The Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story is one of the most iconic and recognizable movie props of all time.  Replicas of the leg lamp have become prized “Major Awards” for fans everywhere and are available in our gift shop. A Christmas Story author, Jean Shepherd was inspired to create the leg lamp after seeing an illuminated Nehi Soda advertisement.

The leg lamp was first described in 1966  in Shepherd’s novel “In God We Trust: All Other Pay Cash!”  under the short story title “My Old Man and the Lascivious Special Award That Heralded the Birth of Pop Art.”  It was described in detail in Shepherd’s story and later materialized in physical form in the PBS film “The Phantom of the Open Hearth” which was broadcast in 1976.  It varied in several details from the leg lamp that appears in A Christmas Story.

The leg lamps for A Christmas Story were made by special effects creator Martin Malivoire.  Of the leg itself 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.”  Reportedly 10 or so lamps were produced for the film.  Several of the props were of course broken on set during the filming.  Martin destroyed all of the he had 10 years after the film before it became the cherished classic because they were collecting dust in his shop.  At least one still survived into the early 2000’s but its current location is unknown.