"A Christmas Story" House and Museum in Cleveland

When "A Christmas Story" hit the theaters in 1983, you could say it landed with a thud. It came and went without so much as a blink from the public and without a grand take at the box office. But that all changed when Turner Broadcasting decided to play the movie nonstop every year before Christmas, in a format that soon morphed into an annual 24-hour Christmas Story marathon on Christmas Eve. Long story short: people now love this movie. So much so that a man named Brian Jones bought the house where the exterior scenes of the movie were filmed on eBay for $150,000.

You could say he was a fan. He'd already raked in big bucks selling replicas of the infamous, knobby-kneed leg lamp. You could argue that his "major award" is the house, which he has renovated to its Christmas Story former glory, and is now open for tours at $5 a pop.

Never mind that the scenes inside the house were filmed in Toronto. From the line of fans waiting to get inside, forming an eyebrow-raising line down the street, you'd never guess.

The inside is a bit spare, but Jones has made the effort to furnish some of the rooms with similar furniture and colors as the home seen in the movie. And he did turn the house across the street, which is part of the first scene of the movie, into a museum housing memoribilia, including little brother Randy's infamous "I can't put my arms down" snowsuit. They also sell mini chocolate replicas of the Red Rider BB gun. Oh, and handmade red and green felt elf hats made by the infamous evil department store elf herself-- Patty LaFountaine-Johnson, the local actress who told Ralphie to "get going."

The TBS network said 38 million people tune in to watch the marathon every year. That's enough to shoot anyone's eye out. •