The Home Alone Curse

The "Home Alone" Curse is all too real. The big-budget movie is in peril, and only one actor can save it. Not Macaulay Culkin. Not Joe Pesci. It's the goofball cop, Larry Hankin, with one iconic glazed donut.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Glynn Washington?

  Silent night, holy night, in the woods burns a light. Where a voice calls sweet and low, calling for the falling to go. We all follow the beast, sleep in heavenly peace. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

• 0:51Glynn Washington?

  It's the Spook. Stay tuned.

• 1:00Glynn Washington?

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. And sometimes you make great ones, like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage for you, along with 24/7 claim support and great customer service. So, when you think about it, that's like four great decisions that more than makes up for the TV debacle. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.

• 1:43Glynn Washington?

  Spooksters, you have spoken. We want more spook, you said. We want the support to show, you said. And, can we please, for the love of all that is holy? Please get rid of those ads. Well, prayers answered. Spooked Plus has risen. Ad free spook. The entire library, no interruptions, just you and whatever's lurking in the shadows. Exclusive bonus stories every month, fresh nightmares you won't hear anywhere else. The Spooked Plus community, listen together, chat in real time because no one should face the darkest alone and, and ask me anything for yours truly.

• 2:27Glynn Washington?

  If you've got questions, I've got answers. Maybe, and we're just getting started. Spook says, "We are a small team chasing down the big mystery. Your support keeps this flame burning, so come on in. The door is open. Spooked dot Supercast dot com. That's Spooked dot Supercast dot com. Spooked Plus. Don't turn out the lights.

• 3:01Glynn Washington?

  'Twas the night before Christmas, when deep in the gloom, not a soul dared to breathe in that cold haunted room. Stockings hung taut like the threat of a snare in the weight of the monster that soon would be there. And what to my wonderstruck eye should appear but a shadowy sleigh and eight ruby red deer with a withered old driver, so ghastly and grim that I knew in an instant it had to be him. Lor Swift, the man nightmares, his courses they came. He hissed and he shrieked and he called them by name. Now havoc, now horror, now panic and pain.

• 3:45Glynn Washington?

  On torment, on terror, on dreaded, on bane. Down the chimney he slithered with madness and spite, his eyes gleaming evil that cold winter night. His fur coat was tattered, all covered in frost like he crossed the dark valley where all hope was lost. So...

• 4:09Glynn Washington?

  I smacked him with a shovel, real hard in the back. And the children ran out and they snatched up his sack. Then we laughed and we feasted and we chased him around. And Bad Nick never, ever came back to our town. Cause we gave that old grimmun a terrible fright and I can't speak for him. But we had a great night.

• 4:47Glynn Washington?

  Substars. Now.

• 5:37Glynn Washington?

  Ah, spooksters. Kids, it's season and in celebration, we're gonna break form out a bit. We're gonna travel back to a simpler time, a time before iPods and Cybertrucks. A time when computers did not talk back. Larry Hankins, he remembers those magical days with a story about how he came this close to landing the role of a lifetime in one of the most iconic Christmas movies of the 1990s. Spoiler alert, Larry does not get the gig. But what happens next will become home alone history. So, grab a glass of eggnog because here's Larry, live from the Crow Comedy Club.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  How many people have seen Home Alone? Anybody?

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Okay. All right, this is about the curse on Home Alone. So I get a call. First of all, this is 1990 when Home Alone was first bought and they started filming in 1990. It came out in 1992. So this is about 1990, 1991. I was looking for rent. That was the whole point. I was looking for rent and trying to learn guitar. Two things. And in between that, I was trying to audition. So my agent called me and he said, "Are you available right now?" And I go, "Of course, you know that. You're my agent."

• 7:27Speaker 01

  So he said, "All right, look. Home Alone just called. They started a new production. It's John Hughes' next movie. It's gonna be a Christmas thing. It's gonna be big. It's got Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern and a kid called Macaulay Culkin." And Daniel, they'd been filming for three days now. And Daniel Stern has now stopped production because he wants more money. The producers don't want to pay him more money. He's gonna quit if he doesn't get more money. And the producers say, "If he keeps on demanding more money, we're gonna fire him. And we need somebody to replace him, and we're thinking about you." I don't think, "Whoa, are you kidding?

