Embedded Files
Just for funsies, I decided to look a little more into the life of the late Jean Parker Shepherd, Jr. and the places and people who inspired the stories in his 1966 book, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. This book contained many of the stories that eventually became part of the storyline of the 1983 film, A Christmas Story. I thought I'd share a bit about what I learned...
In God We Trust...All Others Pay Cash
In God We Trust...All Others Pay Cash
Any fans of the 1983 film, A Christmas Story here? Yes, me too! I grew up watching this movie, as many, many others did. The little brother's epic howls of distress over his snow suit that pitched me into howls of laughter...cringing and thinking, "Oh, how embarrassing!" when poor Flick ended up stuck by his tongue to a flagpole, actually feeling a pang of sorrow for the Old Man when his major award, the Leg Lamp, was "accidentally" shattered while at the same time laughing even harder at the sounds of the Old Man crashing around in the basement, yelling and cussing because of the eternally malfunctioning furnace...
In God We Trust
Fiction is usually borne of things inspired by something, somewhere or someone. Even the 1987 film, Dirty Dancing, was inspired by the screenwriter, who included elements from her own life and family into her story. A Christmas Story is no different.
A Major Award and a Deranged Easter Bunny for Christmas
A Major Award and a Deranged Easter Bunny for Christmas
Who isn't familiar with the tale of Ralphie Parker, a boy growing up in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana who, one Christmas in about 1940, wants a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas so bad he would concoct a number of hilarious attempts to guarantee its arrival on Christmas Day? Meanwhile, his brother suffers the indignities of a snow suit that won't let him put his arms down, his mother calmly navigates her way through every calamity her family suffers, and his father is genuinely honored to have won a major award: a lamp in the form of a woman's fishnet-stockinged leg that is best described as "electric sex gleaming in the window."
One of his best friends, Schwartz, the one who would later be blamed for the "Oh, Fudge..." slipup, challenges his other best friend by way of a triple dog dare to stick his tongue on the flagpole during recess. Flick was so certain his tongue wouldn't stick to the frozen metal--until it did.
Poor Flick was the only one of the three friends to have to cry uncle when the class bullies twist his arm behind his back. Schwartz was the kid yelling and crying as his mother went ballistic thanks to a phone call from Mrs. Parker, Ralphie's mother. Why'd she go ballistic?
Because Ralphie, in a split second, told his mother Schwartz had been the person from whom Ralphie had heard the word "Fudge" that wasn't "Fudge". And while Ralphie ultimately did face off with Scut Farkus and Grover Dill, he also had to contend with "You'll shoot your eye out" whenever he told anyone, including the department store Santa Claus, that he wanted a Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time.
But where did this story come from? Did they come from snippets of the life of its creator, or did its creator simply possess a sense of humor that could make anything funny? I think that, like many comedians, Jean Shepherd did draw from his own life in telling these stories. Did an elderly relative present Shepherd with a bright pink bunny suit for Christmas? Was that Red Ryder BB gun at the top of his own Christmas list one year?
Did Ralphie Parker get what he wanted for Christmas so badly? As much as I know a number of you have seen the movie, I'm still not sayin' (while, of course, grinning from ear to ear)! I will tell you something else he DID get for Christmas, though.
Better yet, let me just show you.
Major Award
A Christmas Story Museum
A Christmas Story Museum
Over the years, many have done "deep dives" on the life of Jean Shepherd and have managed to discover some amazing facts about his family, possible friends of his, and the place where he grew up--Hammond, Indiana.
Today, the house in Ohio that was used as the exterior of the Parker house in the 1983 film has been turned into the Christmas Story House and Museum. It features a collection of items used in the film, photos provided by cast members, and was made to appear the way the house in the movie did.
But did Jean Shepherd's childhood home look like the one in the film? Let's start there.
Jean Shepherd's childhood home is in Hammond, Indiana, where several locations fit the descriptions given by Shepherd in his fictionalized stories. The house Shepherd grew up in is indeed on Cleveland street. Real estate sites like Zillow and Realtor give the house's construction date as 1927.
Sears Bungalow 1928
Quite possibly, this might have been a Sears "catalog house", which was very popular at the time. A buyer would receive the parts of the house pre-fabricated and a 75-page book of building instructions. Coincidentally, many of these homes were heated with coal furnaces. If it was a Sears catalog house, it might be one of the bungalows like the one shown to the left.
A brief biography: Jean Parker Shepherd Jr. was born on July 26, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois to Jean Parker Shepherd Sr and Anne Heinrichs. His brother Randy was born in 1923. At some point, the family moved to Hammond, Indiana.
Jean Shepherd Sr., it was reported in his death notice in the newspaper, had worked for the Borden Milk Company before splitting from his wife and sons and moving to Florida. He had remarried in 1945 and had one more son, Glen Jean, in 1952. Shepherd Sr. died suddenly in 1956, and his widow passed in 1962. Glen Jean died in 1974, though I don't know the cause of death for him or his father. He, his mother Aline, and father, Jean Shepherd Sr, are all buried in Florida.
