“I knew exactly who he was, so it was kind of exciting working with him,” says Ian Petrella, who was cast as the kid brother Randy. “We developed a friendship, but it was obvious we kind of had this older brother–little brother thing going on where we got along, but then there’d be times where we didn’t get along. That’s just how kids are. We got along really well, though. It was a great experience working with him.”
Melinda Dillon was cast as the matriarch to the Parker family, primarily based on her appearance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. According to Bob Clark, she was the only person seriously considered for the role. “Close Encounters was all I needed to see,” he said. “I talked to her and she wanted to do it, so we did it.”
Melinda Dillon with Ian Petrella and Peter Billingsley © Ian Petrella
On the set, Dillon was the big superstar as far as the kids were concerned. Her young co-stars, especially Ian Petrella, idolized her. “Melinda was an absolute sweetheart,” he explains. “At the same time, she marked my first time working with a celebrity. She was the mother in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and that was one of my favorite films growing up. I got to work with someone who worked with aliens, so that was pretty awesome. I had a lot of questions for her about it — ‘How did they make the aliens? How did they get them to move?’ She was just very kind and very sweet about all of that. We got along great. She was wonderful to everybody. She was wonderful to my mom and wonderful to all the kids.”
Veteran character actor Darren McGavin was cast as Frank Parker, although in the film he is simply referred to as “the Old Man.” The actor played the title role in the television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and alongside Burt Reynolds in the NBC western series Riverboat. By the time he appeared on screen as the grumpy head of the Parker clan, he was a recognizable face to many in the viewing audience.
While it seems as though the actor was born to play the Old Man, the part nearly went to an even more famous Hollywood hotshot. Jack Nicholson, who had already won an Academy Award for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, initially expressed interest in being a part of the film.
“I had gone to meet with Jack,” director Bob Clark said in 2003. “They wanted me to do a film with Jack called Turn Left or Die at MGM, but they also gave Jack the script to A Christmas Story. They didn’t tell me until later that Jack really liked A Christmas Story and might very well have done it, but they didn’t want to pay Jack Nicholson money to do A Christmas Story.”
According to Clark, McGavin was aware that he wasn’t the first choice for the role, and made it a priority to show that he was deserving and appreciative of it. “He knew full well there had been at least four other actors projected [for this part],” Clark says. “When I met him off the plane, he said, ‘Who’s the person who had sense enough to put me in this part?’ and I was able to say, ‘Me,’ because I was asking for him from the first over some of the bigger name actors.”
In the end, everything worked out the way it should have. Nicholson went on to film Terms of Endearment, which earned him his second Academy Award, and McGavin went on to star in what would become the most recognizable role of his career.
“Jack is fabulous,” Clark said. “I love him, but thank God he didn’t [end up with the part] because Darren is the Old Man.”
Darren McGavin in Kolchak: The Night Stalker © Universal TV / Photofest
The other actors in the film concur. Not only is McGavin impressive on-screen, but he also left a lasting impression on the other performers he worked with on the film. “Darren was professional,” Petrella says. “He was definitely a nice guy, but I didn’t know that before starting the film. I didn’t know much about Darren and who he was, but my mom did. One of the things she told me was that a lot of times, older actors don’t necessarily like to work with younger actors, ‘so let’s not find out the hard way and let’s just be on our best behavior around Mr. McGavin.’ And that’s what I was. I was on my best behavior around him. And I think because of that, there are no bad stories to tell.”
Despite his early trepidations and his mother’s warning, Ian found the actor great to work with. McGavin’s level of professionalism extended beyond his performance, as the actor also showed a concern for the production aspects of the film. “He had a lot of vested interest in this film, so it was just as important to him to make sure this was a good movie as it was for Bob and it was for Jean,” Petrella continues. “When Darren was on the set, he was ready to go and do his part. He probably wasn’t going to put up with the antics of an eight-year-old, so I made sure that he didn’t have to.”
“Darren was great,” Peter Billingsley said in 2003. “I had never worked with someone who knew so much about everything. Any question on the set, Darren had faced it. He had been through it. He was such a pro and didn’t have to tell you that he was. He was just so confident and knew absolutely everything.” Tedde Moore agrees: “He was a really beautifully trained actor, a really serious actor.”
Ian Petrella was the last child to be hired for A Christmas Story. Prior to shooting, the cast members rehearsed for the film at director Bob Clark’s house in Canada, but without the character of kid brother Randy. While McGavin, Dillon, and Billingsley prepared, and with just a few days left before shooting was to begin, an aggressive search was going on behind the scenes to find the last piece of the Parker family puzzle.
Ian Petrella © Ian Petrella
“I was a child actor and it was just another random audition that you go out for,” Ian explains. “My agent called me up and said I was needed to fill the role of the younger brother in a holiday film and that was pretty much it.”
