Normally by this time, I’m wrapping up my deep dive into my “Have A Strange Christmas” series in which I highlight strange Christmas records. I gave the series a rest this year. This month, I highlight a couple of holiday trips I embarked on a couple of weeks ago.
Hot In Cleveland
For the last several Decembers, I’ve tried to organize a visit to The House from A Christmas Story in Cleveland, OH. The house was used for some interior and exterior shots in the movie. But little things always seemed to get in the way, like getting laid off and having to sell my home. This year, I was determined to make the trip happen, even if just to get away for a couple of days for a change of scenery and get myself in the Christmas spirit.
Show Some Leg
The house from the 1983 movie A Christmas Story was purchased by super fan Brian Jones in 2004 on eBay of all places. Jones used the profits from his leg lamp company for the down payment. I never realized leg lamps were big business. A 50” tall leg lamp like the one used in the movie will set you back $300, and that’s the sale price. That’s a lot of leg. Jones dropped an additional 6 figures to totally renovate the house to match the movie set. After the work was completed, he opened the house to public tours and rented the top floor for short stays. Jones also bought three other nearby properties and converted them into a museum, a gift shop, and rental suites in the Bumpus house next door.
What’s In A Name?
Two years ago, all of the properties were listed for sale, though the sale price was kept private. Long-time employee and CEO Joshua Dickerson took an equity stake in the company and became a Managing Partner, thus taking the properties off the market. Last year, Dickerson changed the popular tourist attraction’s name from “The Christmas Story House” to “The House from A Christmas Story”. It doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well but it avoids licensing issues.
The House from a Christmas Story almost wasn’t. During my tour, our guide recounted an interesting story. Director Bob Clark discovered the house by accident after getting lost, but decided this had to be the house for the movie. The home’s owner, however, wanted absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood and refused to cooperate. He quickly changed his mind when he was presented with a check for $20,000 to rent his house for a few weeks.
There were some things I had to do during my tour. One was to sit underneath the kitchen sink just like Ralphie’s brother, Randy, did. Needless to say, he fit much better than I did.
Another must for me was to get a pic next to the soft glowing “electric sex” leg lamp in the front window.
Since I was there specifically to write this article for my blog, I was given the very rare opportunity to sit in the firetruck garaged across the street next to the family car. Neither the truck, nor the car, are the same vehicles used in the film (the original firetruck resides in Canada), but I was still thrilled to sit behind the wheel. I’m grateful to Aryanna, The House from A Christmas Story’s General Manager, for arranging this for me.
As great as the house tour was, the museum was equally fascinating with many original costumes and props, including one of the original Red Ryder BB guns used in the movie. This is one of six. Several went unaccounted for after the movie was completed.
You’ll remember poor Randy was unable to put his arms down because his mother had wrapped him in so many layers. In reality, they stuffed foam under his coat.
If you’re ever in Cleveland, be it in December or any time, A House from A Christmas Story should be at the top of your to-do list. Ho, Ho, Ho.
Castle Noel
The day prior to my tour, I made my way to Castle Noel, billed as “America’s largest year-round indoor Christmas entertainment attraction”. That’s a long-winded way of saying it’s a museum of vintage Christmas props…costumes from Jim Carey’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, vintage window displays from Sax 5th Avenue and other New York department stores, the original Santa costume from Miracle on 34th Street, Will Ferrell’s Elf costume, and much, much more. The highlight was the opportunity to slide down the same red slide (“Santa Klaus Mountain”) that Ralphie slid down in HigBee’s Department Store in A Christmas Story.
To rewind a bit, the very first thing I saw on the Castle Noel tour, which I never expected, was the original Cousin Eddie 1973 Condor II RV used in the Christmas Vacation movie. The “rust” you see is painted on and looks very realistic. A little Hollywood magic. After Castle Noel purchased the RV, they actually drove it from California to its current location in Ohio.
On a personal note, if you ever need to contact Castle Noel as I did prior to my visit, don’t waste your time with their website contact form or email. They never responded to any of my messages. Why companies invite you to contact them and then ignore you is beyond me.
I took some time to visit a few other places…
The HigBee Department Store building in Cleveland opened in 1860 and is still standing, but it’s now a casino.
Before I left for the airport, I made a quick stop at b.a. Sweetie Candy Company. It’s the largest candy “store” in the USA. In addition to the usual suspects, there was a lot of candy and snacks I wasn’t familiar with, including many unusual flavors of popcorn such as Dill Pickle and Beer Cheddar.
The award for the weirdest candy I saw there goes to the coated creepy crawlies like chocolate covered crickets, larva, and scorpions inside lollipops. Yum.
A couple of weeks before I made my trip, an enterprising local OH brewery released a limited-edition winter warmer beer named after the bully character in A Christmas Story, Scut Farkus (played by Zack Ward). Described as “a robust nut-brown ale with loads of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg”, I just had to sample this special libation in honor of the movie even though I consider myself a non-drinker. I posted a video on my YouTube channel capturing my priceless reaction after taking a a few sips (link at the end).
