Posted on 12/15/2005 6:04:54 PM PST by presidio9
Some former child actors cringe and protest when reminded by loyal fans of long-ago projects. Not Peter Billingsley, star of “A Christmas Story.”
According to journalist Rebecca Murray, “he seems to genuinely light up when the movie is mentioned.”
Billingsley is also used to passersby tossing their favorite quotes at him. “They all still love it,” he told Murray. People ask him if he’s tired of talking about it, but he’s not. “I’m really, really proud to be a part of it.”
Billingsley still appears in front of the cameras now and then. (He had an uncredited role in last year’s seasonal hit, “Elf,” playing - what else? - an elf. He also served as the movie’s executive producer.
He was executive producer on “Zathura,” which is still playing locally in theatres. In the upcoming comedy, “The Break-Up,” starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston, he also does dual duty in front of and behind the camera.
It’s all part of a day in the life of a talented man who, unlike some child stars, was able to make his way gracefully from kid to grownup and remain in show business.
He credits his parents with this successful transition. From the beginning, back in New York City, the Billingsleys looked on the whole thing as fun, and never let themselves take their son’s stardom too seriously. “It was also something that was just done for fun,” Peter said, in a 2002 interview with Wayne Chinsang. “If it wasn’t fun, it was going to stop.”
On the advice of friends who told her that her sons were cute, Peter’s mother took them to a agent. “The first one said we were too fat, the next one said too ugly, but the third one said, ‘Yeah, they’ll work,’” Peter said.
The three-year-old’s first gig was a Geritol commercial. Other commercials followed, and then some forgettable movies. The Billingsleys moved to Phoenix, Ariz., and struck gold in 1983 with “A Christmas Story.”
Well, not literally gold. The movie was made with a modest budget by a director, Bob Clark, who believed in it. “They (Bob and Jean Shepherd) tried for 12 years to get that film made,” Peter said. “Bob had to agree to direct another junky film for the studio to greenlight it. They hardly gave him any money. MGM didn’t support the release of the movie.”
“It was so different,” Jean Shepherd said in a 1998 interview for TV Guide. “It was too real, and MGM didn’t think kids would like it.”
There’s no way for Peter to avoid the movie, even if he tried, not even in his own family. When the Billingsleys get together in Phoenix for Christmas, someone will invariably slip it in the VCR.
He doesn’t mind the connection. “It’s a great film,” he told Chinsang in the 2002 interview. “It’s something I want to be known for.”
Besides a modest paycheck from the movie, Peter was allowed to keep one of the specially made Red Ryder BB guns, the cowboy suit, and the pink bunny suit. “It’s tucked away,” he said. “But the gun is really cool.”
Peter never really left Hollywood, although he did vanish from sight for a while, leading to those predictable rumors that he died a derelict drug addict and was buried in an unmarked grave.
That’s not his style. He joked with Chinsang about his unremarkable, non-glamorous upbringing. “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said. “I grew up in a loving family in Phoenix. I tried a cigarette once.”
What Peter did do was move into editing, some writing, directing, and then producing, where he is most active today. He frequently teams up on projects with friends such as actor Vince Vaughn and director Jon Favreau.
Favreau and Peter collaborated on IFC’s popular “Dinner for Five,” which ran for five seasons. “Zathura” and “The Break-Up” continue their association as director and producer.
Peter acknowledges there have been many changes since 1983 in the way Hollywood markets pictures. “Today, there are so many things that are our of your control,” he said. “All that you can really ever do, which is what we did with ‘A Christmas Story,’ is tell a great story.”
OTOH, there is that "Flick Lives!" thing.
LOL - the same thought crossed my mind at one point!
Jean Shepherd's stories were classic works of art. The books in their written form unsuitable for a family movie though. The Old Man in Christmas Story was a far cry from his written version. :>}
I can sympathize with The Old Man as he called his dad. My favorite stories were Ollie Hopnoddle's Haven of Bliss and the one where he finds himself nearly suckered into going to a Polish wedding {His own} LOL. Yes I remember cars that you had to jump up and down on the front bumper to start too. A 59 Rambler my dad owned required a hammer to tap the solenoid. At the age of about 8 I had the ritual down real well for mom to start the car.
FWIW, on shortwave, WBCQ runs a Shep show, Mondays at 5PM Eastern, on 7.415. I think they do a webcast(s) too, wbcq.com
"Excelsior You Fathead!"
"mom always wonders if we remember those songs, as she tells us they were quite vulgar..."