• 8:11Speaker 01

  John Hughes movie? Home Alone?" I mean, everybody knew then it was gonna be a really cool movie. So I go, "Wow, that's amazing." He says, "Okay. They're in a negotiation right now. They're gonna end it in about a half hour. I'll call you back. Pack your bag. Put it by the door. You have to leave tonight. If Daniel Stern doesn't want to work for the money he's getting, they're gonna fire him and they want you..." You're gonna have to start reshooting the new film, because they've already shot three days, tomorrow morning. You gotta catch a flight tonight, fly to Chicago,

• 8:54Speaker 01

  and start filming. It's just establishing shots so you don't have to memorize any lines. I'm going, "Wow!" She says, "Okay, I'll call you back in half an hour. Pack your bags, put it by the door, and hold tight." "Okay, click." And I'm thinking, "Wow, I'm gonna be co-starring with Joe Pesci in 1990, and I need my rent. This is incredible, man. This is incredible." Okay, so a half hour goes by, I'm sitting by the phone, I'm tense, I'm jacked up, I'm really cool. And he goes, "Okay, we just got it in. Daniel Stern, caved, it's off. Never mind, there's other jobs. Click."

• 9:32Speaker 01

  "The fuck?"

• 9:35Speaker 01

  I was really pissed. I mean, I was madder than I've ever been, man, because they jerked me around. The producers jerked me around, and I didn't like it. So I dealt with it as best I could. I dealt with it. And then I got on with my life, which was trying to learn the guitar audition. "Learn the guitar audition. Okay, cool, rent." Okay, but I got on with my life, and you just go on, you forget it. Somebody mentioned that before, you just get on with your life, you go on. And about two weeks later, I get a call from my agent again. He said, "Are you still available?" Come on, man!

• 10:11Speaker 01

  And he goes, "Why?" "Because Home Alone just called, they want you in the movie, they need you in the movie. You gotta be in the movie." And I go, "Why? What's going on?" He said, "The movie is cursed." This is a true story. They called me and they said, "The movie is cursed." I said, "Is that your word or their word?" "No, that's their word." They say, "And the reason they say it's cursed is because of the way they jerked you around." You know, they fucked you around. Whatever it was in the negotiations with Daniel Stern, and they feel guilty about it, and they feel that that's the reason the movie is cursed, because it's already shot three days and nothing's happening, it's not going right.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  So they figured the only way is get Hankin back in, get him in the movie anywhere, just to appease the curse and get it off the movie. And I go, "That is the weirdest. Okay, I mean..."

• 11:06Speaker 01

  All right, so you do it. Well, what do they want me to do? What's a character? I don't get it. You know, is this Daniel? No, it's not Daniel Stern again. No, it's just to get the curse off. Now, so, okay, what do they want me to do? And they said, "Well, that's the..." Okay, here's the thing. It's just, it's three lines. No, I'm not doing it. Three lines? Are you kidding? It's a cop talking to a mom about getting her son or checking on her son? No, I'm not gonna do it. Three lines? Two weeks ago, I was co-starring with Joe Pesci. And now they're offering me three lines? No, I'm not gonna do it. No. Damn, man. So he says, "No, listen, Larry, just calm down, man.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  Now, look, they'll fly you there, first class, L.A. to Chicago. They'll pick you up in a limo. They'll fly you first class, limo at the other airport, get you to the set. They'll have the set all set up for you. This is a half a day's work, Larry. Just go in, it's three lines, get out of the limo. The set'll be all set up, the camera and the lights and everything. You go in, get into a cop uniform, do one take, back in a limo, fly you first class, limo. You will sleep in your own bed the same day." "No, man, three lines? Are you kidding?" "Larry, listen to me. They will pay you $10,000 to do just what I said."

• 12:33Speaker 01

  "Oh, okay, fine, let's go." Yeah. Okay, wow, what's the problem?

• 12:51Glynn Washington?

