A Christmas Story Case
This episode marks the beginning of not only the Christmas season, but also season 8 of our show!! This December we’re celebrating the four year anniversary of the BCD with episodes featuring some of our absolute favorite Christmas stories, including, of course, A Christmas Story.
Ever since the world met Ralphie Parker in November of 1983, Christmas has never been the same. For almost forty years, families have been laughing along with the Parker family through their Christmas ups and downs. Although parts of the film haven’t aged well, it seems to have achieved the status of a timeless Christmas classic.
So, slip on your bunny pajamas and try not to shoot your eyes out, it’s time for A Christmas Story!
Summary
It’s Christmastime sometime in the late 1930s or early 40s and the Parker family is getting ready for the big holiday in their hometown of Hohman, Indiana. Little Ralphie Parker has only one gift that he wants this year: A Red Ryder BB Gun. Despite being told no at every turn (and that he will shoot his eye out), Ralphie never gives up hope that Santa will come through and make his Christmas wish come true. A Christmas Story is a hilarious look at the classic American Christmas, as told by the late humorist Jean Shepherd.
Jean Shepherd and Daisy Red Ryder
If you have heard the name Jean Shepherd, it’s likely because of this film. To many movie-watchers today, he’s simply the charismatic voice leading us through the story. But, Shepherd had a long career as a humorist and radio personality, and the story that he so eloquently delivers on screen is–at least in part–his own.
So in order to fully appreciate A Christmas Story, we need to learn a little bit more about the man behind it all. Jean Shepherd was an elusive and enigmatic radio personality that eventually had success as an author and actor. Upon his death in 1999, the New York Times couldn’t say for certain when he had been born, and for that matter, his age. According to his obituary, he was either born on July 21st or July 26th, sometime between 1921 and 1929.
Shepherd started his career in radio shortly after serving in the United States Army Signal Corps during WWII. In 1956, he began broadcasting from the radio station WOR-AM in New York City. For 21 years he delighted listeners with his skillful storytelling and meandering stream-of-consciousness monologues. He drew in crowds of hipsters and contrarians and built up a massive cult following who tuned in every weeknight to listen to Shep (as they called him) tell his hilarious anecdotes.
In 1966, Shepherd published his novel: In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. This is considered to be his most important work and was the basis for two feature films: A Christmas Story and A Summer Story. Neither one of these films was based on a single story but was a combination of anecdotes from the novels and ones that Shepherd told on the air during his show. If you were to read the book, which you can find at your local library, you would recognize parts that were featured in the movie, including Ralphie’s search for the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun.
The history of the Daisy Red Ryder begins with inventor Clarence Hamilton. He was originally a watchmaker that invented and began manufacturing a vane-less windmill during the 1880s. He also operated the Plymouth Air Rifle Company, which built wooden air rifles. In 1888, Hamilton designed an all-metal air gun and presented it to the board of The Plymouth Iron Windmill Company. General manager Louis C. Hough test-fired the gun and said, “Boy Clarence, that’s a Daisy!” And that’s where the Daisy rifle got its name.
According to company legend, the gun became a premium item available to farmers that bought windmills. But by 1895, the gun’s popularity usurped the windmills, and the company began only producing airguns. They changed their name to the Daisy Manufacturing Company. In 1912, the Markham Air Rifle Company, the seller of the first financially successful BB gun, was sold to Daisy executives and changed to King Manufacturing company. Daisy acquired the company in 1928, and is still known today as a leading name in air rifle production, especially for their legendary Red Ryder model.
By the mid-1940s, Daisy was producing over a million Red Ryder BB guns. Before making A Christmas Story, Jean Shepherd approached the Rogers Daisy Airgun Museum about a version of the 107 Buck Jones Special gun that he wrote about in his book. After some back and forth with the curator, it became clear that the version of the gun that Shepherd wrote about didn’t actually exist. But, the producers of the film insisted that Shepherd’s version be created for the screen. So, the gun that Ralphie uses in the film was made specifically for A Christmas Story and does not exist anywhere else! After filming wrapped, they let young Peter Billingsly, who played Ralphie, keep the prop.
