July 2023 marks the 40th anniversary of National Lampoon’s Vacation. Now considered a classic, while it was a box office success, it took a while for the movie to acquire its current status.
“It has only taken 40 years to get to that point,” joked Dana Barron, who played Audrey Griswold. “There was no social media back then, so things took longer to marinate, but gradually, it picked up speed. After the movie came out, I went back to college, and no one made a big deal about it until maybe 20 years later, and it had become such an iconic movie.”
Unadjusted for inflation, the film grossed $61.4 million against a $15 million budget. When it debuted, with mixed but largely positive reviews, it took the top spot at the box office. Four decades later, it has been released on 4K UHD for the first time and will return to theaters for a handful of screenings.
National Lampoon’s Vacation saw Chevy Chase take on one of his most recognizable and celebrated roles as Clark W. Griswold. The movie follows him and his family on a cross-country trip to California’s Walley World theme park. It’s a catalog of disasters and misunderstandings.
“It has been surprising, but people have grown up with it, and I think the appeal is that family theme,” Barron mused. “It’s so important as a movie, especially in the States; I think people relate to this representation of a family that’s gone a bit wrong, has horrible things happen to them, but everything is basically okay in the long run.”
For some people, their love of National Lampoon’s Vacation has become a lifestyle.
“There are fans who do the same vacation route we did and take pictures in the same spots. That is fascinating to me,” Barron confessed. “They are obsessed with trying to make this a good vacation for them too, but something goes wrong, as with most vacations. Everyone has their own story.
“When I meet them at the conventions, it is just like the movie. I have easily over 100 stories that I’m collecting for a book. I’m putting together for fans with many behind-the-scenes stories and things like that.”
Vacation contains a running joke about how the Griswold family should have flown rather than driven across the country. Life imitated art for Barron and her co-stars.
“They made us drive,” the actor laughed. “I’m from New York, so I originally flew from there to California, but we all took buses and stuff, and they drove us around. We spent a lot of time in the Truckster too.”
That was more of a challenge for some than others.
“Imogene Coca, who played Aunt Edna, had just got into a horrific car accident before and lost her eye. She had it replaced with a fake one,” Barron recalled. “The whole time we were driving with her, she had her hand on the roof and was so scared. She was a trooper and wanted to be with us all.”
Filming in many of the film’s key but remote locations threw up its own challenges.
“You had desert air, and then you had desert dust, and that was the worst part,” Barron explained. “The car’s seats are interesting. They were a mesh-type thing, really mushy, and had this weird, musty smell. It was our beloved Truckster, though, and we loved it. It was its own character.”
“Chevy said it should have had its own billing because it was so beloved. It was our Millenium Falcon and better than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Herbie the Love Bug. In Nashville, they had this July 4th parade, and one year they had a Truckster with my picture in the window. I thought that was cool.”
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“When we did the scene with us running to Walley World, and they played the Chariots of Fire music, that parking lot was actually at Santa Anita Racetrack,” Barron explained. “What you see in the movie and what we were seeing and running toward were very different. The theme park was added using the equivalent of CGI.”
“It was so hot that day, too. It was easily in the 90s, and people were passing out on the tarmac. It was wild, but it’s been 40 years, so it has become a good memory and part of the nostalgia.”
The original script for National Lampoon’s Vacation featured a different ending in a different location. Director Harold Ramis filmed it, but six months later reshot it at the theme park, which turned out to be perfect timing.
“Six Flags was actually closed for maintenance in real life. That’s why we were able to shoot there,” Barron confirmed. “There’s a rumor that Chevy Chase has the VHS tape of the original ending. I never asked Harold if he had it. I’ve never seen it. I have my original script.”
“I’m writing this book, and I have some pictures from that. I’m a little torn because, as an actor, you shoot something, and you want to be able to see it. At the same time, because of the new ending, I got to work with John Candy and Eddie Bracken. I can’t complain about having a new ending with those fabulous actors. No way.”
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