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones, like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. And sometimes you make great ones like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage for you. Along with 24/7 claim support and great customer service. So when you think about it, that's like four great decisions that more than makes up for the TV debacle. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.

• 13:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, so and sure enough, the next morning, sure enough, I looked down, I'm in an apartment house. I look down, there's a limo, a white stretched limo downstairs waiting for me. I go down, I don't even have to pack because I'm asleep in my own bed. That's what they said the same night, don't have to pack. I'm just going half a day's work, that's it. So I go down, I jump in a limo to the airport, first class, don't have to wait or anything to sneak around. First class, limo's there, Mr. Hankin, limo, chauffeur, everything to the set. They pull me up, there's an A.D. waiting at the curb. I get out, they go, they pull me in now. Here's the, right before I left, I got a phone call from one of the producers of Home Alone

• 14:25Speaker 01

  to verify that I'm going to show up and do it. And so I go, are you kidding? Of course I'm going to do it. Okay, so he says, Larry, you just want to verify and everything's going to be okay? We'll see you there tomorrow, right? Yeah, okay, what do you want? I go, what do you mean, what do I want? I don't deal with that. No, no, no, because we understand it's just three lines. We understand it's a very small part. We just want you in the movie because of the curse. So just anything, so if you, no, he said, okay, you said it, right? He goes, yes, there's a curse on the movie and we believe that it's because we... You know, dissed you in not asking your permission to use your name in a negotiation,

• 15:10Speaker 01

  blah, blah, blah, and that's why the movie is cursed, we've got to get you in. Anyway, three lines, oh, okay, and I can have anything? Well, okay, you can rewrite the three lines, as long as it, you know, fits into the scene, or you can have any prop you want, whatever you want, we understand you're doing us a favor. I go, okay, what, it's a cop, right? Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, I wanna be eating a donut while I say your lines. That's it? Yeah, that's it, I wanna be eating a donut, a glazed donut, I want a glazed donut.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Okay, see you here tomorrow, right, okay, and then I go downstairs, right, limo, plane there, and I get out, and there's, they take me to the producers, and there's a set, it's a soundstage, and they got the police station, the chair, and the phone, everything's there, they got the camera, the lights, everything is all set, and the producers say, you know, okay, just change into your costume, get in the costume, sit down, one take, back in the limo, you sleep in your own bed tonight. Okay, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, where's my glazed donut? Larry, just go change into the cop uniform, we'll have the glazed donut when you get back. Okay, so I, I'm really stoked about this glazed donut, you know, I mean, think, wow,

• 16:37Speaker 01

  okay, so I go in, I change the cop uniform, I come back, and standing, waiting for, right next to the camera, as you know, these bakers' rolling trays with the trays, you know, and you can roll it around with the bread on it and everything, okay, next to the camera is a baker's rolling tray with twenty trays, twenty shelves, and on each shelf is thirty glazed donuts. Six hundred glazed donuts. And I just say, I just asked for one glazed donut, and I'm thinking, I'm not paying for these.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  They're punking me. You know, I really did think that. I thought, I don't, I just don't understand what's going on with the whole thing with the curse. But I do notice that there's something weird going on. I mean, that's when I showed up. Even the crew is like, you know. Okay, so I, okay, give me a donut. Uh, oh, that one. Yeah, give me that.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  Okay, and, all right, so, and Chris Columbus is directing, which is another perk. I mean, Chris Columbus is really cool. Okay, so Larry, get in the chair. You got the phone, you got the donut, I'm gonna be eating it, okay. And take one, Larry, action. Okay, and, well, hello, police department, blah, blah, blah. You want me to check on your son in the cut? Uh, is that me? What happened? What was that? No, no, no, camera went off the dolly. All right, back to one, take two, Larry. All right, give me another donut. I just ate the whole thing. Just give me a new one. All right?

• 18:19Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, get away, get away. Fucking crew, man.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Okay, and take two, and action, Larry. Okay, so, blah, blah, blah, police department, blah, blah, blah. You want me to go to your home and check on your son? Cut! Okay, now what happened? Uh, camera jiggle, let's go back to, uh, back to one, all right? Take two, uh, all right, give me another donut. No, I just ate the whole thing while I was waiting to reset the camera. I just ate it. All right, just give me another one. All right, take three, and, you ready? Okay, Larry with the donut, okay, fine, and action, Larry. And, uh, you want me to go to check on your...