Making of
In 1968, Bob Clark was on his way to pick up a date when he first heard Jean Shepherd on the radio. Shepherd was telling the story of a child getting their tongue stuck to a lamppost in the middle of winter. The story lasted 40 minutes, and Clark was so interested that he drove around, making his (very upset) date wait. He was determined to one day make a film based on Shepherd’s work. Fifteen years later, he was directing A Christmas Story!
The screenplay was co-written by Leigh Brown and Bob Clark, based not only on Jean Shepherd’s book, but his various material from tours and radio shows as well.
While Jean Shepherd was the one that added the line: “you’ll shoot your eye out,” Bob Clark was the one that had it repeated throughout the film.
Shepherd was on set for the first two or three weeks of shooting. While Clark was a big fan of the radio personality, he felt that Shepherd was a bit too obsessive.
A Christmas story was filmed in the early months of 1983 in Toronto and Cleveland, OH. Most of the exterior shots were done in Cleveland, including the iconic house on Cleveland Street. Weirdly enough, there was no snow in Cleveland at the time and they had to bring in snowmakers from ski resorts. The film features the famous Higbee’s Department store, and the scenes inside were filmed on location in the actual store!
Higbee’s left up their Christmas decorations for the shoot, and filming took place after hours. The kids slept all day so they could stay up all night shooting.
It wouldn’t be A Christmas Story without Jean Shepherd’s voice carrying the story along for the audience. He not only narrated the movie, but he also appeared in the Higbee’s Department Store scene. He was the man that pointed Ralphie and Randy to the back of the line to see Santa.
Ralphie was played by Peter Billingsley. He was chosen out of about 8000 kids, and at first Bob Clark thought he was “too obvious” for the part. He had already been a host on the reality show “Real People” before landing the role.
Billingsley was 13 playing the part of a 9 year old boy. He returned to the role this year in an HBO continuation of the classic holiday movie.
He was the only kid on the set that was allowed to hold the coveted Red Ryder BB Gun. The gun was never loaded, and he handed it back to an adult the moment the camera stopped rolling.
Bob Clark said that all the kids in the film were intelligent and got along pretty well (despite the bullying on screen). Ian Petrella played Randy, Ralphie’s younger brother. In the scene where the boys visit Santa in the department store, they had to ride a big slide. Petrella was terrified of the slide and the tears he cries in the movie are actually real. Bob Clark didn’t make him do a test run because he was already too nervous to do it once.
Scott Schwartz played Flick, Ralphie’s friend on the playground. In one of the most infamous scenes of the movie, Flick gets his tongue stuck to the telephone pole on a particularly cold day.
The kids were actually filming in the cold, as evidenced by their pink cheeks and noses. Scott Schwartz, we’re happy to say, didn’t actually get his tongue stuck to anything. There was a tiny hole in the pole that used suction to make his tongue stick. It looked so fun, the other kids wanted to try it!
Scott Schwartz was apparently a pain in the neck on set. So, the crew would mess with him by breaking for lunch and “forgetting” to remove him from the pole.
RD Robb played Schwartz, another friend of Ralphie’s and the boy that dares Flick to lick the pole.
Robb is now a producer and he also reprised his role as Schwartz in the recent HBO sequel with Scott Schwartz and Peter Billinsley.
Zack Ward played the horrendous Scut Farkus, Ralphie’s bully.
Ward still acts today and also returned to the role of Scut in A Christmas Story Christmas!
Bob Clark wanted Melinda Dillon in the role of Ralphie’s mother after seeing her in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
She was perfect as the loving wife and mother in the 1930s midwest; a devoted woman that never put herself first. When Ralphie beats up his bully at school, Mrs. Parker protects Ralphie because she understands why he lashed out. She has a stronger relationship with Ralphie because of it.
Darren McGavin was not Bob Clark’s first choice to play “The Old Man.” He actually wanted Jack Nicholson in the part, but the production company didn’t want to pay for him. Bob Clark was grateful in the end, because he couldn’t imagine a better person for the part.
One of the most challenging parts of the production was convincing the audience that the film took place in the 1940s while being filmed in 1983. The actual year that the film was set has been disputed. In one scene, there’s a calendar that suggests that it’s 1939. In another scene, Ralphie has a Little Orphan Annie decoder ring with the year 1940 on it. It’s this kind of ambiguity that makes the film feel timeless and like it's being told as a memory. As we get older, we mix up stories and events blur together, just like they do in this film.
