On 'A Christmas Story's' 40th anniversary, 50-foot leg lamp is a kick for an Oklahoma town

CHICKASHA — With the soft glow of red and green holiday lights gleaming on his upturned face, Ryan Greenwood's eyes boggled.

You might even say the Eatonville, Washington, resident was overcome by art as he gazed up at the 50-foot-tall Chickasha Leg Lamp.

"This is the coolest thing in the world. It has literally put a smile on my face. I thought it was going to be maybe as tall as a stop sign or something. But it's huge," Greenwood said as he snapped photos of the towering year-old Chickasha landmark.

"It looks exactly like what's in the movie."

On the first Sunday night in December, a steady stream of vehicles ventured down Chickasha Avenue so that seasonal celebrants could behold the permanent fiberglass statue — yeah, a statue — that has become a big draw for the Grady County seat's downtown.

Inspired by the iconic prop featured in the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story," the Chickasha Leg Lamp bowed in November 2022, and in the year since, more than 175,000 people have visited downtown Chickasha a combined 1.1 million times.

With the beloved film celebrating its 40th anniversary this year — "A Christmas Story" is returning to movie theaters nationwide Dec. 10 and 13 in honor of that milestone — Chickasha Chamber of Commerce President Jim Cowan said he expects hundreds of visitors to seek out the roadside attraction this holiday season.

"We've had definitely plenty of skeptics. Then, once we put it up, they're like, 'Oh, well, we like it during the holiday season, but no one will come see it during the rest of the year.' And we have stats that show, oh, no, they come year-round," said Cowan, also the executive director of the Chickasha Economic Development Council. 

"School buses will stop off here. Tourists will come in here. It's been a huge success — and we feel like we're just getting started."

Why is there a giant leg lamp in Chickasha?

Dressed up in a black high heel, fringed lampshade and fishnet stocking complete with a seam up the back, the Chickasha Leg Lamp is inspired by local legend: Chickasha native Noland James, a longtime University of Oklahoma art professor, believed that a novelty lamp he created out of a mannequin's legs and displayed in his office helped influence the design of the famed "Christmas Story" prop.

The way James' 2020 obituary told it, a man looking for employment at OU "became tantalized with the lamp. ... A few years later, this same man was on the production team that produced the leg lamp from a hosiery leg for a 1983 movie." 

That movie was "A Christmas Story," a comedic 1940s tale of a boy named Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) trying to convince his parents, teacher and Santa that he should get an official Red Ryder carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle for Christmas.  

A cable television staple, the 1983 film is adapted from Jean Shepherd's 1966 short story collection “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash." In the tale titled "My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the Birth of Pop Art," Ralphie's father (Darren McGavin) receives a lamp in the shape of a sexy stockinged leg as a prize in a contest, thrilling Ralphie and embarrassing his wife (Melinda Dillon).  

According to the A Christmas Story House & Museum's leg lamp history, Shepherd dreamed up the leg lamp after seeing an illuminated Nehi Soda advertisement. The design for the "Old Man's major award" in "A Christmas Story" is credited to production designer Reuben Freed, who produced three leg lamps for the movie.

As the movie's plot dictates, all three were broken during filming, but that hasn't stopped the leg lamp from becoming one of cinema's most recognizable props.

Even as movie crews are reconvening in Chickasha to resume filming the upcoming blockbuster "Twisters," Cowan said a documentary is in the works about the leg lamp and the boost it's given the community.

"It's fun for me, the amount of people that come through, and I'll go up and offer to take pictures and find out 'where you from?'" said Cowan, whose office is a block and a half away from the leg lamp.

"This type of thing just doesn't happen in a rural town in Oklahoma. ... But you could say it's how we're getting a leg up."

How has downtown Chickasha changed since the leg lamp debuted?

Just a few months after James died in 2020, the Chickasha Economic Development Council welcomed the holidays with a 40-foot inflatable version of the "Christmas Story" leg lamp. The response online quickly "blazed forth in unparalleled glory," leading to efforts to build the permanent statue unveiled last November.

Far from fragile — or "fra-gee-lay," as "Christmas Story" fans might say — the appeal of the leg lamp has proven sturdy. In the year since since the Chickasha Leg Lamp debuted, downtown visits kicked up 26.8% compared to the previous 12 months, Cowan said, citing data accumulated through a subscription with the Placer cellphone location tracker service. 

The trade area served by downtown Chickasha has grown by 7.6%, while retail sales across the city have jumped by $27.2 million.

From November 2022 through September 2023, overnight visits to Chickasha increased 11.5% vs. the same period in 2021-2022.

Just blocks away from the leg lamp, which was built by local company Midwest Cooling Towers, Chickasha Avenue is dotted with once-empty storefronts now occupied by new businesses including restaurants, gift shops and a speakeasy.

