Trivia

How “A Christmas Story” Came to be….

The movie A Christmas Story is arguably one of America’s favorite holiday films. Over the years, this modest little movie has grown into a Yuletide perennial.

The movie “A Christmas Story” might never have been made had it not been for another, decidedly less reputable comedic creature - “Porky’s.” That’s right. One of the most beloved holiday movies largely owes its existence to an infamous, unabashedly crude teen comedy.

In the late 1960s, “A Christmas Story” director Bob Clark was driving to a date’s house when he happened upon a broadcast of radio personality and writer Jean Shepherd’s recollections of growing up in Indiana in the late ’30s and early ’40s. Clark wound up driving around the block for almost an hour, glued to the radio until the program was over.

“My date was not happy,” Clark said, but he knew right away he wanted to make a movie out of the stories, many of which first appeared in Playboy magazine and were collected in Shepherd’s 1966 book, “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.”

Clark’s adaptation, however, didn’t happen overnight. At the time, he was a journeyman director who specialized in low-budget B movies. For years Clark tried to find a studio to finance the film. But none were interested. Nevertheless, Clark held on to his ambition to bring Shepherd’s stories to the screen, and, in 1981, he directed Porky’s. Which became a hit at the box office. Suddenly he had some clout the bargain with. In the wake of that hit the studio want a sequel to Porky’s. Clark agreed to make a sequel if the studio agreed to let him do “A Christmas Story” first.

The modestly budgeted little comedy opened in 1983 the week before Thanksgiving on fewer than 900 screens. The film took in about $2 million its first weekend and double that Thanksgiving weekend – solid business for the time. The movie was getting strong word-of-mouth support. But, MGM hadn’t counted on the movie receiving much success and did not schedule distribution to more than the opening screens for the lead up to Christmas.

Thus A Christmas Story disappeared from theatres. Abruptly elbowed into the theatrical void by the bigger seasonal studio movies of the day, most notably Scarface and Christine. Ultimately, A Christmas Story collected about $19 million at the box office. It was a good showing, but not great.

At the same time, however, home video and cable television were just beginning to grow in popularity, and A Christmas Story crept into the mainstream through videotape and cable broadcasts. The rights to the movie were sold in 1986 to Warner Bros. by MGM as part of a 50-movie package deal. In fact, MGM practically gave the movie way when it tossed A Christmas Story into the deal in order to simply meet the 50-movie quota agreed to. The cable network TNT first aired its 12 showing, 24-hour marathon as a stunt in 1988, but popular demand turned stunt into tradition. The annual marathon (now aired on TBS) starts every Christmas Eve and attracts more that 40 million people who tune in at some point to watch. A Christmas Story is now one of the most popular holiday movies of all time earning a place along side “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.”

A Christmas Story Trivia Fun Facts

Jean Shepherd’s book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash”, which “A Christmas Story” is based on, is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories that Shepherd wrote for “Playboy” magazine during the 1960s.

The character Scut Farkus, played by Zack Ward, was created specifically for the movie, and never appears in the book. In the book, Grover Dill is the only bully who torments Ralphie.

The setting for the movie was based on Hammond, Indiana the home town of author Jean Sheperd. Sheperd grew up on Cleveland St and went to Warren G. Harding Elementary School. Just like Ralphie.

The movie was actually filmed in Cleveland, Ohio and Toronto, Ontario. The house from the movie is located just outside of downtown Cleveland and the Higbee building still stands in downtown Cleveland. The Christmas tree shopping scene and many of the inside shots of the house, were filmed in Toronto, Ontario. One of Toronto’s trademark red trolleys can be seen driving by the shot of the outside of the tree lot. Ralphie’s school exteriors were filmed at Victoria School in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

To find an American city resembling an Indiana town of the 1940s, director Clark sent his location scouts to twenty cities before selecting Cleveland, Ohio, as the site for filming.

In addition to providing the voice-over narration, writer Jean Shepherd had a cameo appearance in the movie as a grouchy department store customer who tells Ralphie to go to the back of the Santa line.

Director Bob Clark has a brief cameo appearance as Swede, the Parker family’s the dim-witted neighbor with a southern-accent who stops to marvel at the leg lamp from across the street.

The role of Mr. Parker, Ralphie’s father, was originally offered to Jack Nicholson, who reportedly was interested in playing the part. Director Clark, however, lobbied hard for Darren McGavin. The producers, worried about Nicholson’s typically large salary requests, eventually approved McGavin.

Yano Anaya, who played Grover Dill (the toadie), appeared in only two other films but is probably best known as the evil paperboy with the war cry, “Two dollars!” in the 1985 John Cusack comedy, “Better off Dead.”

For the scene in which Flick’s tongue sticks to the flagpole, a hidden suction tube was used to safely create the illusion that his tongue had frozen to the metal.

The “major award” was based on a real lamp: an illuminated Nehi logo.

The Radio Orphan Annie decoder pin that Ralphie receives is the 1940 “Speedomatic” model, indicating that the movie takes place in December, 1940. Different decoder badges were made each year from 1935-1940. By 1941, the decoders were made of paper due to World War II metal shortages.

