During my lunch break today, I was watching part of A Christmas Story on my laptop and got to wondering if anybody knew if the Lionel trains shown in the store window at the beginning of the movie were accurate for the time period depicted.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
Kind of a trick question, as the movie never explicitly states what year it was set in. I recall the store window had a semi-scale Lionel Hiawatha set that was produced from I think 1935-42. There might have been a UP M-10000 from the same period too?? My thinking is the movie is set just after WW2 judging by the music (Andrews Sisters w/ Bing Crosby) so I would say they were accurate or pretty close anyway. I do somewhere have the mag (Pby) where the story was first published in the sixties, I should go back and read it again.
BTW every time I see that scene I can't help but thinking "with all those trains, how could a boy want a BB gun instead??"
The movie's time period is ambiguous, with most of the cues pointing to the 1937-41 timeframe. Two things point to a postwar setting: The police car was a 1947 model, and the exclamation "The Sox traded Bullfrog!" refers to an event from 1946. The author and director have said they were trying for late 30s/early 40s, but more interested in a time period than a specific year.
As for the trains, there's a Lionel M10000 in the window, but there are also some MPC-era trains. The M10000 fits (dating from 1935-41), the MPC stuff, not so much.
wjstix BTW every time I see that scene I can't help but thinking "with all those trains, how could a boy want a BB gun instead??"
At the age a BB gun also would be temping for me but being christmas It would have been trains first and then something else.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
It's 1940 the year is stamped on the side of his Orphan Annie decoder ring in the Ovaltine scene.
Here's the scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdA__2tKoIU
I love this movie and the speculation. I just started re-reading the stories by Jean Shepherd on which the movie was based. They keep mentioning it being the depths of the Depression without being specific. Lionel electric trains being a much-sought-after gift (for other kids) are also mentioned several times.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
TMC It's 1940 the year is stamped on the side of his Orphan Annie decoder ring in the Ovaltine scene. Here's the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdA__2tKoIU
Good eye!! A quick search shows the Little Orphan Annie radio show debuted on WGN in Chicago in 1931, quickly becoming a hit on NBC's Blue Network, and went off the air in 1942.
http://www.radiohof.org/adventuredrama/littleannie.html
The Red Ryder BB gun started production in 1938...and apparently is still being made??
In any case, as noted the year is a bit imprecise. Jean Sheppard wrote a number of stories with Ralphie, many of which were made into TV productions on PBS. One shows Ralph (played by Matt Dillon) as a teenager in the mid-fifties, meaning he would have been born around 1938-40...which apparently is about the time this story is set, showing Ralphie in grade school. So there's a bit of artistic license in it all.
BTW, although set in Hammond IN (near Chicago) the film was primarily shot in Cleveland...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7QuBK1s8kM
The house where the exterior scenes were primarily shot still stands in Cleveland. You can tour the house and visit the Christmas Story Museum across the street. Here's the website:
http://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/
I agree - forget the BB-gun - I'll take the TRAINS!
One thing about trains: It doesn't matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.
SotaPopI agree - forget the BB-gun - I'll take the TRAINS!
Exactly!! How many of those BB guns are around today? I would bet the percentage is much higher for the Lionel trains. Maybe even the American Flyers
Merry Christmas,
Charlie
I've still got mine; and it still works!
Bob Nelson
Ralphies house and the Christmas parade were filmed in Cleveland Ohio. The outdoor shots at school with Spike at the flag pole were filmed in Toronto Canada,. that was the closes area that had snow. The Cleveland area that winter did not get enough snow for the outside shot. The morning that Ralphie wakes up and looks out the frosted window and the trees and the ground are all white, is snow that was trucked in and spread around with some man made snow blown all over everything to make it look like fresh fallen snow. I have a limited edition DVD that Ralphie and Spike tell the backround of the moive
Well then ... just don't SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT!
... I couldn't resist.
I'm just getting ready to leave work, thought before shutting off the PC I'd check to see if (as I mentioned in a previous post) you can still buy a new "Red Ryder" BB gun. When I tried to go to the Daisy website, our system blocked it....
Based on your corporate access policies, access to this web site
( http://www.airgunsbbguns.com/Daisy_Air_Rifles_s/52.htm )
has been blocked because the web category "Weapons" is not allowed.
"Weapons"?? Really??
Geez, I wonder what would happen if I tried to access info on a Lionel Missile Launching Car??
Two Disk Special Edition has commentary by "Ralphie" and the director. Bob Clark states the movie is supposed to be 1940, aka the depression in ending but WW2 hasn't started. There was a lot of work done in dressing the sets to make the movie as close to 1940 as possible. There are a few temporal anachronisms but for the most part they did a very good job.
There was an attempt to make the trains and toys in Higbee's window as close/acurate to the time period as possible. There are some modern era cars used as filler in the train sets but even these are patterned on pre-war style cars.
wjstixI'm just getting ready to leave work, thought before shutting off the PC I'd check to see if (as I mentioned in a previous post) you can still buy a new "Red Ryder" BB gun
We auction one or two every year at our Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation banquet. Sometimes they can go for quit a bit. I think that depends somewhat on the liquid refreshment.
lionelsoni, I never had a bb gun, but still have the old .22 from back then. As I've said before, nothing seems to last like electric trains and fine firearms. Got to be the best Christmas/birthday presents ever.
wyomingscout
From the "useless information" files........the setting for this story was HOHMAN, Indiana, a ficticious monaker for the real town of Hammond, Indiana. According to the playbill for a copyrighted live-theatre version of this story, which I attended the other night, the year was circa 1938. The decoder ring bore the date of 1940, and there were some other anachronisms in the movie version, but chalk those up to just that, anachronisms OR literary licence.
The credits at the end of the movie refer to production taking place in both Cleveland, Ohio and Toronto, Ontario.
I sometimes think the producers of these "period" movies put items into the scenes, which they know are incorrect for the time period, for the benefit of the "eagle-eyes" who watch for the "literary boo-boos".
It's really no different than setting your model railroad in the steam/diesel transition era.
I did like the trains in Higbees window but I was really blown away by the wind up WWI tank that shot out sparks. That was my favorite thing.
Here is a link that might be of interest to DA FANS of A CHRISTMAS STORY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTt_-6ckbDw
laz57
There is a pretty good coverage of Jean Shepherd and the movie as well as the Lionel train set in the current issue of the LRRC INSIDE TRACK.
North of the 49th
wjstixI'm just getting ready to leave work, thought before shutting off the PC I'd check to see if (as I mentioned in a previous post) you can still buy a new "Red Ryder" BB gun. When I tried to go to the Daisy website, our system blocked it.... Based on your corporate access policies, access to this web site ( http://www.airgunsbbguns.com/Daisy_Air_Rifles_s/52.htm ) has been blocked because the web category "Weapons" is not allowed. "Weapons"?? Really?? Geez, I wonder what would happen if I tried to access info on a Lionel Missile Launching Car??
The cold, dead hand of Political Correctness throttles fun once again.
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