25 Behind the Scenes Facts of A Christmas Story

if you love a christmas story then stick around because you're about to discover 25 behind the scenes facts about this christmas movie classic peter billingsley was the first to audition to play ralphie in a christmas story but the director bob clark didn't want to use him at first because he thought peter was too well known for being on the tv show real people but clark looked over peter's audition tape again and realized he was ralphie and decided to put him in the movie many of the kid actors were actually much older in real life than their characters ages can you guess how old peter billingsley was make a guess in the comments below and stick around to the end to hear the answer most of the snow you see in the movie was manufactured with detergent or snow making machines used for ski resorts jack nicholson was the first person considered to play the old man and he even liked the script and was very interested to play the part but he was too expensive to hire so they went with darren mcgavin instead all of the exterior shots of the house were filmed in cleveland and the inside of the house was filmed in toronto so the segment of ralphie shooting the crooks outside was a combination of two different locations and were shot months apart for the frozen tongue gag there was a small hole in the pipe where air was being sucked through hard enough to make the tongue stick in case you were wondering scott farkas eyes aren't really yellow but it was just an exaggeration for dramatic storytelling little randy's real mom was on the set during this scene to help him laugh during takes by making fart noises the guy standing next to the old man is a cameo appearance of the director bob clark to help peter feel blind they put tiny pin pricks all over his black lenses to obscure his vision which worked quite well because according to billingsley he was always walking into furniture while wearing them the jump cut from pot to pot wasn't intentional but happened to be a subtle joke about the mom's cooking and the director didn't even realize it until after the movie was finished the writer gene shepard only had the famous line you'll shoot your eye out one time in the script but bob clark liked it so much that he used it repeatedly throughout the movie for this shot it took peter a couple times to walk perfectly into frame and as a result whoever was throwing snowballs at him became pretty good at it so good at it that they hit him too hard on this take so his tears for this shot were real for the parade they used disney character costumes before getting permission to use their appearance but to their surprise when they showed the footage to disney the executives thought it was great and were glad to have their characters involved in the movie unlike the disney characters though they could use the wizard of oz characters without needing permission because a christmas story was an mgm film at the time the bearded man in this shot is the writer gene shepherd along with his wife on the right and in case you didn't know he was also the movie's narrator [Music] they weren't allowed to close down the store to film the santa scene and they had to film this scene in just two days during the late hours of the night this kid was cast to play this small role because he was just as weird in real life as he was in the movie so weird in fact that peter's reactions to his comments are very real because of how uncomfortable he felt being around him little ian petrella who played randy was really scared of the slide they built for the santa scene and the director didn't have him rehearse going down the slide so that his reaction for the first take would be real the iconic segment of ralphie on the slide had to be re-shot later on because of the trouble they had making the close-ups look right and they also needed to get a better take of peter saying his line to cover the trees in snow they calculated how much weight the trees could hold without damaging them and then they sprayed them down with water to let it all freeze overnight to create this shot of a white christmas morning they did a take of randy throwing the zeppelin into the tree and knocking it over but they decided to leave it out to avoid complicating the scene like ralphie in the story peter billingsley was very embarrassed to wear the bunny suit in front of everyone on set so he didn't have to do a lot of acting here and the bonus fact is that he still has the suit to this day they talked over the caroling gag with these actors to make sure the joke about their accent wouldn't be insensitive and they were totally on board because they thought it was such a funny gag and if you look closely at the store manager you'll see that he had to keep hiding his face because he couldn't stop laughing so the answer to the question i asked earlier was that peter billingsley was 12 years old even though he was playing a nine-year-old hit the like button if you got it right and click the video above for more facts about other popular christmas movies or the suggested video down below to discover more fun facts with your favorite films

Channel: Fun Fact Films

Views: 121,286

Keywords: fun fact films, behind the scenes, behind the scenes facts, movie facts, a christmas story behind the scenes, a christmas story, behind the scenes of a christmas story, a christmas story live, peter billingsley, jean shepherd, you'll shoot your eye out, leg lamp, darren mcgavin, bob clark, a christmas story tongue stuck to pole, christmas movies, a christmas story full movie, a christmas story house, a christmas story house inside, a christmas story house location

Id: 3PzvvtVclFs

Length: 4min 45sec (285 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 19 2020