Chickasha artist’s widow calls 50-foot leg lamp ‘a substantial amount of enjoyable’

• A 50-foot-tall leg lamp impressed by the film “A Christmas Story” stands in Chickasha, Oklahoma.
• The statue additionally serves as a tribute to late native artist Noland James, who created his personal leg lamp years earlier than the movie.
• A brand new documentary titled “Fragilé” chronicles the controversial creation of the favored vacationer attraction.

CHICKASHA — Elizabeth James will get a kick out of the 50-foot-tall leg lamp softly glowing on the finish of Chickasha Avenue as an homage to her late husband.

“Why not? … I think it’s a great deal of fun. And I think it’s good for people to have something that’s a little different,” she mentioned with a smile. “Noland loved Chickasha. He absolutely adored the town and would have been terribly pleased if it brought any kind of goodwill to the town.”

Whether they view the Chickasha Leg Lamp as “indescribably beautiful” or “the ugliest lamp I have ever seen in my entire life,” most individuals instantly acknowledge the towering fiberglass sculpture of a girl’s leg clad in a fishnet stocking and black high-heel shoe as a nod to the beloved vacation movie “A Christmas Story.”

But it should not take curious visitors online or in-person lengthy to study that the Grady County seat’s “major award” additionally towers as a tribute to Chickasha native Noland James, a longtime University of Oklahoma artwork professor who died in 2020 on the age of 89.

“Noland wasn’t interested in notoriety at all. He was an artist, and the only thing he was interested in was the creative process,” James’ widow mentioned. “I think it would have surprised him. I mean, it would have been OK, but I just don’t think he ever expected anything that he did to cause this much drama.”

Elizabeth James is among the many colourful forged of small-town characters — staunch supporters and decided detractors alike — that Chickasha filmmaker Reagan Elkins interviewed for his feature-length documentary “Fragilé,” which chronicles the making of the favored vacationer attraction in his hometown.

“I truly don’t care one way or the other about the leg lamp. It’s five blocks away from my office; I get to see it every day. I don’t really care that it’s there. … But I do care about this story: the crazy, wild story that I got to experience firsthand,” Elkins, a fourth-generation Chickasha resident, instructed The Oklahoman after a non-public screening of his movie on the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha.

Chickasha Leg Lamp tied to late native artist Noland James

For Elkins, the streaming launch of his documentary this vacation season constitutes a serious award after 5 years of chronicling the often-controversial creation of the statue (yeah, a statue).

Tim Elliott, a lifelong Chickasha resident additionally featured within the movie, got here up with the concept of organising a large-scale model of the “Christmas Story” leg lamp to tie into the city’s nationally acknowledged Festival of Light Christmas lights show.

“What I have is a love for Chickasha, and it wouldn’t have mattered what it was: I just wanted to do something for Chickasha,” mentioned Elliott, including that he believes Elkins’ “Fragilé” is a truthful document of how the shapely roadside attraction took form.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Elliott arrange a 40-foot-tall inflatable version of the leg lamp in downtown Chickasha that went viral, boosting his resolve to see a everlasting model of the curvy cinematic landmark.

Those efforts acquired an enormous leg up after James died on July 18, 2020, and his obituary included the road “Noland always felt his lamp was the prototype for the one in the movie ‘A Christmas Story.'” 

An OU graduate, James taught for 30 years on the Norman college’s School of Visual Arts, the place he turned a discarded girls’s model into an uncommon artwork mission that he displayed in his workplace till he retired. The novelty lamp was devised of the model’s two slender legs, clad in black hose and pumps, with a waste basket torso and a lampshade on high.

The approach James’ obituary tells it, a person searching for employment at OU “became tantalized with the lamp and came by Noland’s office many times to look at it and ask about how it was put together — he nearly took it apart to see how it was made.

“A couple of years later, this identical man was on the manufacturing workforce that produced the leg lamp from a hosiery leg for a 1983 film.”

Based on Jean Shepherd’s 1966 e book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash,” the 1983 film “A Christmas Story” tells a Forties story of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), whose yuletide want is to get “an official Red Ryder carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle.” Along the way in which, the boy is dazzled when his father (Darren McGavin) wins an alluring lamp formed like a woman’s leg.

Shepherd’s leg lamp was reportedly impressed by an illuminated Nehi Soda commercial, and the cinematic design for the “Old Man’s major award” in “A Christmas Story” is credited to manufacturing designer Reuben Freed.

James’ widow mentioned that he created his leg lamp round 1968.

“That’s interesting, isn’t it? A film is really such a huge project, and by the time it’s over, whatever story they’re telling is distilled through 1,000 voices. … And creative processes very often coincide, because they reflect the tone of the time,” Elizabeth James mentioned.

“In all creative art, you’re not alone, no matter what (medium). If you’re a painter, you’re still not alone. If you’re a sculptor, you’re still not alone. My undergraduate degree is in art criticism, so that process fascinates me.”

Documentary ‘Fragilé’ tells origin story of Chickasha Leg Lamp

The movie “Fragilé” takes its title — pronounced “fra-gee-lay” — from the classic Christmas movie that impressed the flashy landmark.

From the town council conferences the place debate over the statue kicked up fairly a fuss to the manufacturing flooring of Midwest Cooling Towers, the native firm that manufactured the everlasting monument, Elkins’ documentary traces the origins of the Chickasha Leg Lamp.

“I think it was a great film, and I loved it. I thought it was hilarious, I thought it was charming, I thought it was telling. I thought it gave enough perspectives that you get a feel for the town,” Elizabeth James mentioned. “There are people here who have a great deal of compassion for what happens in this town and a real excitement and vision for the town.”

With dramatic aptitude, the director additionally alludes to the cease-and-desist letter Warner Bros. despatched final 12 months to the Chickasha Community Foundation demanding the $1.4 million sculpture be “removed and destroyed.”

Jim Cowan, govt director of the Chickasha Economic Development Council, instructed The Oklahoman the studio has by no means responded to an October 2024 letter from the council’s attorneys outlining why the favored small-town attraction doesn’t infringe on the film large’s mental rights.

Plus, “Fragilé” dramatically teases one other cinematic mission that Elliott is contemplating kicking off.

“I do love the leg lamp. I love Cleavon Little, too,” he teased The Oklahoman, referring to the late Chickasha-born star of “Blazing Saddles” and “Fletch Lives.”

“‘Fragilé 2,’ here we come,” Elkins joked with a smile.

How to observe the ‘Fragilé’ documentary

“Fragilé” is on the market to hire or purchase digitally on Vimeo on Demand for $10. Film followers can use the promo code “christmastown” by Dec. 31 for a 50% low cost.

The movie is on the market to stream free of charge by way of the brand new platform Fawesome, and Elkins mentioned it is anticipated to debut quickly on different free streaming providers like Tubi and YouTube Movies & TV.

To stream the movie, go to http://fragiledocumentary.com.

For Christmas, the film is enjoying a restricted native matinee engagement at Chickasha’s Heritage Park Theatre at 4:20 p.m. every day Dec. 22-25.