The Christmas Story Movie & Trains

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To tell you the truth, I've never watched the second disc, but will do so this afternoon since I plan to spend the rest of the day doing virtually nothing. I will report any interesting "discoveries" here.

Did you get around to listening to Jean Shepard's reading of the short stories on which the movie was based?
He had a radio show in the NYC area for years. Many of his short stories were told on a periodic basis, often matched to the season (holiday) in which they took place.
The man could tell a story.

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At least for this relative young'n (I'm 49), this film did it's job and did it exceptionally well.

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I completely agree! I'm nowhere near as young as you, but I can sure well remember events similar to those depicted in the film--truly great memories!

Never had my tongue stuck to a flagpole (and never saw it happen to a friend), but I did have my mouth washed out with soap on one occasion, and I most definitely remember standing on the cold, snow-covered sidewalks of downtown Youngstown and Cleveland gazing into those department store windows at the trains and other toys.

I also remember ordering those various premiums advertised in comic books and in the Sunday newspaper comics (including the latest Lionel catalog), and then anxiously watching the mailbox day after day awaiting their arrival.

My neighbors didn't have a pack of dogs, but one neighbor just up the street had one very nasty terrier of some sort and I can remember trying to outrun that little bugger on many occasions (and sometimes losing).

Chiming in here, a bit late on the discussion, I agree with Allan's comments that the film was designed to evoke memories that any of us might have had when we were kids, growing up, and our own reactions to Christmas preparations. Jean Shepherd grew up in Hammond, IN, I believe, yet the movie was filmed far from there. The outside shots of the Christmas parade and the family and other people looking in the store windows were looking at Higbee's Department Store on Public Square in Cleveland. (Higbee's closed about 15 years ago but the building remains and it is now being remodeled to become a gambling casino and will be renamed the "Horseshoe Casino", maintaining lots of the original charm and class of the old Higbee's)

The house that Ralphie and Randy lived in was also located in Cleveland in the Tremont area and has been restored, on the outside, to exactly the way it looked in the movie. It is now open as a museum and is a very interesting place to visit. In the movie, the inside shots were generally made at a soundstage in Toronto, but the "A Christmas Story" house has been remodeled, inside, to look just as it did in the movie. You can recognize the kitchen sink where Randy hid because "Daddy is going to kill Ralphie". Out the back window is the same shed that Ralphie shot "Black Bart" and the other badmen with his trusty Red Ryder BB gun. And the two twin beds look out over the street, just as when Ralphie and Randy slept in them.

I would recommend a visit to the house on your next trip to Cleveland. Well worth the visit. It's open to the public for a small fee.

Incidentally, the trains in the movie were provided by Don Spiedel, a former TCA National President, and Bill Cus, another Cleveland TCA pal who passed away last year. The movie's director and others in charge were not fussy about historical accuracy. The steam engines and trains are post war and would not have been made when the setting of the movie took place in 1940. The purpose of the movie was to entertain; not be a historical piece on Lionel trains.

Paul Fischer

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Originally posted by fisch330:

Incidentally, the trains in the movie were provided by Don Spiedel, a former TCA National President, and Bill Cus, another Cleveland TCA pal who passed away last year. The movie's director and others in charge were not fussy about historical accuracy. The steam engines and trains are post war and would not have been made when the setting of the movie took place in 1940. The purpose of the movie was to entertain; not be a historical piece on Lionel trains.

Paul Fischer

Exactly. Very nicely put, Paul.

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I also remember ordering those various premiums advertised in comic books and in the Sunday newspaper comics (including the latest Lionel catalog), and then anxiously watching the mailbox day after day awaiting their arrival.

Around 1955-56 I was hooked on a TV program called "Captain Midnight". I believe I sent in for a bunch of stuff including a badge and a Ovaltine mug with his photo on it. For little me to get a real "box" in the mail was something I'll never forget......from Captain Midnight headquarters too boot.



TEX
Steve

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Originally posted by Allan Miller:

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By now I thought one of yinz car experts would have set the date by recognizing Ralphie's family automobile. What year was their car?

