CLEVELAND — There’s a good chance you have childhood memories of "A Christmas Story" playing on a loop for 24 hours to get you in the Christmas spirit each year. It’s been 40 years since the iconic film made Cleveland a destination for its fans. Now, the cast is getting back together.
The weekend of Nov. 10, the Greater Cleveland Film Commission is hosting a cast reunion, complete with Ralphie himself, Peter Billingsly. It’s promising plenty of nostalgia, stories from behind the scenes and of course, holiday cheer to spare. To celebrate the upcoming reunion event, Billingsly spoke with News 5 anchor Katie Ussin Thursday afternoon.
“This is the first reunion that all the kid cast will be at in 40 years,” he said. “We’ve seen each other over the years, we’ve overlapped, we worked together on the sequel obviously. But through the production, none of us were always there at the same time so I’m looking forward to being with everyone and just having a chance to reconnect with the city and fans of the film.”
Some of the cast members coming to Cleveland for the reunion include Billingsly, along with Ian Petrella, who played his little brother Randy Parker, Zack Ward, who played Skut Farkus, and Scott Schwartz, who played Flick – the character who famously got his tongue stuck to that frozen pole.
Chances are you have that moment, and plenty more from the film, memorized. It’s not an overstatement to say this movie is a pretty big deal, especially here in Northeast Ohio.
“It never ceases to amaze me,” Billingsly told Katie. “Every time I think, ‘well gosh, it’s been 30 years, this is going to start waning,’ it seems to pass to the next generation, and the excitement grows every Christmas.”
"Behind the Camera: A Christmas Story, the Official 40th Anniversary" has events planned all weekend from Nov. 10-12 at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland. Ticketsare available to the public, and proceeds benefit the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. Just try not to shoot your eye out before you have a chance to see it!