Christmas Vacation
The other equally cool trip I took last month was much closer to home…3 ½ hours northeast in Jacksonville, FL. The event was a screening of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in celebration of the classic film’s 35th Anniversary. Besides getting to see it on a big screen in a movie theater, none other than Clark W. Griswold himself went on stage after the movie to answer questions from the audience and conduct a meet and greet for a limited number of lucky fans.
Before I cover the main event, I want to mention a few interesting things I encountered along my journey. Being a former radio broadcaster, I was surprised to come across a section of road dedicated to the late conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Early on in my radio career, I often ran the console when the AM station I worked for aired Rush’s national radio show. I even have an autographed photo of him that one of my co-workers got for me. He was controversial to say the least, and I disagreed with much of what he said, but he was smart, funny, and he articulated his arguments very well. If you wanted to educate yourself on what the other side was thinking, he was one of the best to learn from. Limbaugh died in February of 2021 from lung cancer.
Upon arrival in Jacksonville, one sight I definitely had to visit was a large 3D painted mural of the Beastie Boys. It wasn’t easy to get to because everything around it was being torn up and pedestrians weren’t allowed for safety reasons. Taking my life into my own hands, I carefully navigated my way around the dirt and debris. The mural was fenced off so I did the best I could to get off a decent picture without calling attention to myself and getting tossed out.
The expansive, hand-painted mural was completed in March of 2018 on National 3D Day (yes, there is such a thing) and was certified by Guinness World Records as the largest 3D painted mural, measuring 1,900 square feet. It’s situated in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Jacksonville, FL. Perhaps that’s why the artist, Jason Tetlak, titled it after one of the group’s songs, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have a set of 3D glasses handy to see it as it was intended.
Being the all-things vintage geek that I am, the other must see on my list was the Maxwell House “Good to the last drop” sign at the Maxwell House factory building in downtown Jacksonville. I couldn’t get a shot of it at night when it’s most impressive, so a daylight shot had to suffice. The 100-year-old, 390,000 square foot factory sits on private property and there were numerous security vehicles around, but I managed to capture the above image. I also got a generous whiff of delicious smelling roasted coffee that surrounded the building.
The 95-foot Maxwell House sign dates back to 1955 and has the distinction of being the last Maxwell House sign like it in the country. It was scheduled to be upgraded from neon to LED but I don’t know for certain if that was ever done.
After a quick meal (very quick), I departed my lovely 2-star motel and headed on over to the beautiful, historic Florida theater. The theater opened back in 1927 and features grand staircases, marble, ironwork, and tiling. They don’t make them like they used to.
I’ve seen the Christmas Vacation film many times on television, but experiencing it in a theater with almost 2,000 other movie goers was a real treat. When the movie ended, out came Chevy Chase, followed by his wife, Jayni Luke, and the moderator, to a standing ovation.
Chase turned 81 two months ago and it showed. During the Q&A, his wife (they’ve been married over 40 years) had to remind him of things and fill-in some details, but she did so very lovingly. She also explained that the night before, Chase had fallen and hit his eye on the arm of their sofa. They had been in the Emergency Room until 2am that morning and his eye had only recently opened up. Despite this, he was in great spirits, recounting some funny stories over the course of his television and movie career while answering questions from the audience that were submitted in advance.
The highlight of the Q&A for me was at the very end when the host asked Chase to recite the angry rant from Christmas Vacation where his character, Clark Griswold, called his boss about 25 consecutive nasty names. Chase revealed that he was the one who wrote the tirade, and that the rest of the cast were holding signs each containing a couple of words from the rant. Of course, you don’t see that part in the film. This allowed the rant to be filmed in one take because he said there was no way he could’ve memorize all of the words. On stage he read the rant from a slip of paper and when he finished, the audience erupted in loud applause and cheers.
I was one of the fortunate few who got to meet Chase backstage and get a photo with him. The meeting only lasted a few seconds, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I’ll never forget. You can see his black eye in the photo. The napkin under his hand is because he was coughing a lot. I went to the effort of trying to dress like Clark Griswold right down to the identical tie. I thanked Chevy for staying late to meet with some of his fans when I’m sure he would’ve preferred being in bed resting from his fall only 24 hours earlier.
This is probably the most exciting Christmas I’ve had since I first sat on Santa’s lap. I don’t get out much. I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures.
By the way, in case you missed it, last year for this blog I wrote an extensively researched history of the Christmas Vacation movie soundtrack and its highly questionable authenticity, link at the end.
Trivia (from cinemablend.com): “While in school at Bard College, Chase was classmates with Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. The three of them often picked up gigs together and formed a short-lived band called The Leather Canary. Fagan and Becker would go on to form the legendary Steely Dan, albeit without Chase.”
Trivia (from cinemablend.com): “Chase’s family in American goes as far back as the Mayflower. John Howland and William Brewster are both ancestors of his and both arrived at Plymouth Rock with the rest of the Mayflower passengers in 1620.”
Trivia: Chevy Chase was born Cornelius Crane Chase. His grandmother nicknamed him Chevy.
Christmas Vacation Soundtrack article
A House from A Christmas Story, Castle Noel, and b.a. Sweetie’s didn’t subsidize any portion of my trip. I was responsible for all expenses. If you enjoyed this article, please consider making a contribution to BuyMeACoffee or PayPal to help support my blog and vlog.