Dad taught me this one:
If you'll be M-I-N-E mine
I'll be T-H-I-N-E thine
and I'll L-O-V-E love you
all the T-I-M-E time
You are the B-E-S-T best
of all the R-E-S-T rest
and I'll L-O-V-E love you
all the T-I-M-E time
Rack 'em up, sack 'em up, any ole time
That's where my money goes
To buy my baby clothes
I buy her everything to
Keep her in style
She wears silk underwear
I wear my G.I. pair
Hey boys, that's where my money goes.
It could be a bowling ally! :)
So, has anyone ever seen the sequel, "It Runs in the Family"? I saw it once. It definitely was not as memorable as the first one.
Oh, I forgot to put the link to the IMDb page for it: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0110168/combined
I notice Jeff Gillen was a writer on "She-Man"
Here is a review:
Bring a bottle of no-dose with you because this worthless, trashy, horrible, piece of junk, will have you snoring at the opening credits.
One of the worst Miami-filmed and produced films ever made. A hissy, gross-looking, cross-dressing weirdo forced a member of the U.S. Army to dress-up in women's underwear and act like a sissy in heat! The cast of this film looks liked it was dug up from a local "Drag-Queen" skid-row strip-club.
This film is so bad that they should pay people to sit through it! I thought I was going to pull-my-teeth-out (Brando's line!) with the lousy, stiff, wooden, acting of the actors. The transvestite was so over the top that you can't help but start laughing.
Aside from a few demented chuckles, there is nothing else to praise about this movie. Seriously, the cast is so unattractive in their roles that it makes you feel like you're viewing a carnival "Freak-Show". Once the film is over, you have to brush your teeth to get the "bad taste" out of your mouth.
She-Man is a Freak-Man! The worst movie ever-made....in Miami that is!
You know, they talk about how dated shows like Leave it to Beaver are, but I've seen a number of shows with plots that I thought could happen to any kid/teen today. The difference is that back then, when the kids had a problem, they would go to the parents for help. Today, the parents would be portrayed as dolts that no kid would respect or go to for advice.
I liked the one where a young teen Beaver got sucked into a monthly record plan like Columbia House. I was surprised that they had stuff like that back then, and I'm only 5 years younger than the Beav. It was a hoot to see him w/a bunch of 'Columbia House' 45s.
He was a straight shooter
Melissa Michaelson... she was in a series just before they moved to Arizona, with none other than O.J. Simpson called "Goldie and the Boxer".
Also, a series "Me And Max" with Joe Santos
I wonder if anyone remembers them. She was my best friend in the sixth grade, he was 9.
The vulgarity you speak of was removed from the movie. Believe me I have read the written version of it many, many, times. He could write it good either way. It was a reality of where Shepherd grew up which was a steel mill town near Chicago. Yes kids in that era used foul language. But hang on a second. Look at what else came from that era. I invite you to research the origins of some great clean folk songs. Sweet Violets is one. Bell Bottom Trousers is another.
The era of The Great Depression & WW2 produced some of the crudest songs man could utter actually. The kids knew them also. My uncle was from the Chicago area and the Dad in the written version of that movie reminded me of him a lot. Shepherd re-wrote the story for a family tv movie and it was good. Hey remember the Christmas movie The Homecoming? The turkey thief and the bootleg sisters? Get my point? They were part of the era written about. Do I want to hear vulgarity all the time? By all means no. But I did enjoy reading his stories as they were very realistic for the time and place he was writing about.
My gal's a chorus girl;
She's a New Yorker;
I buy her everything to keep her in style;
She's got a pair of hips;
Just like two battleships;
Hey boys, that's where my money goes.
(That's all I can post here)
I have to see Zathura again to spot it, but I understand that he put the Leg Lamp (Fragile!) in the set someplace.
Every body talking about how they miss their mom's and dad's and all the great, wonderful memories from America during the 30's - 50's.
My father was born in 1946, my mom in 1950. Both of them heard four letter words in their neighborhoods and from relatives as children. However, it was usually the case that while men swore among one another, they rarely, if never, cursed in front of ladies. Ladies, of course, NEVER swore, unless they were "trashy."
My sister once told my mother .....Daddy said he had a house on a dam,or a dam on a house, or something about a dam house
When he came back from hanging out with the guys on the site, my five-year old father surprised my grandmother with "get me my f-cking dinner!"
He was subsequently disciplined, and it was many years until my grandma allowed granpa to take him to a construction site again.
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