'Christmas Story' fans celebrate film's 25th year...

[boyroder]

'Christmas Story' fans celebrate film's 25th year...

(AP)


CLEVELAND - Fans of the holiday classic " A Christmas Story " are celebrating the film's 25th anniversary with a convention and trips to the house where the movie was made.

The 1983 film, an adaptation of Jean Shepard's memoir of a boy in the 1940s, was set in Indiana but largely filmed in Ohio. The movie starred Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker, a young boy determined to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas .

The film was a modest theatrical success, but critics loved it. It eventually joined " It's a Wonderful Life " and " Miracle on 34th Street " as a Christmas cult classic.

"It's a film about being a kid and looking back," said Brian Jones , who owns the house where the movie was shot and the neighboring museum dedicated to the film.

About 4,000 fans are attending the convention at Cleveland's Renaissance Hotel , where they'll meet some of the film's actors, watch three documentaries made about the film and see the original 1938 fire truck from a famous scene in the movie involving a child's tongue stuck to a frozen pole.

"It is unbelievable that a movie has touched the lives of millions of families," said Phil Gillen, son of the late actor Jeff Gillen who played the movie's worn-out Santa Claus . He traveled from Miami with his family to attend the convention.

Avid fans Mark and Becky Tompkins also traveled to the meetup with their children, Madison, 9, and Brandon, 5.

"It's a Christmas movie that you can watch and relate to," Mark Tompkins said. "Everyone, whether they want to admit it or not, really wanted a special gift one holiday."