Development 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. Three of the semi-
autobiographical short stories on which the film is based were originally published in
Playboy magazine between 1964 and 1966. Shepherd later read "Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder nails the Cleveland Street Kid" and told the otherwise unpublished story "Flick's Tongue" on his
WOR Radio talk show, as can be heard in one of the DVD extras. Bob Clark stated on the
DVD commentary that he became interested in Shepherd's work when he heard "Flick's Tongue" on the radio in 1968. Additional source material for the film, according to Clark, came from unpublished anecdotes that Shepherd told live audiences "on the college circuit". Shepherd envisioned his stories as "Dickens's Christmas Carol as retold by Scrooge", although Clark would soften it for the film; the two did not particularly get along, as Clark did not admire Shepherd's attempts at trying to guide the actors with ideas about how the characters should be played, to the point where he had him barred from the set.
Casting The basis of the screenplay is a series of monologues written and performed by
Jean Shepherd on the radio. Shepherd wrote the adaptation with
Bob Clark and Leigh Brown. Several subplots are incorporated into the body of the film, based on other separate short stories by Shepherd. Shepherd provides the film's narration from the perspective of an adult Ralphie, a narrative style later used in the
comedy-drama television series
The Wonder Years and the
sitcom Young Sheldon. Shepherd, Brown, and Clark have cameo appearances in the film: Shepherd plays the man who directs Ralphie and Randy to the back of the Santa line at the department store; Brown – Shepherd's wife in real life – plays the woman in the Santa line with Shepherd; Clark plays Swede, the neighbor the Old Man talks to outside during the Leg Lamp scene. In the DVD commentary, director Bob Clark mentions that
Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of the Old Man; Clark expresses gratitude that he ended up with Darren McGavin instead, who later appeared in several other Clark films.
James Broderick, who had portrayed the role in the television films, had died the year prior. He cast Melinda Dillon on the basis of her similar role in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Peter Billingsley was Clark's first choice for Ralphie: he was already a successful actor in commercials Fearing it was "too obvious" a choice, Clark auditioned approximately 8,000 actors for the part—among them
Keith Coogan,
Sean Astin and
Wil Wheaton— before deciding Billingsley was the right choice after all. Ian Petrella was cast immediately before filming began. Tedde Moore had previously appeared in Clark's film
Murder by Decree and was the only onscreen character from
A Christmas Story who was played by the same actor in the sequel,
My Summer Story. Jeff Gillen was an old friend of Clark's who had been in one of his earliest films. The schoolyard bully, Scut Farkus, was played by Zack Ward, now an actor, writer and director, who had actually been bullied himself while in elementary school. In 2017, he said he was surprised at the impact his role had over the years: "I saw that I was ranked – as Christmas villains go – higher than the
Grinch. That's amazing."
