The decision to film in Cleveland was due to the willingness of Higbee’s (an actual department store) to allow the movie to be filmed inside the store. 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. Ralphie’s school exteriors were filmed at Victoria School in St. One of Toronto’s trademark red trolleys can be seen driving by the shot of the outside of the tree lot. ![]() The Christmas tree shopping scene and many of the inside shots of the house, were filmed in Toronto, Ontario. The house from the movie is located just outside of downtown Cleveland and the Higbee building still stands in downtown Cleveland. The movie was actually filmed in Cleveland, Ohio and Toronto, Ontario. Sheperd grew up on Cleveland St and went to Warren G. The setting for the movie was based on Hammond, Indiana the home town of author Jean Sheperd. ![]() In the book, Grover Dill is the only bully who torments Ralphie. The character Scut Farkus, played by Zack Ward, was created specifically for the movie, and never appears in the book. 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. 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 The annual marathon (now aired on TBS) starts every Christmas Eve and attracts more than 40 million people who tune in at some point to watch. The cable network TNT first aired its 12 showing, 24-hour marathon as a stunt in 1988, but popular demand turned stunt into tradition. In fact, MGM practically gave the movie away when it tossed A Christmas Story into the deal in order to simply meet the 50-movie quota agreed to. by MGM as part of a 50-movie package deal. The rights to the movie were sold in 1986 to Warner Bros. It was a good showing, but not great.Īt 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. Ultimately, A Christmas Story collected about $19 million at the box office. Abruptly elbowed into the theatrical void by the bigger seasonal studio movies of the day, most notably Scarface and Christine. Thus A Christmas Story disappeared from theatres. 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. The movie was getting strong word-of-mouth support. The film took in about $2 million its first weekend and double that Thanksgiving weekend – solid business for the time. The modestly budgeted little comedy opened in 1983 the week before Thanksgiving on fewer than 900 screens. Clark agreed to make a sequel if the studio agreed to let him do “A Christmas Story” first. In the wake of that hit the studio wanted a sequel to Porky’s. Suddenly he had some clout to bargain with. ![]() Nevertheless, Clark held on to his ambition to bring Shepherd’s stories to the screen, and, in 1981, he directed Porky’s. For years Clark tried to find a studio to finance the film. At the time, he was a journeyman director who specialized in low-budget B movies. ![]() “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.”Ĭlark’s adaptation, however, didn’t happen overnight. Clark wound up driving around the block for almost an hour, glued to the radio until the program was over. 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. One of the most beloved holiday movies largely owes its existence to an infamous, unabashedly crude teen comedy. 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. Over the years, this modest little movie has grown into a Yuletide perennial. The movie A Christmas Story is arguably one of America’s favorite holiday films.
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