Christmas Story 25th Anniversary Convention: Cleveland, Ohio
We left for Cleveland, Ohio on Friday, November 28, 2008. We stayed at George and Marianne’s Thursday night and picked up my mom’s college friend, Maryann Poczik, in Ann Arbor and left for Cleveland.
We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel right in the Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The first event we went to was to meet the stars of the movie, “A Christmas Story”. They had a long table up with each star sitting behind it. We got to meet “Miss Shields”, “Randy”, the two bullies, the guy who delivered the lamp, “Flick”, and the two elves at Higbee’s Department store. I only bought 1 photo which was of Ian Petrello, who played “Randy” in the movie. It was $20 so I only picked one photo.
We took the trolley over to the Christmas Story House, as well as the museum. It was a cold day and there was a long line at the house, so we decided to do that on Saturday. But, we did go through the museum where they have several photos from the movie, Ralphie’s jacket, Randy’s snowsuit, as well as some of their toys they received on Christmas.
The museum gift shop was crowded. We took a look at everything but thought we might wait to buy anything until later.
We took the trolley back to the hotel. Then, we went to a viewing of the movie. I love that movie. I watch it every Christmas. It continues on TNT for 24 hrs on Christmas Day.
We had dinner at the Hard Rock Café which was in the Tower City mall that was attached to our hotel. We all enjoyed our cheeseburgers, which were really good. I haven’t had that good of a cheeseburger at the Hard Rock Café.
From 9-11, we went to the cocktail gala at the hotel and got to have our photo taken with each of the actors from the movie. We learned a lot from the guy who delivered the lamp in the movie. He lives down the street from the Christmas Story house. He helped out on the set with watching the boys, as well as being the gopher.
This was a great opportunity to talk with the actors/actresses from the movie.
Saturday, November 29th:
We got up early in the morning so we could be at the Christmas Story house around 10 a.m. We got on the 2nd trolley ride there. It was neat to be able to go in the house. They guy who bought the house, bought the house over the internet. It was selling for $90,000. He put a bid in for $150,000 and asked for the bidding to stop. He spent about $250,000 getting the house to look like the house in the movie. When he bought it, it had been remodeled with grey siding and new windows. So, began to change that. Before buying the house, he made some of the leg lamps and sold about 1,800.
The house was officially opened in 2006. The actors from the movie came out for the grand opening. The owner has a little apartment on the 3rd floor that he stays in when he comes to town. He lives in San Diego, CA.
We found out that the school teacher in the movie was 8 months pregnant in real life when she filmed that movie.
We found out from the lady elf that they haven’t received residuals from the movie in the past 15 years.
The shorter bully is now a hair stylist and has a son who was there.
We drove out to the Chinese restaurant, Pearl of the Orient, in one of the suburbs. When we got to the door, it said it wasn’t open at lunch on Saturdays and Sundays. We couldn’t believe that the official Chinese restaurant of the Christmas Story would be closed on the weekends, especially this weekend.
The actual restaurant is located in Toronto, which is also the city where much of the movie was filmed.
They had a costume contest at the festival
Mom, MaryAnn, and I went shopping at Jones New York and each got matching blazers. So, we had our picture taken together with our matching jackets. It was so funny.
There was a beautiful Christmas parade in front of the hotel. They lit up a big Christmas tree and shot off fireworks.
The public square was all decorated beautifully.
Then, we went to the screening of Bob Clark’s world. They want to get it into the movie theater, as a tribute to Bob Clark. He was the writer and producer of “A Christmas Story”.
Overall, the trip has been quite fascinating and I have learned quite a bit.
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