Little Orphan Annie was a radio drama based on the comic strip of the same name. In one scene, Ralphie receives a decoder pin in the mail and uses it to decode a secret message from the show. The prop department was able to track down an actual decoder pin! Production searched for months to find an authentic radio for the scene.
When Ralphie and his family visit the mall, they see actors dressed as characters from The Wizard of Oz. This points to the movie taking place in 1939, since that movie would have come out a few months earlier and it would make sense for the mall to promote it. Using the characters was no problem because they were owned by MGM, the studio behind A Christmas Story.
There are so many classic moments in this movie, it would be impossible to choose one that defined the whole thing. Every fan seems to have their own favorite part that speaks to them somehow. It could be something as subtle and hilarious as Ralphie’s brother Randy not being able to put his own arms down after his mother bundled him up too tightly in his snow suit, to the moment that Ralphie discovers the horror of cussing in front of his father. Let’s talk about some of these moments.
The Leg Lamp is possibly the most famous physical gag of the film.
Even if you haven’t seen A Christmas Story, you’ve likely seen its most famous prop: a lamp shaped like a woman’s leg. It comes as a prize won by Ralphie’s old man in a box famously marked “FRA-GEE-LAY” (must be Italian).
Jean Shepherd’s idea for the lamp came from a Nehi (pronounced knee-high) Beverage ad. He described the lamp in his novel, under the story title: “My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the Birth of Pop Art.” The first version of the infamous leg lamp appeared in a PBS film called, “Phantom of the Open Hearth.” That film was also based on Jean Shepherd’s stories and followed Ralphie as a teenager.
Production designer Reuben Freed developed the version of the lamp that appears in A Christmas Story. He had three lamps made, none of which survived the production.
Bob Clark kept the lamp hidden until it was time to film the scene so the reactions from the actors would be more genuine.
In a scene where Ralphie helps his dad with the car, the young boy accidentally blurts out the F-word.
The scene does not include the actual word, so Ralphie says “fudge” instead. Bob Clark had Peter Billingsley say both words so they could show his mouth saying the curse word, and the audio saying “fudge.”
Immediately after, Mrs. Parker puts a bar of LifeBuoy soap in his mouth. The bar was actually made of wax.
This scene was apparently very relatable to many of the adults in the audience who remembered soap as a common punishment for bad language. The over-the-top reactions from Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Schwartz are played for laughs. However, many people find the part where Mrs. Parker hears Mrs. Shwartz hit her son to be outdated and difficult to watch.
The scene filmed in Higbee’s Department Store captures the chaos of holiday shopping. The line to see Santa is weeks long, the place is completely packed, and Ralphie and Randy venture into the crowd alone to meet Santa.
As Ralphie waits in line, an odd little boy keeps trying to talk to him about The Wizard of Oz. The reactions from Peter Billingsley in this scene were completely real. It was a bit that Bob Clark decided to do on the spot and he put the boy in the scene without telling Peter what to do. Peter’s discomfort really comes across on screen.
The annoyed elves in the scene were played by local actors. Jeff Gillen played the jaded and somewhat terrifying Santa Claus. He was an old friend of Bob Clark’s.
When Ralphie wakes up on Christmas morning, there’s a magical snowfall just outside his window.
The crew knew that it would drop below freezing in Cleveland overnight. So all they had to do to get the picturesque scenery was to spray the trees with water the night before.
The Christmas hilarity continues when Ralphie’s mother forces him to put on a pink bunny suit that a relative sent him. As a 13-year-old boy, Peter Billingsley found the outfit very embarrassing to wear in front of the crew. He does still own the suit, however.
Ralphie finally gets his Christmas wish for a Red Ryder BB Gun when his father surprises him with one last gift. It’s an incredibly touching moment that captures the magic of Christmas morning. Although Ralphie’s father is nowhere near a perfect parent, he comes through in the end.
The Parkers’ Christmas dinner goes awry when the neighbor’s dogs break in and destroy the food.
The family heads to a Chinese restaurant called “Bo Ling Chop Suey Palace.” The sign on the front actually says “Bowling” with a burnt out w. When assistant director Ken Goch was a child, his mother mistakenly took the family to a bowling alley for dinner. Because the “w” was missing from the sign, she thought it was the name of a Chinese restaurant.
The scene was filmed on location in Toronto, and the building still exists. It’s now a French restaurant.