Locations The film is set in Hohman, Indiana, a fictionalized version of Shepherd's hometown of
Hammond, the only Hoosier city to border
Chicago. The name is derived from Hohman Avenue, a major street in downtown Hammond. Local references in the film include Warren G. Harding Elementary School and Cleveland Street (where Shepherd spent his childhood). Other local references include mention of a person "swallowing a yo-yo" in nearby
Griffith, Director
Bob Clark reportedly sent
scouts to twenty cities before selecting Cleveland for exterior filming. Cleveland was chosen because of
Higbee's Department Store in downtown Cleveland. Since Higbee's was exclusive to northeast Ohio, the department store referred to in Shepherd's book and the film is most likely
Goldblatt's, located in downtown Hammond (with the Cam-Lan Chinese Restaurant three doors down on Sibley Avenue). Until they connected with Higbee's, location scouts had been unsuccessful in finding a department store that was willing to be part of the film. Higbee's vice president Bruce Campbell agreed to take part in the project on the condition he be allowed to edit the script for cursing. Ultimately, Higbee's was the stage for three scenes in the film: • The opening scene in which Ralphie first spies the Red Ryder BB Gun in the store's
Christmas window display. Higbee's was known for its elaborate, child-centered Christmas themes and decorations, with Santa Claus as the centerpiece. • The parade scene, filmed just outside Higbee's on
Public Square. The parade was filmed late at night (3 a.m.) because during the daytime the newer
Erieview Tower and
Federal Building were visible from the Public Square, as was the
BP Tower, which was under construction at the time. • Ralphie and Randy's visit to see Santa, which was filmed inside Higbee's. The store kept the Santa sleigh that was made for the film and used it for several years after the film's release. Higbee's became
Dillard's in 1992 and closed permanently in 2002. The Christmas tree-purchasing scene was filmed in
Toronto, Ontario, as was the
sound stage filming of interior shots of the Parker home. The "...only I didn't say fudge" scene was filmed at the foot of Cherry Street in Toronto; several
lake freighters are visible in the background spending the winter at Toronto's port, which lends authenticity to the time of year when the film was produced. In 2008, two Canadian fans released a documentary that visits every location. Their film,
Road Trip for Ralphie, was shot over two years and includes footage of the filmmakers saving Miss Shields' blackboard from the garbage bin on the day the old Victoria School was gutted for renovation, discovering the antique fire truck that saved Flick, locating original costumes from the film, and tracking down the location of the film's Chop Suey Palace in Toronto.
Red Ryder BB Gun The "Red Ryder" model BB Gun was manufactured in Plymouth, Michigan, by Daisy, beginning in 1938; it was never manufactured in the exact configuration mentioned in the film. The Daisy "Buck Jones" model did have a compass and a sundial in the stock, but these features were not included in the Red Ryder model. The compass and sundial were placed on Ralphie's BB gun, but on the opposite side of the stock because Peter Billingsley was left-handed. The commercial success of the film, most notably following holiday broadcasts, saw massive sale spikes in the Red Ryder BB gun due to its central role in the film's plot.
Daisy Outdoor Products, the manufacturer of the gun, reported that demand heightened during the Christmas season, as it positioned the gun as a cultural icon and "Holy Grail" gift, with the film driving annual surges in air rifle purchases.
Dating the story Director Bob Clark stated in the film's DVD commentary that both he and author Shepherd wished for the film to be seen as "amorphously late-'30s, early-'40s". A specific year is never explicitly mentioned in the film, with the most explicit references being a December 1939 calendar seen in one scene and the 1940 date on Ralphie's (authentic)
Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, the last year the program was associated with Ovaltine and Pierre Andre before they moved on to
Captain Midnight. While the Lionel streamline model passenger train in Higbee's window is a prewar item, the freight train in the same window is of postwar manufacture; the display also shows characters from the film
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which had been released in the United States in early 1938, the same year Red Ryder had made his debut in the comics. Much of the
Bing Crosby soundtrack consisted of material recorded after
World War II, including the 1947 hit version of "
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (though multiple other versions were already popular by the late 1930s) and "
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," which would not be written until 1951. The
Look magazine that Ralphie hides the Red Ryder ad in is the December 1937 cover with Shirley Temple and Santa. The parade in front of Higbee's features characters from MGM's version of
The Wizard of Oz, which was released in 1939, and the war, which the
United States entered in December 1941, is never mentioned. The "Old Man's" treasured Oldsmobile 6 is a 1937
Oldsmobile F-Series Touring Sedan. Although the director and author have said that the year has been obfuscated, some sources, including
The New York Times and
CBS News, have dated the film to 1940 or the early 1940s. The real Shepherd was several years older than Ralphie; Shepherd was intentionally dishonest about many of the details of his own life and regularly obscured the line between fact and fiction in his writings. A teacher called "Miss Shields" was Shepherd's second-grade teacher at Warren G. Harding Elementary School in 1928. By 1939, Shepherd had already graduated from high school. ==Release==