November 29, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CLEVELAND – November 29, 2014 – A Christmas Story House & Museum is to unveil a memorial bench in honor of “A Christmas Story” director, Bob Clark. Bob Clark’s Cameo Bench will rest in the exact location where the beloved director made his cameo appearance in the holiday film as Old Man Parker’s antagonistic neighbor Swede. In this scene, Mr. Parker is in the street directing his wife while she positions the Leg Lamp in the front window. Swede comes over to tease his neighbor about the Major Award he just won!
Bob Clark had a prolific movie and TV directing career including movies “Black Christmas” (1974), and
the coming of age classic, “Porky’s” (1982). In 1983, he directed “A Christmas Story”, an adaptation of
Jean Shepherd’s childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s. “A Christmas Story” earned the director two
Genie Awards, and in 2012 was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of
Congress for being “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant”.
On April 4, 2007, Bob Clark died along with his son, Ariel, in a head-on crash in Los Angeles, CA after the driver of the other vehicle steered into the wrong lane. That driver was later charged with driving
without a license and driving while intoxicated.
Each year A Christmas Story House & Museum welcomes over 50,000 visitors from all over the world
who together share how much “A Christmas Story” means to them. Friends of Bob Clark and A
Christmas Story House & Musuem would like the memorial bench to be an expression of gratitude to
Bob Clark, and a reminder of all the joy he has brought to so many. To also say thank you for selecting
the unassuming green and gold house on West 11th Street as the filming location for this iconic movie,
an action that forever changed the lives of all involved in the small Cleveland community of Tremont.
The dedication for Bob Clark’s Cameo Bench will be on Saturday, November 29th at 10:00am at the A
Christmas Story House & Museum located at 3159 West 11th Street in Cleveland. Media outlets and the
general public are welcome to come out and witness the unveiling.
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