With Clark and his crew relieved that they would start shooting on schedule, Ian was also excited to be cast in his first feature film. “I was a big fan of films at a young age,” he says. “So, not only did I value that I was going to be in a movie, but I also was going to get to see how movies were made.” A Christmas Story was an excellent film for him to cut his teeth on. Bob Clark was supportive and, for the young actor, it was generally fun to have the freedom to be a kid.
“Bob Clark allowed you as a child to bring in certain moments of your life to your performance,” he says. “Randy wasn’t a specific character. For God’s sake, he had all of three lines in the film. He’s basically the R2-D2 of A Christmas Story. He makes funny noises, whines and cries, and laughs and falls in the snow so there wasn’t a whole lot to him. Everything was physicality with Randy, and as far as Bob was concerned, there wasn’t this whole backstory on who Randy was. We didn’t have conversations like what were his dreams, what were his visions . . . he’s a frickin’ kid! He doesn’t want to eat his food and that’s it.”
With the principal cast in place, production moved forward. While the film was set in Hohman, a fictitious city based on Hammond, Indiana, where Jean Shepherd grew up, Cleveland was decided as the first shooting location. This was mostly due to a little department store named Higbee’s, and the owners’ unprecedented desire to transform their store into the North Pole.
© MGM/UA Entertainment / Photofest
CHAPTER TWO
Atop Mighty Mount Olympus
A half-mile away from Higbee’s department store, in the suburbs of Cleveland Heights, Patty Johnson came home after a long day of teaching. Her two young children were looking forward to eating, and their mother, exasperated from her day of having been with other people’s young children, was not looking forward to cooking. Reluctantly, she went to the kitchen, took out a pot, and just as she set it on the stove, the phone rang.
“Patty?” the voice said.
“Yes,” she answered.
“This is Karen Fields,” the voice answered. “I have a great opportunity for you, an audition. A movie is being shot in Cleveland and you have to come down and audition for it!”
Ther
e was a pause on the line. Patty heard her children arguing. She thought about her long day and the one yet to come tomorrow. She thought about how she was late in making their dinner and how she wasn’t in the mood to fight for them to eat their vegetables for a third consecutive night.
“Karen, honey,” Patty said to the agent. “I have work tomorrow.” There was another pause on the line. “You know I’d love to, but I . . .”
“Patty, you’ve gotta come in.”
Higbee’s as it appears in A Christmas Story © Reuben Freed
Before becoming a schoolteacher and mother, Patty Johnson made the rounds as an actress. She signed up with David & Lee, a Cleveland-based modeling agency, but before long, the agency had expanded to represent acting talent as well. Patty, who already was a veteran of local theater, took gigs with PlayhouseSquare, a theater group in town, and other professional work.
But as often happens, she felt it was time to grow up and get a “real job.” She became certified to teach and had two children. She settled down and pushed acting aside, until the agency came around to pull her back in.
The idea of auditioning for a feature film was intriguing to Patty, of course, but there were more significant problems than her work schedule. The phone call arrived on a Monday evening, two days after she had buried her mother, who had passed away the week before. She had already missed several days of work and, more importantly, the former actress wasn’t certain she was in the mental state to jump back in with both feet.
“I really don’t know if I have the flexibility in my schedule right now,” she said.
“It’s a really great role,” Karen said. “It has a Screen Actors Guild contract attached to it. They’re looking for an elf with a really bad attitude and I have a feeling you’ll get it!”
Patty didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended, but she made a decision. She was going to jump. “I can’t wait and languish in line,” Patty thought out loud. “The best I can do is come by and audition during my lunch break. I can run downtown, but you have to be able to get me in and get me out. If you can promise me that, I’d be happy to do it.”
The next day began as the one that preceded it, except Patty, who normally skipped breakfast, decided to eat something since she would be forgoing lunch. She went through the first half of her day and, when the bell sounded at the appropriate time, she raced to the door and made her way over to the audition.
Dozens of girls filled the lobby of the audition hall, waiting for their turn to be seen. As instructed, Patty made her way to the casting agents’ office and knocked on the glass window. The door opened and the icy stares from her competitors who were left behind pierced through her back. She made her way in to meet with Ken Goch, the first assistant director, who was spearheading the casting for the Cleveland-based actors.
She was given a piece of script, which is known in the business as a “side,” and was told to deliver the lines in her most convincing evil-elf interpretation. She felt she had nailed it, but just for added security, she brought out her secret weapon. She reached into her bag, pulled out five Polaroid pictures, and handed them to the casting director.
“You see,” she said. “Not only am I an actress, but I also have experience — elf experience!”
The assistant director looked at the pictures. Patty, dressed as an elf, was in Higbee’s performing as a singing elf, a side gig she’d worked a few years earlier while she was doing a show at PlayhouseSquare. She was sure she had sealed the deal now.
He thumbed through the pictures, periodically looking at Patty and comparing the person in front of him to the smiling woman in green tights and booties in the pictures.
“You know, you have a lot of qualities that the director is looking for,” Goch started hesitantly. “I’m not sure if they told you, but his concept is really to cast a teenager in this role.”