Some of the “snow” used during the scenes between the kids and the bullies was actually soap flakes. The stars later remarked that they were slipping and sliding during the filming of the scenes.

An elaborate fantasy sequence - in which Ralphie joins Flash Gordon to fight Ming the Merciless - was filmed but dropped from the final cut.

The film was released just before Thanksgiving and became a surprise hit. By the time Christmas rolled around, the movie had already been pulled from most theaters because it had been “played out”. After complaints were lodged at the theater owners and the studio, the film played on select screens until after the first of the year 1984.

“A Christmas Story” Inspired the creation of “The Wonder Year” television show.

Prior to “A Christmas Story,” Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie, gained fame as a correspondent for the variety show “Real People.” He also played Messy Marvin in Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup commercials. Though he now concentrates on producing movies, he did take an uncredited role in the Will Ferrell movie “Elf,” as an assembly line supervisor in Santa’s workshop.

In 2003, more than 38.4 million viewers tuned into the 24-hour A Christmas Story TV marathon

The Sequel – My Summer Story

Ovaltine My Summer Story (1994) is the little know sequel to A Christmas Story. My Summer Story originally titled It Runs in the Family is another collaboration of director Bob Clark and author Jean Sheperd. While the film once again features narration by author Jean Shepherd, the cast is entirely different. The only returning cast member is Ralphie’s teacher Miss Shield (Tedde Moore).

The story takes place soon after the events of A Christmas Story, still revolving around the lives of the Parker family. But summer has arrived, and with school out for vacation, fourth-grader Ralphie (Kieran Culkin) is ready to experience another life-changing season. Throughout the summer, Ralphie prepares himself rigorously to do battle with the class bully, Scut Farkus in a game of tops. Meanwhile, the Old Man (Charles Grodin) declares war on the family’s hillbilly neighbors and introduces Ralphie to fishing, Mom (Mary Steenburgen) falls victim to a theatre manager’s con, and little brother Randy (Christian Culkin) continues his annoying ways.

As with most sequels this one is a far cry from the original brilliance of A Christmas Story. The film has received little praise or notoriety. Jean Shepherd himself admitted - “That one was a real turkey.”

A third, made for television movie about the Parker family is called “Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss.”

“Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine.”

After drink gallons of Ovaltine Ralphie finally receives his long-awaited Orphan Annie Secret Society decoder pin in the mail. After decoding his first message he finds out it’s only a crummy commercial telling him to “Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine.”

Not to ruin the hilarity of the scene for everyone but it wasn’t entirely accurate. Contrary to popular myth, the secret messages at the end of the Orphan Annie radio shows did not promote Ovaltine. Oh, the rest of the show certainly did. There was an Ovaltine commercial before the start of the program, and another one at the end. The virtues of Ovaltine were extolled by announcer Pierre Andre twice in each episode. But Annie’s secret messages, which appeared several times each week, were brief previews of what would happen in tomorrow’s exciting adventure. Orphan Annie was a fifteen minute juvenile serial show based on the comic strip by Harold Gray. Debuting in 1931, it was the first late-afternoon children’s serial.

At times, Pierre Andre would ramble on for up to three minutes about Ovaltine, and the latest gimmick on how to get premiums, Ovaltine-related merchandise. The episode included here is an example of how the show was used to push these and other premiums.

The show may best be remembered for its catchy opening song:

Who’s that little chatter box?
The one with pretty auburn locks?
Whom do you see?
It’s Little Orphan Annie!

She and Sandy make a pair
They never seem to have a care!
Cute little she,
It’s Little Orphan Annie

Bright eyes, cheeks a rosy glow,
There’s a store of healthiness handy.
Mite-size, always on the go,
If you want to know–”Arf,” it’s Sandy!

Always wears a sunny smile,
Now, wouldn’t it be worth the while,
If you could be
Like Little Orphan Annie

1935 pin was the first Orphan Annie decoder was introduced by Ovaltine. It was a small round pin with the year and “Radio Orphan Annie’s SS” and two crossed skeleton keys. The “SS” stood for “Secret Society.”

1936 pin was badge shaped with a secret compartment on the back. The two keys still crossed in the middle and “Radio Orphan Annie SS” was shortened to the initials “ROA SS.”

1937 was a sunburst design with the now-standard year, two keys, and “ROA SS” on it.

1938 model was known as the “Telematic” decoder pin. It featured a larger circular pin with a large star on it. The two keys, year and initials “ROA SS” remained

1939 model was known as the Mysto-Matic decoder pin. It was a plain circular decoder pin with a very large “ROA” in the center. The “SS” was removed, but “Secret Code” added. The two skeleton keys remained.

1940 model was the model feature in “A Christmas Story” This decoder had an eagle, shield and American flag on the front, with 1940, the skeleton keys and “ROA” on the back. Each was individualized with a unique serial number stamped on the back. The numbers and letters appeared on the edge of the wheel, rather than on the front or back.