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For the Christian Christmas story, see Nativity of Jesus

A Christmas Story is a 1983 film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. It was directed by Bob Clark.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The film relates the tale of Ralphie Parker (played by Peter Billingsley), who wants a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas (specifically, "an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and 'this thing', which tells time") and will go to any lengths to get it despite the numerous adult admonitions of "you'll shoot your eye out." Over the course of the film, Ralphie hides a Red Ryder advertisement in his mother's magazine, fibs about the spotting of a dangerous animal in the neighborhood, blurts his desire outright, writes a theme on the subject, and asks an impatient Santa just as the department store closes.

Subplots include the Old Man (Darren McGavin) winning a "major award": a lamp shaped like a woman's leg wearing fishnet stockings (much to his wife's displeasure); Ralphie getting his Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin; and Ralphie dealing with the neighborhood bully, Scut Farkus, played by Zack Ward. There are also numerous vignettes, including the Old Man's battle with the furnace, Ralphie not saying "fudge" in a moment of stress, and disaster with the Christmas dinner, courtesy of the Bumpuses' dogs. One memorable scene involves a dispute over whether or not a person's tongue immediately sticks to a pole covered with ice. When Flick responds to the "triple dog dare" and sticks out his tongue, he is proven wrong, and begins to scream in terror. Several fantasy sequences depict Ralphie's daydreams of glory and vindication, including the vanquishing of prison-striped villains, an extremely good grade for his written theme about the BB gun, and parental remorse over a case of "soap poisoning".

Major credits

The movie was written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark. Shepherd provides the movie's narration from the perspective of an adult Ralphie, a narrative style later used in the dramedy The Wonder Years. Shepherd also has a cameo appearance in the department store scene, as the man who directs Ralphie and Randy to the end of the line. Director Clark has a cameo as Swede, the neighbor who questions the Old Man about the Leg Lamp.

Cast

• Melinda Dillon as Mrs. Parker - Ralphie's mom is the primary dispenser of the oft-repeated phrase, "You'll shoot your eye out"
• Darren McGavin as The Old Man (Mr. Parker) - Ralphie's dad is at the center of the Major Award vignette, and is depicted using colorful nonsense invective
• Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker - the film's protagonist, an imaginative dreamer
• Ian Petrella as Randy Parker - Ralphie's little brother, who won't eat his meat loaf
• Scott Schwartz as Flick - Ralphie's friend, who learns about tongues and cold metal the hard way
• R.D. Robb as Schwartz - Ralphie's other friend, on whom Ralphie pins the blame for him knowing "the f-dash-dash-dash word"
• Tedde Moore as Miss Shields - Ralphie's fourth grade teacher, who appears in two fantasy sequences, calls the fire department to help Flick, and is the only on-screen character played by the same actor in the sequel, My Summer Story
• Yano Anaya as Grover Dill - Scut's toady, who is promoted to main bully in My Summer Story
• Zack Ward as Scut Farkus - the neighborhood bully, who torments Ralphie and his friends en route to and from school
• Jeff Gillen as Santa Claus - the rather frightening department store incarnation of "the Head Honcho", who delivers the last blow to Ralphie's hope for a BB gun
• Jean Shepherd as adult Ralphie - the narrator

In the DVD commentary, director Bob Clark mentions that Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of the Old Man; Clark expresses gratitude that he ended up with Darren McGavin instead, who also appeared in several other Clark films. He cast Melinda Dillon on the basis of her similar role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Peter Billingsley was already a minor star from co-hosting the TV series Real People; Clark initially wanted him for the role of Ralphie, but decided he was "too obvious" a choice and auditioned many other young actors before realizing that Billingley was the right one after all. Ian Petrella was cast immediately before filming began. Tedde Moore had previously appeared in Clark's film Murder by Decree, and Jeff Gillen was an old friend of Clark's who had been in one of his earliest films.

History and related works

Three of the semi-autobiographical short stories on which the film is based were originally published by Playboy magazine in 1964 – 1966. Shepherd later read "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails the Cleveland Street Kid" and told the otherwise unpublished story "Flick's Tongue" on his WOR Radio talk show, as can be heard in one of the DVD extras. Bob Clark states on the DVD commentary that he became interested in Shepherd's work when he heard "Flick's Tongue" on the radio in 1968. Additional source material for the film, according to Clark, came from unpublished anecdotes Shepherd told live audiences "on the college circuit."