Kind of hard to date things by the year the Ralphie family car was made. Years ago, people didn't buy a new car every couple of years or so. They held onto the family wheels for a good number of years and weren't stuck in that latest-and-greatest rut that you see so often followed today and in recent times.

Heck, I'm driving a 12-year-old car now and it has served me just fine--particularly in these nasty and unpredictable Ohio winters. I may go for something new this coming spring, but even that is something of a "maybe."

The car the father drives is a 1939 Oldsmobile

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Originally posted by fisch330:
Incidentally, the trains in the movie were provided by Don Spiedel, a former TCA National President, and Bill Cus, another Cleveland TCA pal who passed away last year. The movie's director and others in charge were not fussy about historical accuracy. The steam engines and trains are post war and would not have been made when the setting of the movie took place in 1940. The purpose of the movie was to entertain; not be a historical piece on Lionel trains.

Paul Fischer

Paul,

Don't forget Ted Nyerges, without whose interaction with the movie folks, we wouldn't have had this opportunity. I finally have some pix to add of the inside layout, the one I previously mentioned that was not used in the movie.

Regards,

Lou N

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I'll try again.........

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We picked up the Blu-ray Widescreen copy this year, not a lot of extras but I prefer seeing movies in the right shape with nothing cut-off the sides. One of the extras notes that the real "Red Ryder" rifle didn't have the sundial,etc., but the reissue they did after the movie hit cult status does. Whatever era it is, it's still fun to watch.

At last, now you can see the inside layout. We were right across from Santa.

Lou N

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Originally posted by artyoung:
We picked up the Blu-ray Widescreen

how is the quality of the Blu-Ray transfer?

Steve: Excellent transfer, worth the extra $$.

Cool, thanks. You have to be careful with Blu-Ray transfers of older films -- sometimes they just slap the best copy of the film that they have available onto it and call it a day instead of doing a proper transfer.

I know, there's been screw-ups with some big films such as "West Side Story". I try to check sites for reviews (digitalbits and hometheatre as well as Amazon) before I buy.

According to the director, there were a number of filmed scenes that did not make it into the final film and ended up on the cutting room floor do to time restraints, budget, and other factors.

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Originally posted by Allan Miller:
According to the director, there were a number of filmed scenes that did not make it into the final film and ended up on the cutting room floor do to time restraints, budget, and other factors.

I'll assume you saw the pix of the inside layout a few messages back. They did film it; I always thought it would end up on the "features" DVD but, sadly, it never did.

Lou N

I love everything about the movie, even the part where everyone goes out to eat at a Chinese restaurant because the at home meal was eaten by the Bumpus dogs. I was able to convince my wife to have chinese food for Christmas this time and we loved it. I think that will be our new Christmas tradition from now on.

By the way "Flick lives"

Lou,

Thank you very much for posting those pics. I love the shot of Darren sitting in front of the layout. Also, the shot of Jean looking atthe trains is excellent.

Thanks again!

Lou: Good photos there particularly of Bill and Don. I will see Don on Monday and talk about the photos. He once told me that they had an inside the store, layout, much like the old days when trains were a really big thing at Christmas and a big source of seasonal income during the Holidays. Sure wish Bill was still around that I could needle him about his "movie star" status. Any chance of getting copies of those photos? And their locomotive engineer's uniforms are priceless!

I also heard that the movie was considered a "flop" when it first came out. It had been produced on a limited budget but didn't start making money until some years after it's first release. Now, I'm sure the residuals are making a lot of people pretty wealthy.

Paul Fischer

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Originally posted by Amfleet25124:

According to IMDB “The film is set in 1941, according to the reference made by Mrs. Parker to Mr. Parker about an upcoming game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. These two teams met in a playoff game on December 14, 1941, a Sunday.

Given that Pearl Harbor was Dec 7th 1941, did that game happen or was it postponed or played but subdued due to the 911 equivalent at that moment?

