holy See as Secretary in the office of the papal nuncio to Poland in 1923. In 1931, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, appointed him to teach history at the Pontifical Academy for Diplomats. When Pacelli became Pope Pius XII in 1939, he confirmed Montini’s appointment to the new Cardinal Secretary of State, Luigi Maglione. When war broke out, Maglione, Tardini, and Montini were the principal figures in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. In 1954, Giovanni Montini was appointed Archbishop of Milan, which made him the secretary of the Italian Bishops Conference. Some considered him a liberal, when he asked lay people to love not only Catholics but also schismatics, Protestants, Anglicans, the indifferent, Muslims, pagans, and atheists. After Montini’s friend Angelo Roncalli became Pope John XXIII, he made Montini a cardinal in December, 1958. Montini was appointed to the Central Preparatory Commission for Vatican II in 1961. However, Pope John XXIII had a vision without a clear agenda, overly optimistic with a confidence in progress, which was characteristic of the 1960s. Montini was widely seen as a progressive member of the Catholic hierarchy, as the most likely papal successor, being close to both Popes Pius XII and John XXIII, as well as his pastoral and administrative background, his insight, and his determination. Montini had learned the innermost workings of the Curia, while working in it for a generation. However, it was only on the sixth ballot that he was elected pope in 1963. Pope Paul VI held six consistories between 1965 and 1977 that raised 143 men to the cardinalate in his fifteen years as pope. The next three popes were created cardinals by him. His immediate successor, Albino Luciani, who took the name John Paul I, in 1973, Karol Józef Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II, in 1967, and Joseph Ratzinger in 1977, who took the name of Benedict XVI. At the same time, the members of the College of Cardinals lost some of their previous influence, after Paul VI decreed that membership by bishops in committees and other bodies of the Roman Curia would not be limited to cardinals. Pope Paul VI increased the number of Cardinals from the Third World, and was very ecumenical, especially with the Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran Christians. In 2018, he was officially declared a canonized saint. While the total number of Catholics increased during the pontificate of Paul VI the number of priests did not keep up. While 65% of US Catholics went to Sunday Mass in 1965 that had slipped to 40% by the time of Paul’s death. Do you remember Pope Paul VI?

John Travolta (1954 -)

John Travolta became a big star in 1977-1978 with these two hit films, Saturday Night Fever and Grease. John Travolta began acting in television before transitioning into a leading man in films. Travolta was the youngest of six children, who grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, in Bergen County, north of Carteret, New Jersey. His father was an Italian American semi-pro football player, while his mother was Irish American, so that he grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood. He was raised Catholic, but later converted to Scientology in 1975 at age 21. He dropped out of high school to pursue a career in show business in 1971. After a few bit parts on Broadway and in Hollywood, he landed his star-making role as Vinnie Barbarino in the ABC TV sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter,” in 1976. I actually remember him on that show. I was so surprised that he landed as the star in these two movies of 1977-1978 that were among the most commercially successful pictures of the 1970s. John Travolta had previously starred in Saturday Night Fever. He also had previously appeared as Doody in a touring production of the stage version of Grease. Travolta was given the lead role after Henry Winkler, then starring as the Fonz on the TV series “Happy Days,” turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a greaser, something he would later regret. Director Randal Kleiser directed Travolta in the 1976 telefilm “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble,” so that they had developed a friendship over the course of that production. However, in the 1980s, Travolta turned down the lead roles in American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, as well as Splash. It was not until he played Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s hit Pulp Fiction (1994) that his career was revived. His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and a BAFTA Award. Travolta had leading roles in Carrie (1976), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978), Urban Cowboy (1980), and Blow Out (1981). His other notable films include Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), White Man’s Burden (1995), Broken Arrow (1996), Michael (1996), Phenomenon (1996), Face/Off (1997), A Civil Action (1998), Primary Colors (1998), The General’s Daughter (1999), Wild Hogs (2007), Hairspray (2007), Bolt (2008), and Savages (2012). Outside of acting, Travolta is also a singer-songwriter. He has released nine albums, including four singles that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40. His albums have typically accompanied films he has starred in, such as Grease. In 2000, Travolta starred in and co-produced the science fiction film Battlefield Earth, based on the novel of the same name by L. Ron Hubbard, that received almost universally negative reviews and did very poorly at the box office. Following the death of his wife Kelly Preston in July 2020, at the age of 57 from breast cancer, Travolta hinted on his Instagram account that he would be putting his career on hold. In 1988, while filming The Experts, Travolta met actress Kelly Preston, whom he married in Paris in 1991. They had three children: Jett (1992–2009), Ella Bleu (2000-), and Benjamin (2010-). In memory of Jett, Travolta created the Jett Travolta Foundation, a nonprofit organization to help children with special needs. Travolta is also a licensed private pilot. What do you know about John Travolta?