A Christmas Story

Trivia: Melinda Dillon was given the wrong script on purpose when they filmed the Chinese restaurant scene. She had no idea that when they brought the duck out it would have its head still attached. All of her reactions, including when she first sees the duck and when the server cuts the head off, were completely genuine.

dewinela

Trivia: The film is set in Indiana, but was actually filmed in Cleveland, Ohio. It was the only place the directors could find that looked like a midwestern town in the 1940's.

Trivia: The late Jean Sheppard, who wrote the series of short stories upon which the movie was based, narrates the movie (credited, "Ralphie as an adult") and also has a cameo in the scene where Ralphie and Randy are going to see Santa. (Sheppard is the guy who tells them to go to the back of the line).

Trivia: Director Bob Clark has a cameo appearance in this movie. He portrays Swede, Mr. Parker's neighbor.

Trivia: The decoder in the movie is set in order from 1-26 Q S U T V Y Z X A C E B G H D J F I L M K W N O R P.

jairodrigue

Trivia: Mom, Melinda Dillon has acted in two very popular movies where artistically piled mashed potatoes plays prominently. Here Randy packs his vertical fork with them. In "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", Melinda meets up with Richard Dreyfuss who earlier also sculpts mash potatoes upward. In "Close Encounters of the Third Kind she's the mother of the featured little boy character.

Trivia: The music playing when Scut Farkus appears is the Wolf's theme from Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf". Farkas is a Hungarian name, but literally means "Wolf".

wizard_of_gore

Video

Trivia: When he imagines defeating Black Bart and his gang, Peter Billingsley/Ralphie is chewing real Red Man chewing tobacco. Usually black licorice is used in movies, but director Bob Clark gave him actual chew, which made him sick.

wizard_of_gore

Trivia: Five minutes from the center of Cleveland Ohio you can tour the actual home used to film A Christmas Story. The tour website links to an affiliated online gift shop (with licensed merchandise) based in Cleveland and it links to the walk-in gift shop store that is directly across the street from the tour house.

Trivia: Although the Warren G. Harding school was depicted to be within easy walking distance, it was actually in St. Catherines, Ontario. The Parker home exterior was on 11th Street, Cleveland, Ohio. Quite a bit of a walk. Also, the Chop Suey Palace was also in Ontario.

Movie Nut

More for A Christmas Story

Mistakes

Continuity mistake: When Melinda Dillon breaks the lamp, it is broken into many pieces, but when Darren McGavin is gluing it back together it is now in much fewer and bigger broken pieces. Obviously different broken lamps were used.

More mistakes in A Christmas Story

Quotes

Dad: 'Fra-gee-lay', that must be Italian.

More quotes from A Christmas Story

Questions

Question: Why do the parents have two twin beds in their bedroom, instead of one double bed? I thought that was just a TV gimmick from the old days when they weren't allowed to show a man and woman in bed together. Did people really sleep like that, or was it just a production design decision for the film? The movie was made in the '80's after all.

Krista

Answer: It's most likely a reference to the twin-bed movie standards from the time in which the movie takes place (late '30s to early '40s).

Chosen answer: Many married couples did (and still do) sleep like this. For example, one may be a restless sleeper and not wish to disturb their partner. Or they may just prefer to sleep alone. It's all down to personal choice, I don't think there's a rule that says couples have to share a bed.

umathegreatstationarybear

The original poster has never been married. It is seldom that husbands and wives continue sleeping in the same bed after the first couple years of marriage.

Charles Austin Miller

Very interesting... I know of only one couple that sleeps in different beds. That is because they are on different sleep schedules. I know many couples and we all sleep with our spouses. Don't get me wrong, if we get a hotel room that has 2 full or queen beds, we are sleeping in individual beds. But other then that, we sleep in our bed together.

"Seldom" is a bit of an overstatement - studies seem to suggest about 15-25% of couples sleep separately.

Studies? Could you provide a link to such studies? I speak from decades of knowing many, many happily-married couples, the overwhelming majority of whom sleep in separate beds and even separate rooms.

Charles Austin Miller

15 per cent of Britons said if cost and space were not an issue, they would sleep in a different bed to their partner: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/uk-couples-sleep-separate-beds-partner-yougov-survey-a8504716.html. A 2005 National Sleep Foundation poll found that nearly one in four American couples sleeps in separate beds or separate rooms: https://sleepfoundation.org/sites/default/files/subscription/sub003.txt. Clearly many couples do, but many don't. Certainly the vast majority of couples I know share a bed, regardless of how long they've been together. "Seldom" is I think overstating it. The majority of people you know may sleep separately, and more power to them! No right or wrong, but that doesn't appear to reflect the broader picture.

More questions & answers from A Christmas Story

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.