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Originally posted by rrman:

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Originally posted by Amfleet25124:

According to IMDB “The film is set in 1941, according to the reference made by Mrs. Parker to Mr. Parker about an upcoming game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. These two teams met in a playoff game on December 14, 1941, a Sunday.

Given that Pearl Harbor was Dec 7th 1941, did that game happen or was it postponed or played but subdued due to the 911 equivalent at that moment?

They played. The Bears defeated the Packers 33-14.


Sun-Times

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Originally posted by EscapeRocks:
Lou,

Thank you very much for posting those pics. I love the shot of Darren sitting in front of the layout. Also, the shot of Jean looking atthe trains is excellent.

Thanks again!

You are quite welcome. Note the age disparity of the trains; prewar and postwar. It will be a topic for discussion for years.

Lou

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Originally posted by fisch330:
Lou: Good photos there particularly of Bill and Don. I will see Don on Monday and talk about the photos. He once told me that they had an inside the store, layout, much like the old days when trains were a really big thing at Christmas and a big source of seasonal income during the Holidays. Sure wish Bill was still around that I could needle him about his "movie star" status. Any chance of getting copies of those photos? And their locomotive engineer's uniforms are priceless!

Paul Fischer

Hi Paul,

There are more photos than the ones shown here. We can catch up at the TCA meet on the 21st.


Lou

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Note the age disparity of the trains; prewar and postwar. It will be a topic for discussion for years.

Only among those who have an interest in irrelevant minutia. It's a film about a general period of time and human experiences that many can relate to; not one made to document a specific place, time, or event. And the trains are such minor players in the film that they really are quite insignificant.

Yep, that's right, Allan. It's about a general period of time, of which were
my young years. Almost everything in that movie is relevant for me. Even in our small town (3000) one or two stores had Lionel Trains in the windows. Every boy I knew had either the Red Rider lever action or the Daisy pump gun!
And the coal furnace event brought back many memories. My father was ever bit
as good as Darren reading the riot act to our coal burner. I can remember he would go to the basement when it got cold in our home. There was loud shaking of the grates of the old coal burner, an some shoveling. He would call my mother to "open up the damper" with a gadget that was very like the one in the movie.Then upstairs we were treated to the barrage of foul language, and some nasty green gas. When it all went away, the house became warm again!
So much in the movie touches on what life was like, in particular for me, having been born in 1935 and living in that exact same era.
I wonder how many of you old guys can remember sending in your money for the latest Lionel Catalog, and waiting, waiting almost forever for it to arrive!
Almost as bad as Ralphie waiting for his decoder ring.

As Allan has said, the movie is about an era, not a specific time. And as such, as he has also said, there much familiar to a lot of us, especially us old geezers!

Ed Mullan

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I wonder how many of you old guys can remember sending in your money for the latest Lionel Catalog, and waiting, waiting almost forever for it to arrive!

Ah, yes, a ritual practiced over several or more years! Waiting for the mailman to arrive back then was like waiting for the UPS guy today.

And we had one of those problematic coal furnaces, as well. Eventually had it converted to gas, which certainly made things easier, cleaner, and more comfortable.

In the second photo below, look at the Madison Cars in the top row in the photo of the display.
Was Williams (or?) making those at the time of the filming or are those some super rare one of a kind Lionel samples?

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Originally posted by Lou N:
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Obviously we can not exactly lock in the date for this movie.
The decoder ring: 1940
The Ovaltine commercial: 1940
The Hut Sut Song: 1941
The Packers / Bears game: 1941
The trains: 1930's thru 1950's or later.

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Originally posted by jms2222:

Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of Mr. Parker - "The Old Man".

I am so glad that did not happen.

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Originally posted by jms2222:
... The theme song used on his long-running radio show was "The Bahn Frei Polka" by Edouard Strauss.

Wouldn't you know it's train related!

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Originally posted by Savage:

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Originally posted by jms2222:

Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of Mr. Parker - "The Old Man".

I am so glad that did not happen.

agreed. Jack is a good actor just not for that role.Darrin McGavin was born for that movie.