The thirty-two-year-old’s stomach rumbled as she stared back at the casting director. She thought about how long it had been since she had eaten, how she’d raced out the door, had virtually climbed over a bunch of jealous actresses waiting outside. She was sure she’d have to do that again on her way back to her car. She thought about how her gut had told her she shouldn’t go to the stupid audition in the first place. She thought about how stressful and emotional the previous week had been, and how she was getting stressed all over again.
She stared at him, and then the former elf got angry.
“You mean to tell me,” she started, “that I dragged my ass all the way down here when you wanted a teenager?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Don’t you know my credentials? If you wanted a teenager, you really needed to be clearer in your casting notice, don’tcha think? You know what, good luck with your teenagers, but if you want a professional actress, you know where I am!”
She snatched the photos out of his hand, headed toward the door, but turned back around with one final retort.
“Have a merry Christmas!”
She pushed through the piles of women waiting on the floor outside the room and made her way back to her car, incensed over what had just happened.
“I can’t wait to give Karen a call when I get off work,” she thought. “She is going to get a piece of my mind! She needs to ask better questions. This was so stupid!”
When she arrived home, she could hear her phone ringing inside as she put the key in the door.
“Hello, Patty?” It was Karen. “I’ve been trying to reach you for hours! You’ve got to—”
“You’ve got to be more careful when you make people waste their lunch break on illegitimate auditions,” she snapped.
“Illegitimate auditions?” Karen was confused, but she continued. “They want you to go down and have a second audition. They loved you! The director is flying in tonight and they want you to meet him.”
Ian Petrella and Patty Johnson © Ian Petrella
Patty just stood there. “Look, there must be some mistake,” she said. “Do you know what happened when I went down there?”
As it turned out, the agent didn’t know, so for the next few minutes, she was treated to an emotional recreation of the story from soup to nuts.
“I’m sure they made a mistake,” Patty concluded.
“I don’t know about all that, but they want you. They were quite clear. They want you to go down tomorrow for a second interview.”
Patty decided to return the next day and scribbled the details on the back of a crumpled-up receipt she found in her pocket. The next day, like the one before, she returned to the same location during her lunch break, but instead of being faced with dozens of girls when she reached her destination, this time just one stood in front of her. Patty inhaled and exhaled deeply as she sized up the girl. She was young. She was pretty. She was a teenager.
“Well, this could be ugly,” Patty thought, but she had gotten this far, so there was nothing left to do but stick it out and see what happened.
They called her in and she met director Bob Clark. They chatted for a few minutes. Patty waited for a script, but it never came, and neither did the second audition.
“We’re definitely going with you,” the director said as he shook her hand. “We’re sending you down to wardrobe now for a fitting.”
Ian Petrella and Peter Billingsley © Ian Petrella
In the walk down to the costumer, the actress was told what she had suspected: her tantrum at the initial casting call had sealed the deal. She was silently giddy as she realized that she had just landed her first major motion picture screen credit, something that was certain to boost her acting resumé.
The shoot started a week later, and seemed to be unending. “It seemed like we were there for forty days and forty nights,” she jokes.
In reality, it lasted only a week in January. Reuben Freed,
the film’s production designer, oversaw the transformation of Higbee’s into a retro winter wonderland housed inside of a department store. A thirty-foot-tall platform was erected, which the cast and crew took to affectionately calling Mount Olympus, with a large slide to discard the children after they had their opportunity to meet Santa Claus. A colossal staircase was built to aid in the elves’ ascent. According to the film’s production notes, the project took twelve men three weeks to construct.
As time-consuming as it was to get the inside of the department store to travel back in time, the outside of Higbee’s was left virtually untouched. When looking for a city in the United States that could pass as a 1940s Midwestern town, Bob Clark sent scouts to twenty different locations. Cleveland quickly emerged as the choice, primarily because of the family-owned department store.
© Ian Petrella
Higbee’s was a small store founded in 1860, but in the early 1930s, it moved downtown into a massive complex called Terminal Tower. The building was largely unchanged over the following fifty years. Outside, a large neon sign adorned the building’s retro façade. Inside, large crystal chandeliers hung on the main floor and a narrow wooden escalator took customers upstairs. The doors were all made of brass with art deco designs, and the display cases were trimmed in a wood finish. In other words, it was perfect.
While the store didn’t appear to be a year older than 1933, the main issue was that, by January, it looked a few weeks older than Christmas. To accommodate the filming, the management agreed to consolidate their merchandise — they remained open throughout the filming week — and allowed the crew to build Mount Olympus right in the heart of their main floor. Since the filming started after 6 p.m. on shooting days, many confused shoppers were privy to the spectacle of the large contraption made of wood, cotton batting, paper, and lots of sparkly, silver glitter. Those curious enough to ask were told a movie was being filmed, but many more likely just thought the department store was weeks late in dismantling their overly elaborate decorations for the holidays.
A Christmas Story Page 5