• 19:06Speaker 01

  The light, it's very hot in there, it's a soundstage, it's really hot. And one of the lights above exploded and rained down glass, that shattered glass, all over the set, on me. Uh, it's just one, one shot, it's just a tracking shot, it's just one person in it. So it's just on me. Okay, so the 20-minute break, while they clean up the set, they clean me off, they get the nurse to check. I'm not cut, I'm not gonna sue, don't worry. Okay.

• 19:35Speaker 01

  All right, Larry, give me another, another, no, give me another fucking donut. No, give me that one, yeah, okay.

• 19:48Speaker 01

  Okay, and this is, I don't know what, take four, and take five, take six, take seven, take eight, take nine, we haven't gotten through one good take. Something always happens, and it's not me, it's not me, it's something technical each time, nine times. And now, I'm starting to think, holy crap, it is Curtis.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  And you can even see, the crew is going, all right, it's the fucking curse. And I look over at the producers, and they're white men. They are depressed, it's really weird. And everybody, except Chris Columbus, he's like, cool, he's like, you know, in the old days, it was a Joe Palooka doll, you know, you hit it, it just goes right back up, you know, ding, ding. So, yeah, he just knocked, you knock him down, he's, okay, come on, take 10, let's go, everybody. Take 10, Larry, get a donut. And I'm saying, wait a minute, the donuts are starting to disappear from the bottom shelf.

• 20:56Speaker 01

  The crew is eating the donuts, and I'm going, hey, man, we may have to do 590.

• 21:04Speaker 01

  So, okay, all right, fine, so finally, take 10, all right, give me another donut, and take 10, action, Larry, okay, and you want me to go check on your son? Yeah, okay, Rose, hyper on two.

• 21:24Speaker 01

  Cut, and everybody laughs. Now, for the nine takes, when it was, it didn't go all the way through to the end... Nobody laughed, because you don't laugh at Cruz fuck-ups, you don't. Or any technical laugh. But if an actor fucks up, laugh, they all laugh. Oh, oh, oh, and they captured it on tape. So Chris Columbus says, "Print that one, Larry, you're released." "Okay, get him in a limo, you can change your car, get out of your costume, you're released, Larry." And I go, "What just happened?" "No, if I fucked up, I want to do it again." "I don't want that, I don't want you to print a fuck-up of mine."

• 22:06Speaker 01

  "No, no, Larry, that's good, we're good, you're released." I go, "No, I want to do it again." "No, Larry, you don't have to do it again, we got it." And he says, "Come to the TV village, and we will play it for you." So I said, "I don't want to watch it, because I'll just do what I made the mistake." "'Cause if I see it, I'll do it again." So I go and I watch it, and they play it, and okay. And as far as I can see, as they play it, it's... What I'm doing is exactly the same for all ten takes. There's nothing different, I'm not fucking up. But then I start to notice something, that there's a crumb from the donut, and it's caught on the mouthpiece of the phone.

• 22:51Speaker 01

  Now, all the other crumbs, because there's crumbs, you know, when you're eating a donut, and all the nine takes, they all fall to the ground, or the floor. And even in this take, except there's one big crumb, is not only hanging, not like this, on the top of the mouthpiece, but it's over here. And it's not moving, and then very slowly, it starts to, very slowly, start to... But it doesn't drop, it's just slowly rolling. And then finally, and I don't know, I'm just talking and talking, and right near the end of the scene, it drops. And then the scene ends.

• 23:49Speaker 01

  And they said, "We're gonna print that." "Why? That's fucked up." "I don't have to use a donut." "I don't have to use..." He goes, "No, no, no. That's going in the movie, Larry. That's a money shot." And I go, "What do you call a money shot? What is that to you?"

