The "A Christmas Story" House and Museum Quiz

Answer: A lamp

In the movie, the leg lamp was delivered to Ralphie's father (referred to only as the "old man") inside a giant crate marked "Fragile".

In the years after the movie was released replica lamps became popular, and the lamp came to be the symbol of the movie.

Versions of the leg lamp can be seen on display in several spots in the museum. Replica lamps are in the front window of the house, and inside a crate in the living room. There are also other lamps that move around various displays in the museum.

Answer: True

"A Christmas Story" was released in 1983, and the museum opened some 23 years later.

The museum was opened in Cleveland, Ohio inside the house that was used to film most of the exterior shots in the movie. The interior shots were mostly filmed on a sound stage in Canada, where the majority of the film was made.

Initially the museum was housed inside the house, but as attendance grew the owners purchased property across the street and opened a larger museum and a gift shop, leaving the actual house to be modeled on the interiors seen in the movie.

Answer: On eBay

Jones, who already owned a company called "The Red Rider Leg Lamp Company" which made replica lamps from the movie, used funds from that company to buy the house in an eBay auction.

The house had been modernized over the years. Jones spent considerable time and energy to return the house to the state it was in the movie.

Answer: False

The house was in Cleveland, Ohio, whereas Shepherd grew up in Hammond, Indiana. Cleveland stood in for the fictional Hohman, Indiana, which itself stood in for his real home town.

Shepherd himself played the part of the adult Ralphie Parker, who was the movie's narrator.

Answer: Flick

All four were characters in the movie. Scut (Zach Ward) was the neighborhood bully. Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) was the main character, Randy (Ian Petrella) was the younger Parker brother.

Flick (Scott Schwartz) was one of Ralphie's friends. During a scene set at recess during school he was dared to stick his tongue to a flagpole, and when he did he got it stuck there. The fire department had to be called to rescue him.

Answer: Oldsmobile

One of the most famous scenes in the movie is when Ralphie is forced to help his father change a tire late in the evening on the family car.

During the scene Ralphie is heard to swear, which leads to him having his mouth washed out with soap later in the movie.

Answer: Living Room

He first sees the gun at Higbee's department store early in the film. Ralphie then spends most of the film telling people (including Santa, his teacher, and his parents) that he wants the gun for Christmas. They all tell him he'll "shoot your eye out".

When he finally gets the gun on Christmas morning, he shoots himself in the face with a BB that ricochets back to him.

A partially unwrapped gun (pictured) is on the couch in the living room, with a fully open one nearby for patrons to take pictures with.

Answer: Bob Clark

In addition to "A Christmas Story" Bob Clark directed "Black Christmas" (1974), "Murder by Decree" (1979), "Tribute" (1980), "Porky's" (1982) and produced several other projects.

The Bob Clark Memorial Bench was dedicated in 2014.

Answer: Dogs

The Old Man had had several run ins with the Bumpus hounds over the years. There had been a brief mention earlier in the movie before the dogs got into the kitchen through the back door. They then trashed the table and ate the turkey, forcing the Parkers to go a Chinese restaurant for dinner.

The kitchen exhibit in the museum is set up with the turkey in the oven ready to come out, but the rest of the kitchen is more like it looked throughout other parts of the movie when they weren't preparing meals there.

Answer: Bathroom

The brightly colored soap was a real product on the market at the time the movie was set. No exact year is mentioned but the movie is set in the 1930s or 40s.

Mrs. Parker used the soap to punish Ralphie for cursing while helping his dad change a flat tire.

Lifebuoy Soap was first sold in 1895.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie is spoken by Ralphie about the product: "Over the years I got to be a connoisseur of soap".