November 18, 1983: "A Christmas Story” Premieres

November 18, 1983: The film A Christmas Story premieres, based on the stories of Jean Shepherd. The legendary radio show host also narrated, and played the guy in Higbee's department store who told little Ralphie where the back of the line really was.

The story is set in 1940, in Shepherd's hometown of Hammond, Indiana, renamed "Hohman" for the film, and nearby Chicago – but Cleveland stands in for both, mainly because of its Depression-era architecture.

Shepherd was born in 1920 (and lived until 1999), so he was several years older than the story's protagonist, Ralphie Parker. Peter Billingsley, the actor who played him, was 12 at the time of filming, but the character is probably younger, I'm guessing 9.

Like most kids, then as now, Christmas is his favorite day of the year, because presents. And the present he really wants is an air rifle that shoots BB's, tagged with the name of Red Ryder, hero of radio Westerns and films. But every time he suggests it to a grownup -- his parents, his teacher (Tedde Moore), even the Santa Claus at Higbee's (Jeff Gillen) -- they say, "You'll shoot your eye out!" And they have a point: No kind of gun is an appropriate possession, let alone gift, for a child that age.

UPDATE: It occurred to me in 2025 that, this being right before World War II, many Americans were still isolationist, and, with memories of World War I, wanted nothing to do with fighting, including guns, which they associated not so much with the Wild West as with recent gangsters like Al Capone in Chicago and "Murder, Incorporated" in New York. After World War II, the idea of killing Nazis seemed fun, but to make it "All-American," Westerns became more popular. Red Ryder, the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy all started on radio, but got a lot more popular on postwar television. And so did guns, and the idea of kids playing Cops & Robbers, and Cowboys & Indians.

Kids like my father, in front of the family's 1st TV set,

Newark, New Jersey, 1950.

West of the Passaic, he was the law.

Oh yeah: Real cowboys and gunslingers didn't dress like that.

In the leadup to Christmas, Ralphie tells various stories, including of his father (Darren McGavin), identified only as "The Old Man," dealing with various issues, including haggling over the price of the family's Christmas tree, and teaching little Ralphie words he shouldn't, with his mother (Melinda Dillon) having to punish him for using the F-word. (Since this was a family movie, they got around actually using it.)

Ralphie and his friends also have to deal with a local bully, Scut Farkas (Zack Ward). This turned out to be an allegory: Scut has two "henchmen," who are Mussolini and Tojo to Scut's Hitler. Finally, Ralphie gets pushed too far, and beats the "fudge" out of Scut, who, like all bullies who see that someone is actually stronger, turns coward and never bothers them again.

Having all but given up on getting the gun, on Christmas morning, Ralphie finds that he has gotten it -- the Old Man having bought it against Mom's wishes. But when he tries it out, a backfire from a BB breaks his glasses. In other words, if not for his hated glasses, he would have shot his eye out! Still, adult Ralph closes his narration by saying it was the best gift he would ever get.

*

A Christmas Story is a better story than Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, especially the 1964 TV special version:

Rudolph tries to teach the lesson that, "If you're different, it's okay, and you might even get to use your difference for good and be praised for it." Except that's not the lesson it teaches. Instead, it's, "If you're different, the only way you'll get accepted is to catch the luckiest of lucky breaks. And, even then, they won't apologize for having ridiculed you for your difference."

Contrast that with what A Christmas Story teaches:

* Guns are bad.

* It's okay to wear glasses. Indeed, if Ralphie wasn't wearing glasses, he would have shot his eye out. In other words...

* Sometimes, adults know what they're talking about, and should be trusted.

* Pushing merchandise on a kid is bad. In other words...

* Sometimes, adults can't be trusted.

* Kitsch is okay up to a point, but don't be tacky. (The leg lamp.)

* The only thing a bully respects is power. If you don't stand up to him, and show him you're stronger, he'll never stop.

* Profanity is not necessarily bad. Sometimes, it's even justifiable.

* If you do something wrong, own up to it. Don't blame someone else.

* Control your dog(s).

* A Chinese restaurant will always be a good backup plan.

* And, however flawed a family member might be in your eyes, family is important, especially during holidays.

*

The film wasn't a big hit at first. But Turner Broadcasting bought the broadcast rights, and began airing it frequently during the Christmas season in the 1990s. Since 1997, Turner's subsidiary TNT has broadcast it for 24 hours straight from 8:00 PM Eastern Time on Christmas Eve to the same time on Christmas Day.

A fan of the film bought the original house in Cleveland, and restored it to its appearance in the film. Something tells me his psyche is a little "fragile."

Peter Billingsley left acting and went into producing movies, and also produced a stage musical version of A Christmas Story. On November 17, 2022, after a few unofficial attempts that were not well received, a real sequel, A Christmas Story Christmas, premiered on TNT. Billingsley, now 51, played a grown-up Ralph, 42, in 1973, with a wife and kids, going at it again.

Spoiler Alert: He still has both eyes. He left the gun in the basement when he left home, but it's still there. This new generation of Parkers lives in Chicago, but they go back to Hohman, which has lost its industry and looks like the Depression has returned, to help his mother out because "The Old Man" has just died. He tries to give his kids a classic Christmas, but disaster strikes, but miracles happen -- not the least of which is that, like postwar Germany (well, West Germany, anyway), Scut Farkas has turned into a good guy.

*

November 18, 1983 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics, 110-103 at the Boston Garden.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Utah Jazz, 128-120 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Houston Rockets, 134-127 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Phoenix Suns, 109-94 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Washington Capitals, 7-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 7-0 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.