A Christmas Story House

[pdoel]

So today my family and I drove to Cleveland and toured the Christmas Story House.

Well worth the trip. If you're a fan of the movie, it's definitely an awesome place to go and see.













My mother hasn't had a warm meal for herself in 10 years.



It's little Orphan Annie!

[yellowherbie]

That would be so cool to see in person. Maybe next year.... Your so lucky!!

[pdoel]

Do you know where he heard??? . . . . Probably from his father!











Don't . . . forget . . . to drink . . . your . . . Ovaltine. A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!

[pdoel]

I can't put my arms down!

[pdoel]

This one doesn't seem to work if I ftp it up to my site. Let's see what happens if I just try and attach it.

[Johnny Ohio]

Pete, Great photo tour! It's a classic Christmas movie isn't it? Did the house live up to it?

Thanks for sharing.

[pdoel]

Originally Posted by Johnny Ohio

Pete, Great photo tour! It's a classic Christmas movie isn't it? Did the house live up to it?

Thanks for sharing.

It sure did!!! That movie is probably my all time favorite. Just takes you back to being a kid at Christmas.

It was really cool going through the house. There's a museum as well as a gift shop across the street from the house. Lots of pictures of the cast from when they filmed the movie, props, stuff like that.

[Lnzbug]

That is so cool!

[AccountingTroll]

Yabut, be careful, the BB gun might put out your eye.

[GINA]

Very cool Pete!

[Beetlemania]

Wow! Look at that one... that's mine!

Coolness, Pete! Thanks for sharing!

[vibelife]

OK, I am in envy. "it's italian...see?? Frageeeeeeely" GAWD! I am rollin'

[AmyJane]

I love that movie! When I was in school, every year the last day of school before Christmas vacation they would put us all in the auditorium and show A Christmas Story. For the longest time it was a tradtion there but now the school is too big. Way too many students to fit in any one room at one time in the high school so they don't do it anymore. I think my class was one of the last to watch it in school.

Very very cool, Pete! I had no idea they gave tours of that house.
/me puts that on my list of things to do before I die

"He looks like a pink NIGHTMARE!"

[boblamb58]

It won't be long and that movie will be going into the DVD player.

Thanks so much for posting the pics, Pete.

Aw Fuuuuuudge

[CoriBug]

There's a story about that house in the lastest issue of Guideposts!!

[Herbie3Rivers]

AWESOME Pete! I have got to go there. I grew up loving that movie. It's still my favorite all time Christmas movie, followed by a Claymation Christmas Special.

I really want to drive Herbie up there since it's so close by from us. Though that's a summer thing. No salty roads for Herbie. I think it'd be so cool to have a picture of him parked out in front.

[Lnzbug]

Hey Pete do they leave the lights up all year?

[dnyed]

That is just about the coolest thing I have seen in a long time!

That is my all time favorite Christmas movie, as I see is also other Org'ers.

[silverspeedbuggy]

Nice! The house is only about 25 minutes from where I live, but I still haven't been over there.

My family and I used to go to downtown Cleveland every Sunday for the 4 or Sundays before Christmas. We would shop at the 10 story Higbee's Department store and the 5 story May Company Department Store. Higbee's had a giant auditorium on 10th floor where you could see Santa as well as a swanky art-deco restaurant, The Silver Grille where we would eat and have to use our 'best manners' since it was so nice.

The Santa Claus scene (with the slide), the window scene at the beginning of the movie (where Ralphie sees the gun in the store window), the Christmas tree buying scene, and the Christmas parade scene were all filmed at Higbee's and Public Square right outside Higbee's. I remember my dad taking us down to Higbee's right after filming finished and he told us about a 'giant slide' that was used in the movie for a scene with Santa on the first floor. This confused us because we knew Santa and his enchanted Santaland was located in the huge 10th floor auditorium. When we got down there the sets had already been torn down.

We went to see A Christmas Story opening weekend (my parents NEVER went to movies, so this was a treat). The theater was PACKED and everytime a scene came on that was filmed in Cleveland I remember the crowd going NUTS. "There's Higbee's!" "That's Public Square!" "Where did they find those streetcars!?" It was so much fun.

Within a few years, people were no longer going downtown to shop, so Higbee's had to close the upper 5 stories and condense to 5 floors. May Company, the other downtown department store, closed completely about the same time. Within a few more years, Higbee's went down to 3 stories. Then around 1999 or 2000 the store closed completely. So sad.

Higbee's (the building, not the store) is still there, the giant window is still there, and the exterior signage is still on the building, but it is now partially filled with offices.

One good thing that came of this though; The Silver Grille on Higbee's 10th floor, was never torn down. In fact, the owner's of the building just cleaned the place up and shut the doors. The Ritz Carlton 'bought' the restaurant and now you can rent it for special occasions. One of my friends invited me to her company's Christmas party last weekend. I asked where it was and she said "It's downtown, near the Ritz, but not in the Ritz. I think it's called The Silver Grille." NO WAY!!! I was geeking out all night. The place was EXACTLY as I remembered it. She and I even snuck into the auditorium where Santa shoudl have been. Sadly, this was all torn down to the bare metal girders. But The Silver Grille was still there and she looked beautiful.

[bugsy98nb]

Awsome pictures pete !!