Posted on 12/22/2017 10:40:49 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
By the early 1980s, Shep’s radio show was over. This movie idea was his last chance to avoid the poorhouse. Shep, Leigh and Clark collaborated on the screenplay, and she helped keep Shep off Clark’s set. Shep, who considered himself a co-director, was constantly “helping the actors” and haranguing visitors, most of whom had never heard of him. Shep was no longer a has-been. Like “the Old Man” he had finally won his own “major award.” And no one could steal this idea. Shep’s late-in-life success had been created out of the magical world of his own childhood, one he had explored and shared with enthralled audiences all his career. For the few years they had left, Shep and Leigh had enough money to retire on Florida’s Sanibel Island. “A Christmas Story” is now the most beloved Christmas film in America, just as Leigh had hoped and Shep had never dreamed.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Mother: All right. Now, are you ready to tell me where you heard that word?
Ralphie as Adult: [narrating] Now, I had heard that word at least ten times a day from my old man. He worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master. But, I chickened out and said the first name that came to mind.
Ralphie: Schwartz!
I like in that scene when ralphies mom asks the other mom where she thinks ralphies heard the f word and the other mom answers “from his father?”
What a wonderful story!!
Merry Christmas!
[Sans Paywall]
Thank you. I love this movie and am always interested in the behind-the-scenes stories about it.
yep that wa pretty funny too- great great movie- still laugh whenever i see it-
I used to enjoy Shepherd's radio program when I'd get a chance to listen - freewheeling and whimsical - I first heard the smashing Polka and Fugue from Schwanda when Shepherd played it when it was first released by Fritz Reiner - "that was great" Shepherd said when it had finished - "let me hear the ending again", at which point the engineer repositioned the needle to play again the sweeping conclusion - surely not what they teach in DJ school....
Amen to that!
Out of curiosity, I watched the recently-televised A Christmas Story Live! on FOX. It was *horrible*. Completely sanitized and very PC.
It was adapted from the Broadway musical, I guess, and performed live on TV. They took great pains to cast most of the actors to look like the ones in the movie... yet pale, blue-eyed blonde Ralphie's mom was Maya Rudolph, who is mixed-race African American. Huh??
The "progressive" director re-did and or cut out all of the politically incorrect scenes that were in the original movie so they'd be less "racist" and "offensive". For example, the Chinese singers at the end ("Fa-ra-ra-ra...") were updated as a top-notch A cappella group, who were all Ivy League students. The whole thing was sickening.
Fortunately, all of the reviews and ratings for A Christmas Story Live! were terrible.
Can't wait to watch the un-PC movie (for about the 20th time) on Christmas Eve! :-D
Ugh! You are so correct. I DVR'd it and - out of curiosity - watched most of it, sans the 1,000 commercials. It was *horrible*. I briefly described some of it in Post 67.
The original movie is one of my all-time favorites!
To give you an idea of how different the characters in the books are The "Old Man" was said to be born with a Lucky Strike in his mouth and no one dared talk to him at breakfast until after at least his first cup of coffee and a couple of smokes. His vocabulary was more colorful in the books. The old man {dad} reminds me of two of my uncles one of which grew up in Chicago.
Another less successful movie came from the book "Ollie Hopnoodles Haven of Bliss" which was the family vacation. Shepherd goes into some hilarious descriptions like the old man jumping up and down on the front bumper to engage the solinoid. I'm 60 and remember that trick. LOL
Barf! The reviews and ratings for this turkey were really BAD, btw.
Oh that’s just too funny!
The Official A Christmas Story House Gift Shop
;-)
I listened at night to Shep as a kid on my short wave radio and primitive ear phones. I would start laughing and mother would yell at me for not being asleep. The radio was so cool I could get Radio Moscow on it at night, listening to a show called Moscow Mail Bag. Lol
Thank you for that link! Really wanted to read the article, but I don’t subscribe to WSJ. One of my favorite movies!
ROTFLOL!!!
LOL yay! Best Christmas in a long time.
The school building is eggs ackley like the one I went to in Independence Ohio. Sure looks the same!
“My father worked in profanities the way other artists worked in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master.”
Yes, the Dad was the best character in the movie - bar none.
Very cool!!
LOL! That’s great: ‘A Wide Variety of Sizes and Styles!”
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