Initially overlooked as a sleeper film, A Christmas Story was released a week before Thanksgiving to moderate success. By Christmas, however, the movie was no longer playing at most venues, but remained in about a hundred theaters until January 1984. In the years since, A Christmas Story has become widely popular and is now a perennial Christmas special. Originally released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Time Warner (through Turner Entertainment Co.) now has ownership of the film due to Ted Turner's purchase of MGM's pre-1985 library and Time Warner's subsequent purchase of Turner Entertainment. However, it should be noted that producer-director Bob Clark is said to still hold 20% of the film's rights. Turner Network Television owns the broadcast rights, and airs it 12 consecutive times over a 24-hour period every Christmas Eve. When TNT switched to a predominantly drama format, sister network TBS took over the marathon beginning in 2004. Clark has stated that one year, an estimated 38.4 million people tuned into the marathon at one point or another.

A movie sequel involving Ralphie and his family, called My Summer Story (alternate title It Runs in the Family) was made in 1994, featuring an almost entirely different cast. A series of television movies involving the Parker family, also from Shepherd stories, was made by PBS, including Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss, The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters, and The Phantom of the Open Hearth.

In the year 2000, an authorized stage play adaptation of A Christmas Story was written by Philip Grecian and is produced widely each Christmas season. In 2003, Broadway Books published the five Jean Shepherd short stories from which the movie and stage play were adapted in a single volume under the title A Christmas Story (ISBN 0-7679-1622-0), with stories including: "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails the Cleveland Street Kid", "The Counterfeit Secret Circle Member Gets the Message, or The Asp Strikes Again", "My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award that Heralded the Birth of Pop Art", "Grover Dill and the Tasmanian Devil", and "The Grandstand Passion Play of Delbert and the Bumpus Hounds". This collection was also released as an audio book (ISBN 0-7393-1674-5), read by Dick Cavett.

Settings

The movie was is set in fictional Hohman, Indiana, based on Hammond, Indiana, where writer Jean Shepherd grew up. Local references in the film include Goldblatt's department store, Warren G. Harding Elementary School, Cleveland Street (where Shepherd spent his childhood years), and a mention of nearby Griffith, Indiana.

The school scenes were shot at the Victoria School in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The school was sold to developers in 2005 and has been remodeled into a women's shelter. The Christmas tree purchasing scene was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, as it was the only location that still used red PCC streetcars - in fact, TTC streetcars can be seen during the scene. Ralphie beating up the neighbourhood bully was also filmed in Toronto, as was the soundstage filming of interior shots of the Parker home. The St. Catharine's Museum owns some props used in the film, including two pairs of Ralphie's glasses (one of which is the smashed pair), and two scripts.

Director Bob Clark reportedly sent location scouts to twenty cities before selecting Cleveland, Ohio, as the principal site for filming. Higbee's department store in downtown Cleveland was the stage for three scenes in A Christmas Story. The first is the opening scene in which Ralphie first spies the Red Ryder BB Gun. The second is the parade scene, filmed just outside Higbee’s, on Public Square, at 3 AM. The final scene is Ralphie and Randy’s visit to see Santa which was filmed inside Higbee’s. Higbee’s kept the Santa slide that was made for the movie and used it for several years after the movie’s release. Higbee's was known for decades as a cornerstone of Public Square, as well as for its elaborate child-centered Christmas themes and decorations (e.g. the Twigbee Shop ), with Santa as the centerpiece, until the store, which became Dillard's in 1992, closed for good in 2002. Higbee's was exclusive to Northeast Ohio -- there were no Higbee's stores in Shepherd's hometown.

The exterior shots of the house and neighborhood where Ralphie lived were filmed in the Tremont section of Cleveland's West Side. The "...but I didn't say fudge" scene was filmed just down the street from the house. In 2006, Brian Jones, an entrepreneur from the San Diego area, bought the house on eBay for $150,000, spending another $240,000 to renovate the interior, exterior and back yard of the house to look like it did in the movie. Jones used revenue from his business, The Red Rider Leg Lamp Company, which manufactures replicas of the 'major award' Ralphie's father won in the film. The house opened to the public as a museum on November 25, 2006, with original cast members attending the grand opening. A Christmas Story House (its official name) contains some of the props from the movie, including Randy's snow suit and the leg lamp.

Dating the story

Based on references to popular culture in the film, the story takes place no earlier than 1939, when the MGM film The Wizard of Oz came out, and no later than 1942, the last year of the Little Orphan Annie radio broadcasts. The World War II time frame is consistent with the presence of shoppers in military uniforms peering into the display window, which contained a toy tank. The most likely year is 1940, because Ralphie's new Radio Orphan Annie decoder pin is the 1940 model. This dating is slightly later than author Jean Shepherd's own childhood (he was 19 years old in 1940) but earlier than that of director Bob Clark (who was born in 1941). The Red Ryder BB gun was available during this period and for many years afterward, but never in the exact configuration mentioned in the film.