Chet Hitt, a California businessman who went to school in nearby Anadarko, has bought several downtown buildings — including one directly across the street from the new landmark — and is developing an array of projects, including a distillery, barbecue restaurant and hotel.

"I wouldn't be here without it ... because I was here that day they put the shade on," Hitt told The Oklahoman, adding he just happened to be driving through Chickasha after his 40th high school reunion when he spied the town's "major award" coming together.

"I am not a spring chicken anymore ... so the reality of it is, if I'm going to have fun, do something I want to, I can't just sit at home. I want to develop and do cool things — and this town has offered it to me on a silver platter, just from the people and the 'yes, we can do it' attitude to the leg lamp."

How are local artists and businesses embracing the Chickasha Leg Lamp?

But Chickasha isn't just growing in the shadow of the "soft glow of electric sex" from its new roadside attraction: Last month, the new AdventureScape escape room opened in downtown, but so did an HTeaO location on S 4 Street, which is U.S. Highway 81, and a Chick-fil-A restaurant in a new de-vel-op-ment off 4 Street and Grand Av-enue.

"A lot of the downtown renovations started before the leg lamp came. It has happened in a trickle down here in our downtown area. But to me, even the things that are happening in the center of town — in our more commercial area, where we see more of our chains and things like that — are just as equally exciting," said Whitney Palesano, membership director for the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce.

"While our downtown is getting a lot of attention, I think the city as a whole deserves a lot of credit, because there's just a lot of wonderful things happening."

A lifelong Chickasha resident, Palesano and her husband, Matt, opened in August the Downtown Mercantile and Visitors Center in the brick building adjacent to the leg lamp. The store is a cornucopia of leg lamp-related merchandise, from licensed "A Christmas Story" ornaments to an array of items created by Oklahoma artists.

"The licensed stuff does come from the 'Christmas Story' museum in Cleveland, Ohio. They had reached out to me, and we've partnered together," Palesano said.

"We see a lot of people here just to see the leg lamp; a lot of them are traveling and doing Route 66. ... With Thanksgiving and Black Friday, we saw a lot of visitors and a lot of traffic, which is exciting."

Many of those visitors temporarily depleted her mercantile's leg lamp inventory, which ranges from hand towels embroidered by local Crafty Queen Pamela Prather and T-shirts printed by homegrown company 6 Chicks to stained glass ornaments crafted by Chickasha artist Julie Gordon and laser-engraved wooden trivets created by the Blanchard-based husband-and-wife team of Terry and Karen Moss of TK Creations. Shoppers can even find leg lamp-shaped chocolates from Norman's Bomb Dippity Confections.

"I'm just a stay-at-home grandma making things, and this has really put a shot in the arm for me financially. And it's been a lot of fun, because this is what I do from the heart," Prather said.

"It's making my dreams come true."

How are holiday visitors responding to the Chickasha Leg Lamp?

This month, the Downtown Mercantile also is selling tickets to the Santa Shuttle, which for the first three weekends of December transports visitors from downtown Chickasha to Shannon Springs Park, home of the 31st annual Chickasha Festival of Light.

Although the 43-acre yuletide spectacle has garnered national recognition — it was only Oklahoma attraction to earn a nomination for Best Public Holiday Lights Display in the USA Today 10Best 2023 Readers’ Choice Travel Awards — Palesano said that most festivalgoers didn't venture as far as downtown until recent years. Now, the looming leg lamp draws crowds to Chickasha Avenue, too.

"The community as a whole has really bought into the spirit of the idea. Chickasha is known for its Christmas spirit with the Festival of Light. I think this is just a really great addition to that, and we've gotten a lot of really positive response," she said.

"I think it's pretty impressive. It is a major award — and they've made it really beautiful."

For Minco resident David Lair and his three adult children, attending the Chickasha Festival of Light is an annual tradition, and this year, they decided to take a downtown detour Dec. 3 to see the giant leg lamp they'd heard so much about.

"It's neat," Lair said with a grin. "She's got a nice-looking leg."

"She works her calves out really well, too," quipped his son, Thomas Lair.

For Greenwood, the diehard "Christmas Story" fan from Washington state, seeing the "indescribably beautiful" Chickasha Leg Lamp was a highlight of coming to Oklahoma for a holiday visit with his girlfriend's family in nearby Newcastle.

"He hasn't taken a single photo of us this whole trip, and now he has not stopped taking photos of this leg," said Greenwood's girlfriend, Melissa Meyers, with a laugh.

"But it is huge. ... I get it."

"It definitely did not disappoint," he added.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Christmas Story'-inspired 50-foot leg lamp gives Oklahoma town a boost