'Triple Dog Dare' Scene From 'A Christmas Story' Immortalized With A Statue In Hammond, Indiana

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 30, 2013 2:25PM

Author Jean Shepherd preserved his Northwest Indiana childhood in books and the script for the classic holiday film A Christmas Story. On Tuesday the town of Hammond, Ind. where Shepherd grew up paid tribute to him by unveiling a statue celebrating one of A Christmas Story’s iconic scenes.

A statue depicting the character Flick with his tongue frozen to a flagpole (because he couldn’t turn down a triple-dog dare) now sits outside a welcome center south of Interstate 80-94. Actor Scott Schwartz, who played Flick in the movie, was on hand for the statue’s unveiling.

"I'm pretty much speechless at this point. I mean, that's pretty awesome. That's amazing. It's breathtaking," Schwartz said. The scene was filmed using a plastic pole with a suction cup. “They put a little hole in it and it was like a vacuum cleaner when you think about it. Suuuuuuck! Same thing just smaller," Schwartz told ABC 7.

The South Shore Convention & Visitors Authority wants to use the statue as a way to tap into the nostalgia for the 1983 film and increase tourism to northwest Indiana. A Christmas Story was set in Northwest Indiana but filmed in Cleveland and had modest success when it was released but has become a popular film during the holidays thanks to constant airings on television and home release. The statue’s unveiling also coincides with the upcoming “A Christmas Story Comes Home” in Hammond, which runs from Nov. 9 until Jan. 5, 2014.