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.”
I love this movie, too for another special reason. Jean Shephard is from my hometown of Hammond, Indiana and the fictional town name in the story (Hohman, Indiana) is actually the name of the main street through downtown Hammond. The downtown department store (Higbees or Hicbees I think it is) was really Goldblatt's - and they always did have moving snow figures in their windowfronts. As kids we looked forward to this every Christmas.
By the time he gets all DVD's, they will have something like a mini disk, and you will have to start over again.
You are really stretching now. Ok, I'll bite. What was the old man saying by the end of the movie?
I did notice that, good call by you. You will also notice that the "toadie" went on to play the annoying paperboy in John Cusack's 'Better Off Dead'.
I want my two dollars!!
Useless knowledge that may only come in handy in a trivia game.
Undoubtedly you remember The Tonight Show when Jack Paar replaced Steve Allen. But did you know that Jean Shepherd was NBC's first choice to replace Allen?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north341.html
No, but the girl from the Star Trek episode "Gamesters of Triskelon" did, and the guy who played Evil Ed in Fright is now a gay pron star. Maybe you're thinking of Cameron Mitchell or Aldo Ray, both of whom had appeared in fully clothed non-sex roles in otherwise hardcore films.
I think Paar changed TV forever: he was a genius in his own way. But what a treat it would have been to see Shepherd in that chair! I suspect he'd have left a major wake too.
My aunt runs a restaurant in Winnipeg where McGavin was frequent patron in the eighties (at the time, he was trying to get a project about Winnipeg's "Airplane Bandit" off the ground). He was a very nice man.
Yup, McGavin's sixties show was Riverboat. His costar was an up-and-comer named Burt Reynolds.
***My father and mother were born in 1940. They always made fun of this song about women in France not wearing any pants. ***
Is that the one that goes...
All the girls in France,
do the hooche kooche dance,
and the men go round,
with their pants a hanging down.
(A bawdier last verse I also remember.)
***Scott Farcus...now theres a name to remember...Scott Farus was the big guy...now what was the toadies name? I cannot remember..***
Dover Gill! He had Green Teeth!
**He had green eyes, so help me! Green eyes!***
Yellow eyes!
Grover Dill had Green teeth!
I'm sorry - I was wrong about the DVD. There are two versions, but it's only in the widescreen or fullscreen video, no difference in the soundtrack.
There is a 'tv' verion which has a few words like 'sob' edited out.
Sorry about that.
Yes. You need the Flux Capacitor and a DeLorean.
Gay surfers, Gay Cowboys, it's all the same.
Now that would be fun, to look back at what was current when you were writing your column. Get busy on your memoir.
Wow, does that ever date me -- but the secret's out now. I was on the original "Beverly Hillbillies" set, lunching with Buddy Ebsen at the Brown Derby and dinner with Irene Ryan at Chasen's. Donna Douglas was really...pneumatic (gasp!)... in those days. Lots and lots of memories: lunch with Borgnine and the McHale's Navy crew at the studio commissary; a private lunch with the gorgeous and amazingly gracious Loretta Young in her bungalow on the lot (does anyone even *remember* Loretta Young these days?) There was much, much more.
You're right -- I probably should be putting it all down on paper, at least as much as I can recall. My family and grandchildren might get a kick out of those memories and events.
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