“A Christmas Story” in July
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
The classic 1983 film A Christmas Story has become ingrained in my mind – and I’m sure on the minds of anyone else under the age of 40 – as a necessary staple of the holiday season… especially now that it seems to play on a continuous loop for the entire month of December. In fact if you looked up ‘holiday film’ in the dictionary, you might find a picture of the leg lamp. As part of our Ohio tour, on July 27, 2008 Bob and I visited the primary house in the slums of Cleveland that was used in the film as the home of the Parker family.
Most people would have thought it a little strange – in fact even I thought it a little strange. As I approached Adriana Caselotti at the Hollywood Collectors Show on June 24, 1995 to purchase an autograph, she began singing to me Someday My Prince Will Come. Of course this wasn’t quite as bizarre as it sounds if you know that Adriana Caseloti provided the voice for none-other-than Snow White in Walt Disney’s very first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Now as a professed Disneyphile, this is an incredible memory to have, even though it was a bit strange and off-putting at the time. 
I don’t usually just relate simple anecdotes, but this one is much too good to pass up. This little pleasantry belongs in the annals of Farmers Almanacs the world over. It all begins with Marty Brennaman. I had once noticed the odd juxtaposition of Marty when seated next to his frequent broadcast partner, the late Joe Nuxhall, in which Marty just looked awful-darn small – almost like a ventiloquist dummy on Joe’s lap. I commented on this to my co-worker Garry, who naturally took the next step of enlarging Joe even more, creating quite a funny photo in which Marty really did look like a puppet next to Joe.
Rand Brooks achieved fame for his role in Gone With the Wind, playing the pivotal role of Charles Hamilton, brother to the character of Melanie’s brother and first husband of Scarlett O’Hara. The victim of battle in the Civil War, his scenes are confined to the beginning of the film. Rand went on to star in more than 100 various roles in both films and television until he retired from acting. He passed away in 2003. 
While the day’s earlier events are now relatively lost from memory, I can distinctly and vividly recall most of the evening’s activities on Thursday June 29, 1995. The afternoon doubtlessly consisted of Laurel and Hardy location scouting and cemetery haunting. But this was the night that the Los Angeles Conservancy presented a screening of the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece Vertigo in the majestic State Theatre. I arrived grossly under-dressed and Bob and I prepared to pounce on one of the evening’s special guests while we waited in line to gain entrance to the theater.