Mrs. Parker (Melinda Dillon) was actually given the wrong script for the scene on purpose. She knew that the waiter would bring out roast duck, but she did not know that the duck would still have its head attached. Her squeal and subsequent laughter was unscripted and a genuine reaction.
Everyone at the restaurant is so kind and accommodating to the Parkers, with the manager even asking the staff to sing carols. Even though the family is apprehensive at first, they seem to enjoy their meal wholeheartedly.
The scene includes insensitive racial stereotypes and tropes, and is often the moment of the film that people point to as an example of it not aging very well. The 2017 A Christmas Story Live changed the scene by including a professional a cappella group called Philharmonic to sing the carols to the Parkers. After their beautiful performance, Ralphie’s father says, “I wasn’t expecting that.” The manager, played by Ken Jeong, asks “what were you expecting?”
The film ends with Mr. and Mrs. Parker sitting quietly by the tree, watching the snow fall while the young boys are asleep clutching their favorite new toys. The peaceful ending completely captures the bittersweet feeling at the end of Christmas.
Reception
The film had an estimated budget of 3.3 million dollars, and it grossed 20.7 million dollars. Its popularity, having grown over the years, has led to its cult status and various sequels and iterations.
Sequels
Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss (1988)
This made-for-TV sequel is about the family’s summer vacation where Ralphie gets a job and they have a family dog that goes missing. It was written by and features the voice of Jean Shepherd but had Dick Bartlett as Director.
My Summer Story (Also may be known as It Runs in the Family) (1994)
This Sequel brought back Bob Clark and Jean Shepherd to work together. Kieran and Christian Culkin play Ralphie and Randy in this combination of Shepherd’s stories.
A Christmas Story 2 (2012)
A Christmas Story 2 was a direct to DVD sequel that brings Ralphie back as a teenager that wants a 1938 Hupmobile Skyline Convertible.
A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
The most recent sequel to the film came out this past November. It’s a sweet nod to the original as well as Jean Shepherd’s stories and books. It is also the only sequel to bring back more than one person from the first movie.
Live version
After the success of a live television production of Grease, Fox decided to give Christmas Story a try. So in 2017 there was a live television event that combined elements of the Broadway show with the movie.
The music was done by the same duo that did Dear Evan Hanson and La La Land.
This version also featured Matthew Broderick as the narrator/adult Ralphie. In 1976, Broderick’s father James also played Ralphie in a PBS film based on Jean Shepherd’s stories.
You’re probably familiar with this movie if you’ve ever tuned into TBS on Christmas
In 1985 Ted Turner purchased MGM and then promptly re-sold it in 1986. When selling it however he kept the rights to more than 2,000 films, including (you guessed it!) A Christmas Story. So in 1991 Turner began playing the film on his various channels and by 1997 it had increased ratings and became popular enough that Turner decided to begin showing it for a full 24-hour marathon! This year marks the 25th year of this marathon.
Fun Facts
Bob Clark once went to a Chinese restaurant in New Hampshire and thought he heard lines from the movie. He looked over the booth and saw a family of four acting out the movie with all the lines. He was told by the waitress that the family came in every year as a tradition and acted out the whole movie. This happened again to him in Santa Monica too!
One of the girls in the scene where Ralphie is beating up the bully grew up and had a baby that ended up being in one of Bob Clark’s Baby Genius movies.
Zack Ward (who plays Scut Farkus) was a big fan of Peter Pan as a kid. Since he had red hair and looked like him he named a puppy that he got Tinkerbell because that’s Peter Pan’s sidekick.
Director Bob Clark has a cameo! He is Swede, the neighbor on the street with the colorful beanie right next to Old Man Parker as they gaze at the lamp in the window.
A Christmas Story was one of the inspirations for The Wonder Years!
There’s a reason that a Christmas Story has endured as long as it has. Audiences are used to the sappy holiday films with seemingly perfect families that face some Christmas issues. But this movie isn’t about a perfect family. The Parkers are dysfunctional in a way that speaks to the average American family. Even though they make mistakes, they’re trying, and the parents find a way to come through for their kids. It drives home the timeless message that Christmas (just like everything) doesn’t have to be perfect to be great.
Sources:
https://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/a-christmas-story-movie-facts/the-leg-lamp/
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