CLEVELAND – It’s a major award, or coup for the ‘A Christmas Story House.’
Something that’s eluded them for a long time.
It is the one object that is at the heart of the movie ‘A Christmas Story.’
That one thing that Ralphie dreams and schemes and wishes for.
An official Red Ryder carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle.
And now it’s back home.
32 years after Ralphie almost shot his eye out.
“There were six guns made for the movie and I knew that Peter Billingsley had one and Daisy had one in its museum. And I wasn’t sure where the other ones were.” Peter Jones, the owner of the ‘A Christmas Story House’ said. “This one kind of found us. Someone on our Facebook page contacted us and they said ‘hey did you see there was this site selling one of the guns from the movie?’ And I went right over there and checked it out and sure enough…”
The rifle was made just for the movie with a compass and sundial in the stock, something that was never a part of the original Red Ryder but was described vividly in Jean Shepherd’s book.
This one belonged to the prop manager who worked on the film and the museum snapped it up for a whopping $10,000 dollars making it one of the most expensive BB rifles you’ll probably ever see.
On average more than 50,000 people tour the house and museum each year.
Thousands of them make a b-line to pick up the Red Ryder replica once they get into the house. So having the real one in a glass case on display adds more story to the Christmas Story House.
“Are we able to hold the real one?” Bob Weagraff a visitor to the house asked. “That’s really cool that they have the real stuff sitting here. It brings you really close to the movie makes you feel like you’re part of it.”
The one prop that the ‘A Christmas Story House’ will never get is was one of the original leg lamps that was used in movie.
Jones says by all reports they were all destroyed or thrown away sometime in the 1990’s.