Brian Jones thinks he knows a thing or two about great movies and tourism.
He’s spent a small fortune combining both in a way he hopes will attract your dollar the next time you head to the U.S.
What did he do?
He spent $500,000 to buy and fix up a house at 3159 West 11th St. in the Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Tremont.
But not just any house.
This is the place director Bob Clark used as the setting for the iconic holiday film “A Christmas Story”. [A Christmas Story: The Book That Inspired the Hilarious Classic Film]
The movie, about a little boy named Ralphie and his quest for a Red Ryder air rifle, is one of the most beloved of the season.
Although the interiors of the famous flick were all shot inside a Toronto studio and a school in St. Catharines was used for the legendary tongue-frozen-onto-pole scene, the house in the quiet Ohio neighbourhood was the one viewers saw from the outside.
And beginning Saturday, anyone who stops by can tour the fully renovated and restored property for just $5.
Jones’ quest to become a movie memorabilia mogul began when he first became obsessed with the film several years after its 1983 release.
When the house used in the show came up for auction on eBay last year, he offered the vendor a flat $150,000 if he’d stop the bidding and sell it to him - which he did.
But it cost Jones hundreds of thousands of dollars more to completely renovate the place, turning the interior it into a replica of the home seen on screen - including the original staircase.
He also bought the home next door as a kind of souvenir shop and museum that will sell you just about anything related to its movie roots.
His wife thought he was crazy. But the 30-year-old had a feeling about the home.
“I wanted to go see it,” Jones explains of his purchase. “And if I wanted to see it, then other fans would want to, too. Why not make the house a tourist attraction?”
He notes other movie tie-ins have become magnets for visitors, including the Iowa baseball diamond in the cornfield used in “Field of Dreams”.
Jones knew he was on the right track when people started coming by before he’d even finished the project.
“Once, when we were working, these college kids showed up in a car,” he recalls. “They had driven nine hours one way just to see the house. ‘Star Trek’ has Trekkies, I have Ralphies. I’m a Ralphie myself.”
Some of the actors from the film - including the kid who played Ralphie’s brother and the guy who portrayed the hated bully Farkus - will be there when the home officially opens to tourists this weekend.
Jones is expecting some 3,000-5,000 paying customers to show up the first day.
And like “A Christmas Story” itself, he hopes the legend of his new-old digs endures and that folks will get an eyeful. Although not the kind that will have grown-ups warning “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”.
With: www.citynews.ca
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