Who hasn’t seen the classic holiday film A Christmas Story, which follows a young boy and his family’s misadventures during Christmas in the 1940s? Child actor Peter Billingsley, now 53, was just 12 years old when he played the role of Ralphie Parker in the film. In one interview as an adult, he explained that there was one scene in the film where Ralphie daydreams about saving his family with a BB gun and is dressed up as a sheriff. A line in the script indicated that he is chewing tobacco. So, the prop man went up to Peter, pulled out a pouch of Red Man chewing tobacco and handed him a wad. When Peter asked what to do with it, the prop man instructed him to jam it down in his cheek and “Don’t swallow, just spit.” Peter followed the stunt man’s instructions, but about 15 minutes in, the world begab to spin and Peter started to sweat. “My stomach starts hurting, and I start throwing up.” Director Bob Clark yelled “Cut!” and asked what was going on. The prop man explained that he had given Peter Red Man, to which Clark replied, “What are you doing? He’s 12 years old!” Needless to say, filming was shut down while Peter laid on a couch for the next 40 minutes, until the nicotine moved out of his system. Then the prop department did what they should have done in the first place — “They took a bunch of raisins, squished them together, stuck that in my mouth, and I had brown spit.”
