National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
Post date: Dec 12, 2011 6:20:16 AM
This holiday classic continues the misadventures of the Griswold family - this time, Clark (Chevy Chase) just wants his family to enjoy Christmas together, but one disaster after another forces him to the brink of insanity. Like most of the 80s John Hughes-written films, this one takes place in suburban Chicago but for once was mostly filmed elsewhere. The filmmakers used a variety of locations in Los Angeles and Colorado as well as establishing shots of Chicago.
In the opening scene of the film, the Griswolds are on their way up to the mountains to search for a tree. This leads to an unfortunate incident involving a logging truck. This was filmed on County Highway 9 between Frisco and Breckenridge, Colorado.
The Griswold's house was filmed on "Blondie Street" on Warner Brothers Ranch in Burbank. I already went into some detail about this location on my page about Monster Squad, and there's a map there that shows the layout of the street.
Another interesting tidbit is that the next-door neighbors that Clark terrorizes live in Danny Glover's house from the Lethal Weapon series.
Several shots of downtown Chicago are shown, including the Christmas Tree in Daley Plaza.
Then we see Water Tower Place, at East Chestnut Street and North Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. The historic Water Tower can be seen prominently in the shot.
We then see the southwest side of the old Marshall Field & Company Department Store at 111 North State Street, where Clark and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) do some last-minute shopping.
However, thanks to some super-sleuthing by Lindsay at Iamnotastalker we now know that the scenes inside the store were filmed inside the magnificent Bullocks Wilshire Department Store (now Southwestern Law School) at 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.
A better shot of the Griswold house on the Warner Ranch backlot. The exterior of the house has since been modified for other productions, but still maintains the same basic look.
While trapped in the attic alone, Clark watches old home movies and we see him in front of his old childhood home. This was actually a only a couple houses down in the "Bewitched" house on Blondie Street.
Clark goes to visit his boss Frank Shirley (Brian Doyle-Murray) in the John Hancock Tower at 875 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
The sledding scene was filmed on one of the ski slopes at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.
Clark's sledding ride comes to an end as he skips across the road and into the Wal-Mart Parking lot at 840 Summit Boulevard in Frisco, CO. This is where he and Eddie (Randy Quaid) are seen shopping later.
Eddie goes to pick up Mr. Shirley at his mansion at 727 West Kenneth Road in Glendale, CA (credit once again goes to Iamnotastalker). Like the scenes at the Warner Lot, tons of fake snow was brought in to simulate a Chicago winter.
Google Earth Map