Lorain’s “Christmas Story” Connection

Did you know that Lorain has a connection to “A Christmas Story,” the holiday movie classic?

I didn’t either, until Russ Andorka (whose father was well-known bowling kingpin Frank H. “Hank” Andorka) made me aware of it recently in an email. 

"I talked with a “ex-pin chaser" from Andorka’s this week,” Russ explained. "Bill used to work at Andorka’s in the 60’s, and left for the US Army around 1970. 

"His dad used to go to Clearview Hobby shop on Elyria Ave. in Lorain. They put together models.”

That’s when Hollywood called. 

Russ noted, "The prop department making “A Christmas Story” called the hobby shop, and asked if they knew anyone that could put together some airplane models to hang in the window of Higbee's Dept. Store at the start of the movie, which shows the Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland. 

"Anyway, the Hobby Store asked Bill’s dad to put together the planes, and Bill helped. 

"So now you know 'the rest of the story.' You like to muse about Lorain, so thought I’d pass this on," said Russ.

"Just a fun story at Christmas.”

It is a fun story. You can see some of Bill’s father’s apparent handiwork in some early movie scenes.

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I remember when A Christmas Story was being filmed in the early 1980s, I was working on Triskett Road in Lakewood, just a few blocks from W. 117th Street. When the movie wrapped, the vintage decorations on Public Square and Higbee's were left up for a while so people could go down and take a gander, which I did. 

It wasn’t until about ten years later that I used part of one of my lunch hours to drive over to see the Christmas Story house in the Tremont neighborhood. It was still a private residence at that time and wasn’t easy to pick out among all the other houses on the street.

It was probably another fifteen years after that when I paid a visit to the house again, when it was restored to its movie appearance and open as an attraction.

Seeing the house in its neighborhood setting, and recognizing various movie backdrops (such as the backyard of the house where Black Bart and the ‘bad guys’ were attacking) greatly enhances the annual viewing of A Christmas Story.