The Old Man and the Furnace
Jean Shepherd Jr.'s mother Anne remained in Hammond for the rest of her life. She, too, remarried in 1951 to Keith Eugene Hetrick, who passed away in 1973. Anne herself passed away in 1977. She and her second husband are buried in Gary, Indiana.
Kid Who Won't Eat
Jean Shepherd Jr.'s younger brother Randall Glenn "Randy" (yes, Randy) Shepherd would go on to have a rather interesting career path himself. At one point, he had been a pitcher for the Rockford Rox. According to his obituary, he had also been a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. He was also a WWII veteran.
Randy Shepherd married Dorothy Bell in 1955, and died on May 8, 1994 at the age of 70.
Randy Shepherd was once a co-owner of the Highland, Indiana-based Tiffany Rolls Royce and Limousine Service. This would explain the anecdote about him showing up at his childhood home in a limousine to ask the current owners if he could come in and see the house. They said no.
With that, let's return to the little house on Cleveland Street.
To the right, a photo taken of Jean Shepherd's childhood home in 2013 by Nick Mantis is held up beside a photo of Jean Shepherd as a child in front of the same house. This photo comes from a Facebook page dedicated to a documentary on Jean Shepherd. Behind Shepherd are the front porch steps that appear to be the same ones as...
...the front porch steps on which Shepherd's parents are sitting in an undated photograph. This photo comes from the Find a Grave listing for Anne Hetrick, Shepherd's mother. There are five steps, the top being the porch itself. Given the young ages both Jean Shepherd and his mother appear to have been at when these photos were taken, my best guess is they were taken sometime in the 1930's. It would have to have been no earlier than 1927, if that is indeed the year the house was built. But it does appear the photos were taken in front of the little Cleveland Street bungalow.
The steps appear now as they did nearly a century ago. After Jean Shepherd Sr. and his wife split (some say Sr. abandoned the family), Shepherd Sr. relocated to Florida while his former wife remained in the Hammond area. This Cleveland Street house was then sold (when it was sold and when Anne Shepherd moved out of it is unknown--at least to me, yet) and Anne Shepherd also remarried. She and her second husband, Keith Eugene Hetrick, lived in a different house in the same general area of Hammond for what appears to have been the remainder of their lives.
A Christmas Story for Christmas
A Christmas Story for Christmas
Recently, a sequel to A Christmas Story was released. Peter Billingsley returned as an adult Ralph Parker, now living in Chicago and married with two children ca 1973. Now, generally, I don't think sequels to beloved classics are a good idea. One attempt at a sequel of sorts was My Summer Story (1994) with Charles Grodin as The Old Man. It is pretty much forgotten these days. But every once in a while, a sequel is done well. This was the case (at least in my opinion) with Top Gun: Maverick, a 2022 sequel to the original 1986 film. Another exception is A Christmas Story Christmas, which was released in 2022.
In the sequel, Ralph Parker takes his wife and children to his childhood home in Hohman, Indiana to celebrate Christmas with his newly widowed mother. Ralph's parents had planned to spend Christmas with him and his family in Chicago, but then, Ralph got a phone call from his mother. His father, The Old Man, had died.
The sequel shows clips from the original film by way of Ralph's memories. We also see items from the original film, items that had belonged to members of Ralph's family stored in the attic. The bunny suit...the leg lamp shade...
In Jean Shepherd's real life, it had been his stepfather who passed away in 1973 rather than his father, who had died in 1956. The Shepherds, though, had had neighbors with the name Bumpus, and Ralphie's two friends do appear to have been based upon people Jean Shepherd had known. Flick, in particular.
Apparently Jack Flickinger had known Shepherd, and really had owned a bar as an adult. If I recall, Jack Flickinger passed away in 1994, the same year as Randy Shepherd. Years ago, I had read that a search through Shepherd's yearbooks had led to the names of his classmates that appear to have been the inspirations behind the characters of Flick and Schwartz in the 1983 film. One notable difference is that if one particular bit of information I recall reading several years ago is true, then Schwartz would not, in real life, have spent so much time as an adult in Flick's bar as a classmate thought to have been Schwartz in "real life" had been killed in WWII.
That doesn't necessarily mean the 2022 film is inaccurate. What that most likely means is that the filmmakers, like Jean Shepherd himself, based the characters on bits and pieces of Shepherd's life and the people and places he had known, BUT. Creative license is taken in that A Christmas Story was not an autobiography and was never intended to be one. The book, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash could have the same said of it.
Fiction writers mine their own lives for sources that will inspire them, but they aren't looking to make the story truly autobiographical. There will be differences.
Example from Anne Rice's own works: Violin.
Jean Shepherd Hammond, Indiana--The New Territory
Hammond or Hohman? The town where A Christmas Story was born--Take My Trip
Despite Indiana roots, Cleveland is forever home to A Christmas Story
Ralphie's House--House From A Christmas Story
See Photos of A Christmas Story House and Museum on Flickr
Jean Shepherd on Find a Grave
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