“A Christmas Story” in July
August 28th, 2008
The classic 1983 film A Christmas Story has become ingrained in my mind – and I’m sure on the minds of anyone else under the age of 40 – as a necessary staple of the holiday season… especially now that it seems to play on a continuous loop for the entire month of December. In fact if you looked up ‘holiday film’ in the dictionary, you might find a picture of the leg lamp. As part of our Ohio tour, on July 27, 2008 Bob and I visited the primary house in the slums of Cleveland that was used in the film as the home of the Parker family.
Betty Lou Gerson was a character actress who could be seen in numerous televsion shows throughout the 1950’s and 60’s – most notably in one of my favorites The Twilight Zone, in which she starred in the episode Ring-A-Ding Girl. But Ms. Gerson really sealed her fame when she was cast to voice the evil vixen Cruella de Vil (To see her is to take a sudden chill) in Walt Disney’s 1961 animated feature 101 Dalmations. 
Although I was starting to get used to the time zone difference (6 hours), it was still difficult dragging my butt out of bed. We had another 8am bus to catch on the morning of Tuesday, July 8, 2008. Whereas we had traveled to the northern part of Holland the day before, this bus would be taking us to the southern part of Holland. I got ready, dropped Jackie a note on the internet, and then enjoyed another great breakfast buffet – which was the exactly same everyday, but just perfect the way it was. 
Tippi Hedren is best known for her role as Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds…and little else. Although Hitch tried to make her a big star by casting her as leading role in this film as well as the lesser-acclaimed Marnie, it never really happened for her. She was quickly relegated to low-budget films and fleeting television appearances (but did also star in A Countess From Hong Kong, notable as the last film of Charlie Chaplin).