A Christmas Story House is a museum in Cleveland, Ohio's Tremont neighborhood. The 19th-century Victorian, which was used in the exterior scenes of Ralphie Parker's house in the 1983 film <i>A Christmas Story, was purchased by a private developer in 2004 and has been restored and renovated to appear as it did both inside and outside in the film. The museum is part of a complex of three buildings devoted to the film, and is open to the public year-round.
History
Production
The screenplay for A Christmas Story is based on material from author Jean Shepherd's collection of short stories, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. The house, as it is portrayed in the film, is located in Hohman, Indiana, the fictional town modeled after Shepherd's native Hammond, Indiana. For the film adaptation of these stories, director Bob Clark reportedly sent scouts to twenty cities before selecting Cleveland for exterior filming. Cleveland was chosen because of Higbee's Department Store, which ultimately was featured in three scenes in the film. Appropriately, the fictional boyhood home of Ralphie Parker is on Cleveland Street, the name of the actual street where Shepherd grew up. In addition to the house exteriors, Cleveland was the location used for the scenes involving Higbee's department store, despite the fact that there were no Higbee's stores in Shepherd's hometown. The exterior shots of the house and neighborhood where Ralphie lives were filmed in the Tremont section of Cleveland's West Side.
Restoration and reconfiguration
In December 2004, Brian Jones, a San Diego entrepreneur and fan of the film since childhood, bought the house on eBay for $150,000. Jones used revenue from his business, the Red Rider Leg Lamp Company, which manufactures replicas of the "major award" Ralphie's father won in the film, for the down payment. The previous owners had reconfigured the house, installing modern windows and covering the original wood siding with blue vinyl. Watching the movie frame by frame, Jones drew detailed plans of the interiors, which had originally been filmed on a Toronto sound stage, and spent $240,000 to gut the structure, reconfigure it to a single-family dwelling, transform it into a near-replica of the movie set, and restore the exterior to its appearance in the film.
A Christmas Story House Museum
Jones also purchased the house across the street from the Christmas Story House and converted it into A Christmas Story House Museum, which contains some of the props from the movie, including Randy's snow suit, the Higbee's window toys, and hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos. In addition, the house to the left of the museum features a gift shop with movie memorabilia.
The house and museum opened to the public on November 25, 2006, with original cast members attending the grand opening, and the site drew 4,300 visitors during its opening weekend.
References
External links
- Official website
- Red Rider Leg Lamps
- A Christmas Story House Photo Gallery
- A Christmas Story on IMDb
