Leg lamp popular this time of year

30-years ago, a low budget movie about a little boy named Ralphie who’s only wish was to get a BB gun for Christmas was released in theatres across North America. Now, “A Christmas Story” is a holiday staple with fans of all ages. And while it’s set in 1940s Cleveland, Canada plays a big part in the film.

A Christmas Story, made for just 4 million dollars in 1983, has since become a beloved holiday classic. But what some people might not know is that the American movie has more than a few Canadian connections.

“I think people are really surprised when they find out how Canadian the movie is.”

The famous scene where Flick gets his tongue stuck to the flagpole was filmed here in St. Catharines. The building you see behind me is now a women’s shelter. But in 1983, it was Victoria Public School. It’s there that all of the movie’s school scenes were filmed with many of the school’s students at the time posing as extras.

And the man responsible for making the now famous flag pole is Martin Malivoire, a former special effects creator who now owns a winery in Beamsville: “It was hollow, attached a vacuum pump to it, drilled a hole in it. and he had control of the vacuum, how much it pulled when he was doing that.”

Martin, a 30-year veteran of the movie business, also had a part in the designing of… “This is a lamp! Isn’t it great? What a great lamp.”

Martin said: “It was cast from a real model. She had what you would call a rubenesque leg. It was made of breakaway glass and fiber glass, lots of different mediums so that it could be used in different ways in the film.”

Here at RetroFestiv, a pop culture Christmas store in Oakville, the leg lamp is means business. There are miniature ones for sale, and ones, well, as big as the one in the movie.

Tyler Schwartz, who owns Retrofestiv, also recently released a book celebrating the 30th anniversary of A Christmas Story: “I really think it’s got a lot of heart. That’s really what it comes down to. And they don’t really make movies like this anymore.”

For Martin Malivoire, it also made him a part of movie history: “It is an iconic film, and nobody knew it would happen and I’m very happy that I did it.”

None of the original leg lamps exist anymore. Martin told me he destroyed all the ones he had about 10 years after the movie because they were just collecting dust in his shop. When A Christmas Story was released back on November 18th, 1983, it wasn’t a huge hit, but it found new life on TV years later, and is now considered one of the best Christmas movies of all time.