Red Ryder BB Gun [classic Jean Shepherd Christmas story, incl mp3, You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid!]

flicklives.com ^ | Jean Shepherd

[Mike Fieschko]

Red Ryder BB Gun

"An official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time"

Ralphie wants a BB Gun for Christmas, but his mother, the teacher, and even Santa give him a hard time. "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" This tale is the main storyline in the movie "A Christmas Story"
 

Daisy Website

Here's an ad for the Red Ryder as it appeared in the 1940 Montgomery Ward Winter Catalog.

Courtesy:
Joel Baumwoll

 

References

Radio

12-26-64 - Limelight Show - Red Ryder BB Gun

Books

 IN GOD WE TRUST All Others Pay Cash - 1966

Movies

A Christmas Story - 1983

Magazines

Playboy, Dec 1965
Field and Stream - September 1967

Newspaper Articles

Records / Tapes / CD

Shepherd's Pie Tape Collection Slice #1 - 1988

Story evolution

Shep used all the mediums available to his to test and develop a story. He would tell it on his weekday show, and perhaps a limelight [sic] show in front of an audience. Then he would put it into a written form as a short story and ultimately many would end up in some form as part of a movie. The most famous of these stories is the Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas story.

December 26, 1964 - WOR Show

Shep tells of being a kid and wanting a Daisy Model 200 for Christmas. The Red Ryder model was for sissies.

His mother kept telling him - "You'll shoot someone's eye out"

Shep and Randy get up on Christmas morning while their parents slept. He takes the Daisy outside while Randy plays with his gifts under the tree.

The first shot ricochets, knocks his glasses off, pulverizing the lens.

Shep goes back inside, puts his glasses on the floor and Randy accidentally steps on them. "Randy! You broke my glasses!"

Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid - Short story in Playboy and used in the book "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash"

In this version his teacher's name is Miss Bodkin. Shep is now telling the story of Randy.

He leaves 'hints' all around the house - "Open Road For Boys" magazines with the page opened to the Red Ryder ad.

"You'll shoot someone's eye out" has evolved to "You'll shoot your eye out"

The school 'theme' about what I want for Christmas is intrduced and he receives a 'B'

They open their gifts on Christmas Eve after midnight. Ralph gets up early before his parents and Ralphie.

The first shot knocks his glasses of into a snow bank and pulverizes the lens.

He conjures up the story of how an icicle falls, hits the barrel of the rifle and makes the gunstock bounce up hitting him in the cheek, knocking off and breaking his glasses.

"A Christmas Story" - The movie

The hints are now left in the form of a "Boy's Life" magazine, opened to the Red Ryder ad, stuffed into his mothers favorite magazine.

Ralphie's teacher is now Miss Shield's and he receives a 'C+' on the theme.

Everyone gets up on Christmas morning and sit around the tree opening gifts. Once the mysterious package in the corner behind the table is opened and identified as the Red Ryder, Ralphie goes outside to try it out.

The first shot ricochets hitting him in the cheek, knocking his glasses off to the ground. While trying to find them, he steps on and breaks them. He then conjures up the story about the icicle falling and hitting him.

There were other less significant changes made to the story such as the grumpy man standing in line and telling Randy - "Hey Kid, the line starts back there". This was probably added to give Shep and Leigh a presence in the movie. Also, the goofy kid standing in line was probably added to annoy an already impatient Ralphie.

This is a typical example of how Shep would tell a story once and then through the years, he would continually improve upon it never seeming to be satisfied and calling it 'finished'.

 
 

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out Kid!

 

[Mike Fieschko]

I listened to Shep back in the 60s on WOR-AM, New York. Even had a letter written by me and two buddies read by him over the air.

The Great Orpheum Gravy Boat Riot was hilarious beyond words. One of the great spoken word story tellers.

Excelsior, you fathead!

[flashbunny]

Happy to say I saw this when it was first in the theaters - which not many people did. Only after repeated showings on TV did it become well known and a christmas classic.

[Mike Fieschko]

mp3's of Shep's shows are freely available for download at shep-archives.com.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Thanks for the link (from another Shep fan, sitting here in my "rump-sprung chenille bathrobe with the dried egg yolk on the lapel.")!

[FBD]

Ha! I remember getting that Daisy BB gun as a kid.
First thing I did was take it outside, and shoot at a tractor tire...and the ricochet hit me on the cheek, right under the eye.

Of course that was back in the day before we had heard of safety glasses. Today, the line goes: "Wear your safety glasses, so you don't shoot your eye out.!"

[Rockingham]

My youngest brother had a similar experience with his Red Ryder. In his early teens, after a summer's worth of practice, he became so accomplished a shot that he could quick fire at a narrow metal pole thirty feet away and hear the satisfying ping of a direct hit almost every time. Fortunately, the ricochet that eventually hit him was not in an eye but felt as a sting on his pants leg -- and it led him to realize that the soft whacks that he thought he heard at head height on the tree next to him were also ricochets.

Despite such risks, the merits of the Red Ryder and of kids having BB guns should not be overlooked. My brother remains a crack shot. Even after a decade without regular practice, I have seen him rapid fire a clip from an M-1 Garand, peppering a target far down the firing range. Similarly, a friend of mine who did a stint in the Army used BB guns to turn his inner city misfit recruits into crack shots, amazing his superiors and competing trainers who expected most of them to fail basic marksmanship. And he used Red Ryders, of course.