Despite the many props and other references to this era, however, one can find the occasional anachronism, such as Scut Farkus (and the Old Man in a fantasy sequence) wearing a coonskin cap, a piece of apparel more evocative of the 1950s. Also, the police car that responds to the stuck tongue is a 1947 Chevrolet (which can be seen through the classroom window). Such fuzziness of dating may be seen as a way to generalize the nostalgia for Ralphie's childhood as applying to other time periods as well. As Clark states in the commentary: "I set it in my mind as basically close to World War II. 1940 is my idea of when it is. That's when the cars are set for.... It's amorphously later Thirties, early Forties."

Music

The mock heroic tone of the narration, filled with such hyperbole as "the legendary battle of the lamp", is matched by the extensive use of familiar classical music themes. For example, when the character Scut Farkas appears, the Wolf's theme from Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf plays in the background. (The name "Farkas" is derived from the Hungarian word for "wolf.") The piece that plays after Ralphie says "fudge", and after the lamp breaks for the second time, is the opening of Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe is featured prominently in the movie. Movement 3- On The Trail provides a suitable Western feeling to a Red Ryder rifle fantasy sequence, and bits of Movement 1 and Movement 4 were also freely arranged and adapted throughout the score. The music in the dream sequence with Ralphie in a cowboy outfit shooting at bandits and later when he finally plays with his BB gun outside of the house is based on the main theme from the classic John Ford western Stagecoach (1939).

Popular music of the time was also used, ostensibly as coming from the radio. This included three Christmas songs sung by Bing Crosby, two of them in conjunction with the Andrews Sisters.

Original music for the film's score was by Carl Zittrer, who worked with director Bob Clark on at least ten films between 1972 and 1998; and by Paul Zaza, who has worked with Clark on at least sixteen films, including Murder by Decree (1979) and My Summer Story (1994).

Vehicles

Cleveland car buffs donated a number of vintage vehicles for use in the film, which helped to enhance the authenticity of the production despite a limited budget. During filming in downtown Cleveland, members of a local antique automobile club, following a preset route, repeatedly circled the square. At the end of filming each day, the cars were washed under pressure to remove road salt, and parked underground beneath the Terminal Tower.

The Parkers' car was a Model 6, four-door Oldsmobile sedan from 1937.

Parodies

• The Starz cable network has an animated online parody of the film entitled "A Christmas Story in 30 Seconds (and Re-enacted by Bunnies)", produced in 2005 by Jennifer Shiman.

• For the 2006 Christmas season, Cingular Wireless commissioned a television commercial that featured a condensed version of the film's story where the lead character has a similar obsession with getting his first cell phone. The repeated admonition is "You'll run the bill up!" (the commercial is for a prepaid service).

References

1. ^ Bob Clark and Peter Billingsley (2003). Audio Commentary: A Christmas Story (DVD special feature). MGM.
2. Shepherd, Jean (2003). A Christmas Story. New York: Broadway Books. pp. indicia. ISBN 0-7679-1622-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
3. Warner Home Video (2003). Radio Readings by Jean Shepherd (DVD extra). Warner Video.
4. "Famous Hammond Personalities: Jean Shepherd". HammondIndiana.com. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
5. "A Christmas Story". Movie Rewind. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
6. "Higbees". Retrieved 2006-11-26.
7. "Handle With Care". Cleveland Magazine. 36. Great Lakes Publishing: 128–196. November 2006.
8. "LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE". Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
9. Olsen, John. "A short history of Radio's Orphan Annie and her Decoder Badges". First Generation Radio Archives. First Generation Radio Archives. Retrieved 2006-11-26. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
10. Warner Home Video (2003). Daisy Red Ryder: A History (DVD extra). Warner Video.
11. Shiman, Jennifer (2005). "A Christmas Story in 30 Seconds (and Re-enacted by Bunnies)" (Macromedia Flash). A Christmas Story Parody in Bun-O-Vision. Starz on Demand. Retrieved 2006-12-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• A Christmas Story at IMDb
• A Christmas Story House
• ilostmyeye.com - The official Jean Shepherd Festival in Hammond, IN, and his Preservation Society
• Article about the Red Rider Leg Lamp company

• My Summer Story at IMDb
• Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss at IMDb
• The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters at IMDb
• The Phantom of the Open Hearth at IMDb

• 1983 films
• Comedy films
• Christmas films
• MGM films
• Cult films
• Films shot in Toronto