“A Christmas Story” is one of the most beloved holiday films of all time, but it wasn’t immediately a huge phenomenon on its release in November 1983.
It made a modest $19 million at the box office, according to Box Office Mojo, and was out of theaters before December 25.
But after years of repeat showings on cable — including, famously, 24 hours of “A Christmas Story” on TNT and TBS on Christmas Day — it’s become a true holiday staple.
Here are some things you might not know about this film, including who almost made the cast and some blink-and-you-miss-it cameos.
“A Christmas Story” is based on two books written by Jean Shepherd.
Shepherd was a well-known radio personality, comedian, writer, and storyteller by the time “A Christmas Story” was released. The film is based on a set of short stories that were first published in Playboy before he compiled them into the collection “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash” in 1966, per CBS.
Other elements of the film were taken from his 1971 collection “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters.”
Shepherd and his wife, Leigh Brown, who also cowrote the film, have cameos in the movie.
Besides narrating the film, Shepherd also cowrote “A Christmas Story” with his wife, Leigh Brown, and the film’s director, Bob Clark.
Shepherd and Brown appear in the scene where Ralphie and his brother Randy meet Santa at the department store Higbee’s.
Director Bob Clark also has a cameo.
Clark plays one of Ralphie’s neighbors who questions the Old Man about the famous Leg Lamp.
This wasn’t the first holiday film Clark worked on — he directed the Christmas-themed slasher “Black Christmas” in 1974.
Clark got Shepherd barred from the set after he made too many suggestions to the actors.
Vanity Fair reported there was friction between Clark and Shepherd. Shepherd, for his part, was protective of his characters, while Clark was concerned with finishing the project on time and under budget — so he barred Shepherd from the set.
“Shepherd was a perfectionist with his own material, but Bob Clark had a budget and a schedule that he had to meet, and he already figured out how this all should be done, and he couldn’t have Shepherd constantly interrupting,” Shepherd’s biographer Eugene Bergman told the publication.
There have been three sequels across 28 years.
The first theatrical sequel, “My Summer Story,” was released in 1994, and was once again directed by Bob Clark. However, almost no one from the original cast reprised their roles.
Ralphie — originally portrayed by Peter Billingsley — was played by none other than Kieran Culkin, while his parents were played by Charles Grodin and Mary Steenburgen in roles that were originated by Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon.
The only returning actor was Tedde Moore as Ralphie’s teacher.
In 2012, “A Christmas Story 2” was released. It ignored the events of “My Summer Story” and once again starred an entirely new cast.
Ten years later, most of the surviving cast reunited for “A Christmas Story Christmas,” which is a direct sequel to the original, and follows 42-year-old Ralphie as he comes home for Christmas after the death of his father.
“A Christmas Story” inspired the creation of the ’80s classic sitcom “The Wonder Years.”
It’s easy to see the connections — “A Christmas Story” is told mainly from the point of view of 9-year-old Ralphie, who deals with an annoying brother, a somewhat strict mother, and a distant but loving father. It’s also narrated by an older version of Ralphie.
That’s basically the setup of “The Wonder Years,” down to the older version of the main character narrating. It premiered in 1988, five years after “A Christmas Story” was released.
The connection was so strong that Billingsley himself had a cameo in the final two episodes of the show as a friend of main character Kevin (Fred Savage).
Sean Astin and Wil Wheaton were considered for the role of Ralphie.
Astin and Wheaton were two of the biggest child stars of the ’80s.
But in 1983, neither was that well-known. Wheaton’s big break came in 1986’s “Stand By Me” before he was cast in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in 1987.
For his part, Astin starred in the 1985 adventure classic “The Goonies” before appearing in films such as “Toy Soldiers” (also starring Wheaton!) and, most famously, “The Lord of the Rings.”
Wheaton wrote about his experience seeing Astin and Billingsley at auditions on his blog in 2001.
“I sort of knew Peter [Billingsley] because we’d been on so many auditions together, but I was always a little star-struck when I saw him,” he wrote.
The specific BB gun Ralphie so desperately wants never existed in real life.
Throughout the film, all Ralphie wants for Christmas is a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle.
But this gun never actually existed. The Red Ryder model didn’t have the sundial (the “thing that tells time”) or a compass that Ralphie’s ideal gun had, but a different model manufactured by Daisy Outdoor Products did. So, the gun had to be constructed specifically for the film.
In 2020, Daisy finally released an official replica of the “Christmas Story” rifle, aptly titled the Christmas Dream.
Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of the Old Man, aka Ralphie’s dad.
Clark said he “loved” Nicholson, but was glad he didn’t get the part “because Darren [McGavin] is the Old Man,” according to Vanity Fair.
For context, this movie came out the same year as “Terms of Endearment,” and just three years after “The Shining” — it might have been difficult to see Nicholson as a wholesome father figure.
In Ralphie’s dream sequence, Billingsley is chewing real tobacco.
In the beginning of the film, Ralphie has a dream sequence where he saves his family from a gang of outlaws, and you can clearly see he’s got a hunk of what’s supposed to be chewing tobacco in his bottom lip.
You might think that a kid wouldn’t be given real dip, but you’d be wrong. Billingsley told Vanity Fair that a propman on the set gave him some chewing tobacco, and within a few minutes he was profusely sweating and the entire set had to be shut down.
“We shut down for an hour or so, when I just had to lie down on the couch. This was long before they knew what to do with kid actors,” he said.
For the rest of the shoot, the kids were given ground-up raisins.
Ralphie’s hometown Hohman, Indiana, is based on the real Indiana city of Hammond, but the film was mainly shot in Cleveland.
Shepherd’s hometown was Hammond, the only city in Indiana to border Chicago. The film uses a real street in Hammond, Hohman Avenue, as the inspiration for its name.
It was not seen as a classic upon its release.
“A Christmas Story” was originally released on November 18, 1983, a full month before Christmas. It never topped the box office and was out of theaters by the middle of December, which meant people couldn’t even see the movie during the peak of the holiday season.
But the legacy of “A Christmas Story” was just getting started. It became a true cable classic — so much so that TNT and TBS each play the film for 24 hours straight on Christmas Day, and at various other times during December, meaning that millions more people have seen it on TV than ever did at the cinema.
The film was turned into a musical in 2012.
“A Christmas Story: The Musical” had two limited runs on Broadway for the 2012 and 2013 holiday seasons.
Funnily enough, strengthening the connection between “A Christmas Story” and “The Wonder Years,” Dan Lauria — best known as Kevin’s father on “The Wonder Years” — originated the role of Jean Shepherd on Broadway.
You can stay in the Parkers’ home for real.
The house, which is located in Cleveland, has been turned into a museum. It’s been restored to look exactly like it did during the production of the movie and houses authentic props and costumes from the movie.
Super-fans are also able to spend a night in the Parkers’ home.
Of course, there’s also an online gift shop if you want to purchase your own leg lamp.
Jon Favreau cited “A Christmas Story” as an inspiration for “Elf” — Billingsley even has a cameo in it.
Favreau and Billingsley are frequent collaborators. Billingsley has been credited as a producer or executive producer on six movies that Favreau has directed or starred in: “Made,” “Elf,” “Zathura,” “The Break-Up,” “Iron Man,” and “Four Christmases.”
Billingsley’s 2009 directorial debut, “Couples Retreat,” was cowritten by Favreau, who also stars in the film.
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