Real Christmas

“A Christmas Story,” the beloved 1983 movie comedy about holiday hopes in a Midwest American setting in the mid-20th century, is being developed into a traditional stage musical by producers Gerald Goehring and Douglas C. Evans.

Goehring and Evans were behind Off-Broadway’s recent Frankenstein, the pop-rock musical, which will start its licensing life in the coming year, and is being developed for a tour in 2009. They told Playbill.com that they’ve been in discussions with theatres to get a production of their musical, A Christmas Story, on its feet as early as the holiday season of 2008.

The project’s collaborators — a lyricist, a librettist and a composer — will be announced shortly. The producers said the script and score can be delivered in five months, in time for rehearsals.

Goehring and Evans exclusively optioned the musical rights — for a first-class, large-cast musical — from the Dramatic Publishing Company, Inc.

A Christmas Story already exists as a non-musical stage show that has been popular in regional markets.

The musical will be based upon the motion picture, “A Christmas Story,” which was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Turner Entertainment Co. and is currently distributed by Warner Bros. The movie was written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and (director) Bob Clark, and was based on “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash,” a novel by late humorist Shepherd (1921-99), who narrated the movie.

The producers characterize the musical project this way: “A Christmas Story is a whimsical, slightly-twisted and beloved tribute to an all-American, nostalgic view of Christmastime. Set in Indiana during the 1940s, a young Ralphie dreams of his ideal gift for Christmas and is waging an all-out campaign to convince his reluctant parents. Ralphie mounts a full-scale, hint-dropping, Santa-begging campaign. He also endures all kids of childhood calamities from his brother’s snowsuit paralysis to the yellow-eyed Scotty Farkus affair to the dreaded tongue-on-a-frozen-flagpole stunt. A triple-dog-dare Christmas classic for the American stage.”

In their upcoming Rare Book auction, Heritage Auction Galleries will offer a scarce first edition, first issue copy of Charles Dickens’ immortal novel, A Christmas Carol, in exceptional condition, estimated to bring $40,000 to $50,000.

“One of the most widely beloved Christmas stories ever written, it would be hard to overstate the importance of this well-known classic,” said James Gannon, Director of Rare Book auctions for Dallas-based Heritage. “Originally released on December 19, 1843, A Christmas Carol was an instant sensation, selling more than 6,000 copies in one week. Since then, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his miraculous redemption has been adapted into nearly every media imaginable, making it an inseparable part of our modern Christmas traditions.”

“Although we tend to see the novel as a fairy tale today,” Gannon said, “it was definitely intended as a strongly political work, written by Dickens to forcefully illustrate the ever-widening gap between the rich, as characterized by the miserly and cheerless Scrooge, and the poor, as embodied in the character of the hard-working and loyal Bob Cratchit , in the dark days of the Industrial Revolution. These themes of social injustice and poverty were never far from Dickens’ mind, as seen in a number of his books, including Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Hard Times , just to name a few. He is credited with bringing an awareness of these issues to the general public, and using his novels to effect real social and political change.”

“In our upcoming auction, we’re pleased to offer a remarkable copy of the first edition, first issue of this classic book, complete with the hand-colored steel-engraved illustrations by John Leech,” Gannon said. “Part of the incredible H. Barry Morris Collection of Charles Dickens’ First Editions, it is housed in an attractive red morocco conservation case, that has proved effective in preserving this copy, which is in exceptional condition. This is a beautiful, rare, and very desirable copy, one that any book collector will be proud to own.”

This first edition, first issue copy of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, will be offered in Heritage’s upcoming Grand Format Books & Manuscripts Auction, to be held June 3 & 4, 2008 in Dallas, Texas.

FRANKENMUTH, Mich. (AP) — The 81-year-old founder of a year-round Christmas decorations store that is one of Michigan’s best-known retail tourist attractions has inoperable cancer.

Relatives of Wally Bronner, 81, notified employees of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland on Monday that he was ailing.

Bronner started out painting signs as a teenager and grew that business into the store, which opened in 1945.

Several years ago, he turned over its day-to-day operation to son Wayne Bronner and daughters Carla Spletzer and Maria Sutorik. Their father remained a fixture at Bronner’s, mingling with customers and returning telephone calls, letters and e-mails.

Last year, as he celebrated his 80th birthday by working a 10-hour day greeting visitors to his huge store about 20 miles north of Flint, Bronner said he had no plans to retire, The Saginaw News reported Wednesday.

“You probably know I never work,” he said at the time. “Retirement is for people who work, so they can devote their time to their hobby. I started with my hobby.”

Bronner established a foundation that in 2000 donated $1 million toward the construction of a 500-seat auditorium at Frankenmuth High School.

The last minute will be a crucial one for U.S. retailers looking to make holiday sales as data released on Tuesday, one week before Christmas, show that consumers continue to procrastinate and that last week’s wicked weather stymied holiday shopping.

For the week ended December 15, sales at U.S. retail chain stores open at least a year rose 2.1 percent, the smallest year-over-year advance since June 23, according to data from the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC.

“ICSC-UBS household surveys continue to show that consumers are completing their holiday season shopping slower than at comparable times in prior years,” the ICSC said in a note.

The group said that “to the chagrin of retailers,” consumers are making fewer visits to stores due to the high price of gasoline.

The holiday season, the crucial one for retailers, typically hinges on last-minute shoppers.

But this year that trend is even more pronounced, as consumers, contending with rising food and fuel prices, seek out deeper discounts from retailers closer to Christmas.

What do you do with a real Christmas tree gone dry? Is there really a way to reverse the sad rigor mortis that overcomes all trees after they have been cut? To one family in Wales, the answer is simple: Viagra.

No, I’m not making this up. Viagra is the cure for what ails your sagging…tree. Check this out.

Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn are clashing on the set of their new film, “Four Christmases,” spies told the New York Daily News.

Famously alpha personality Reese — who named her production company Type A Films — is clashing with Vaughn’s laid-back approach to work, the News reported.

“Vince rolls onto set in the morning looking like he just came in from a night out, while Reese will arrive early looking camera-ready,” said the San Francisco source. “Then Reese tries to force Vince into blocking out each scene and running through their lines as Vince tries to convince her that he’s an ad-libber and wants to play around and see where the scene goes.”

However, the romantic comedy about a married couple who spend a Christmas with each of their four divorced parents remains on schedule and on budget.

“She’s a one-take perfectionist and Vince likes to try it a few different ways,” said the News snitch. “Sometimes Vince will be standing behind her and he has this look on his face that he just wants to kill her!”

For months Santa has been sponsoring a contest to help name his sleigh this year — but now we’ve found an even more interactive way to help Santa around the world this year. PimpMySleigh.com is a nifty little flash game that allows you to actually design Santa’s sleigh, from the color of the runners to your personally designed co-pilot in the drivers seat. You can send Santa out in style!

The game provides dozens of design options with colors, racing strips, hood ornaments and spoilers. When you’re done you can save the game, send it to others and feature it in an online gallery.

In a world that has corporate entities scared to mention or touch anything Christmas, we’re actually thrilled to see this kind of holiday spirit from sponsoring companies. PimpMySleigh.com is, appropriately, presented by a car insurance company and is a great little diversion as you count down the days to Santa’s launch.