• 24:05Speaker 01

  He said, "It means it's going in the movie. It's gold. It's funny, Larry." And I go, "Okay." He said, "Get out of here. Okay, get him out of here. Get him in a limo. Get him home." "He's gotta sleep in his own bed tonight." "Okay, get him out of here." So I go in, I change my clothes. I come back, and what I do is I don't go to the limo. I go over to the baker's tray, 'cause I wanna see what's going on. Why did that, you know, stick and no other crumb did? And I go over, and it was so hot. I looked at all the donuts that are left. The glaze had started to melt. So it was tacky. It was sticky. And that crumb, obviously, came from the top of the donut.

• 24:47Speaker 01

  So it was the glaze that was holding that thing there. Okay? Because people would come up to me on the street and say, "Hey, you know, you were in Home Alone." Right, yeah. "How did they do with the donut thing? How did they do that?"

• 25:03Speaker 01

  So, I don't know if there's any actors in the room, but here's a great lesson in how to steal a scene. Okay, in the middle of the scene, slowly start to die.

• 25:20Speaker 01

  Very slowly. No matter where you are in the scene or what you're doing, start to slowly die. And then, right near the end of the scene, suddenly drop.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  Okay, so that's just how to steal a scene. Okay, but that has nothing to do with anything. Okay, so now I get into the limo and I, they take me to the airport and first class, limo, and not only do I get to sleep in my own bed the same night, but I fly first class, I have a limo, I get $10,000 for a half a day's work. I can pay my rent. Yeah, okay. And then about a year later, Home Alone comes out and it's a big hit. Now, the reason that it's a big hit and the moral of this story is that because

• 26:20Speaker 01

  the producers treated me so nice and they paid me so much money for half a day's work that I removed my curse from the movie.

• 26:39Glynn Washington?

  Thank you Larry Hankin for sharing your story. Now from Escape to Alcatraz, to France, to Seinfeld, to Breaking Bad, Larry has left an indelible mark on your TV screens over the last five decades. Yes, Larry has a book. It's entitled That Guy, A Cautionary Memoir. Engineering for that piece was done by Miles Lassie. We've got special thanks as well to Sam Shaw for sharing Larry's story with us. Sam is working on a documentary about Larry's improvisational theater company. It's called The Committee. Information at thecommitymovie.com. And last but not least, a special shout out to the Crow Comedy Club in Santa Monica for hosting Larry during one of their unforgettable storytelling nights.

• 27:24Glynn Washington?

  crowcomedy.com.

• 27:37Glynn Washington?

  Jingle bells, spooksters. There are many ways that people celebrate the darkest days of winter, and we here. We hope that however you do it, that you are filled with good cheer. We appreciate you, Spook Nation, for walking this dark road. We love that you love what we love. And yes, if you have a story the world needs to hear, please let me know. [email protected]. Spookers brought to us by the team that has managed to avoid dark curses, except for Mark Ristich. From the moment he was born, the townsfolk demanded he sleep outside the city limits.

• 28:21Glynn Washington?

  There's Davy Kim, Zoe Forigno, Eric Yanez, Taylor DeCott, Marissa Dodge, Miles Lassie, Doug Stewart, Elliot Lightfoot, Paulina Kriki, Juan Diego Baltan, Sasha Wilson, and Daniel Shinsky. The Spook theme song is by Pat Masidi Miller. My name's Glen Washington. And three millennia passed. Every year, near the end of December, the people they would celebrate by lighting candles and lamps as symbols of hope, by exchanging gifts, by feasting with family and friends, by asking their God to bless them if they had been good little boys and girls, in honor

• 29:06Glynn Washington?

  of the season of their lord, the god Saturn, the celebration of Saturnalia, marking Saturn's race to the winter sky, and the peace on earth and goodwill toward men that occurred during Saturn's mythic reign.

• 29:25Glynn Washington?

  We live in a time of echoes. We walk through a land of ghosts. This path has been tried before, and nothing is ever truly gone. The universe does not forget. What kind of echoes do you wish to leave? I think about this often. What ripple I might leave behind in three millennia, I don't know. So the best I can do is to turn toward that star streaking across that sky and vow to never, ever, ever, ever, never, ever, ever, never, ever,

• 30:11Glynn Washington?

  turn out the lights.