Each vacation season, households flock to Essential Road in Chickasha, Oklahoma, for its parade and dazzling mild present. But it surely’s not simply the brightly lit Christmas tree catching their consideration — an almost 50-foot-tall leg lamp is stealing the highlight.
The large statue, which formally reopened as a everlasting attraction in November 2022, pays homage to the 1983 Christmas traditional “A Christmas Story.” It is impressed by one of many movie’s iconic scenes, the place Ralphie’s dad Mr. Parker will get the leg lamp as a “main award” for successful a newspaper crossword puzzle contest.
“When he pulled the leg lamp out of the field, I couldn’t get that out of my thoughts. I imply, that was the funniest factor I’ve ever seen,” Tim Elliot, CEO of Standley Methods, a family-owned enterprise expertise firm based mostly in Chickasha, advised “CBS Mornings.”
Just a few years in the past, that scene made a lightbulb go off in Elliot’s head – put an enormous leg lamp entrance and heart on Essential Road.
The Chickasha Pageant of Gentle with its 3.5 million twinkle lights and 170-foot-tall Christmas tree has regularly been named one of the best light shows within the nation, bringing greater than 250,000 guests annually. However Elliot needed so as to add one thing particular that may draw folks to Chickasha year-round. So, he pitched the quirky concept at a gathering for financial growth.
“I pulled the leg lamp out and set it on the convention desk, and I stated, ‘How a few 100-foot leg lamp on the finish of Essential Road?'”
Attendees laughed and shrugged off the thought, suggesting it was by no means going to occur. However Elliot was decided. He raised greater than $1 million, and in 2021, the statue went up.
However just like the film, the lamp kicked off controversy.
Jim Cowan, Chickasha financial growth director and president of the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce, stated attorneys representing Warner Brothers despatched a letter to the Chickasha Group Basis that basically learn, “stop and desist, destroy it, tear it down.”
“We had been very decided. We weren’t going to let that occur. That if we needed to go and battle within the courts we might as a result of we felt like we did issues the correct manner,” Cowan stated.
The group defined to Warner Brothers that they weren’t profiting off the lamp as a result of they do not cost admission, and a neighboring present store sells licensed merchandise from the movie. Elliot says the group hasn’t heard from the leisure firm in a few 12 months and a half.
That is excellent news for guests – like John Prock from Washington, D.C., who drove from his dad and mom’ home in Oklahoma to go to the enormous leg lamp.
“My dad and mom talked about it, so I got here down to go to them, and so they stated, ‘Properly, when you’re right here, let’s go see the leg lamp.’ So we actually hopped within the automotive, drove nearly three hours to get right here, and right here we’re,” Prock stated.
The lamp has change into a beacon for vacationers and companies.
“Tourism is at an all time excessive and a whole lot of that may be traced a technique or one other to a leg lamp,” Cowan stated.
Chet Hitt grew up simply 20 miles away earlier than transferring out west and changing into a profitable enterprise developer. Now, he is again house – and has large plans, investing thousands and thousands within the city.He has plans to develop a enterprise park and renovate downtown, as increasingly more folks come to city to see the lamp.
“You drive down this little city and also you see youngsters taking part in and the group behind issues and the assist. It simply actually they purchase into what’s right here,” Hitt stated, including that he hopes to see continued progress within the city over the subsequent decade.
