Monday, April 29, 2024

Home Alone House: Inside The McCallister House 30 Years Later!

mcallister house home alone

The Abendshein family also got to interact with Culkin and the other cast members from time to time. As far as Snopes could tell, the above photo truly does capture the appearance of the house several decades later. The photo was posted on Reddit's BeAmazed subreddit on Dec. 26, 2023, where it gained over 2,800 upvotes, a solid number for a Reddit post.

mcallister house home alone

Home Alone McCallister House: Unraveling the Surprising Connection to Friends’ Mondler

mcallister house home alone

On the 30th anniversary of the movie, a woman who actually lived inside the home where "Home Alone" was filmed sat down for an interview to discuss some of her memories from that time. Lauren Abendshien was six years old when production for the movie began, and her parents' home was picked for the location. When creating the holiday classic, Hughes used his own experience getting ready for a family trip as a source of inspiration. After making a list of every item he didn't want to forget, which included his children, Hughes started to wonder what his son would do had he been left home alone. "Home Alone" is a classic family comedy released in 1990 and beloved by countless people across the world. The plot follows eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, played by Hollywood star Macaulay Culkin, 43, who is accidentally left alone at home by his family on Christmas Eve.

How the Film Came to Be

The Abendsheins eventually sold the Winnetka house in 2012 for over $1.5 million. The current owners are maintaining their privacy and have made renovations since then. Hughes called the place “perfect” and that it was how he imagined the Home Alone house would look like. Like Rockwell, Cauley used saturated greens, reds, and golds to stand out against the white fluffy snow. “I thought of it like a flip-book, where use of color orchestrated throughout would give the film a warm feeling,” says Cauley. The only way to describe the interior of the Home Alone house is to compare it to a Norman Rockwell painting, which is precisely the aesthetic Cauley was going for.

Run around the house screaming like you're Kevin McCallister in the "Home Alone" house.

When Kevin accidentally gets left behind by his family on a planned overseas vacation, he initially enjoys having the house all to himself. They realize that breaking in isn’t going to be as easy when Kevin has set out traps for them. Even the parts that were supposed to be set in the Paris Orly Airport were actually filmed at O’Hare International Airport. The interior of the plane was a set built on a basketball court at the local high school.

The home, located in the Chicago suburbs, is still a popular tourist destination.

While a large portion of the movie was filmed on a soundstage, shots of the home’s interior can still be found in the film. The scenes of the foyer’s grand staircase and the living room were the real-life Home Alone house. There were, however, some tiny changes made to facilitate some scenes in the film. Oh, and the back door down the set of stairs outside – that actually wasn’t real. A backhoe was brought in to dig up that part of the property so that a fake door and steps could be added in.

The Real-Life Home Alone House: Then and Now

Filming took place between February and May 1990 on location across Illinois. When the film was made, navy blue and dusty pink were popular interior design colors, Cauley said. But she was inspired by Norman Rockwell paintings and antique Christmas cards to use saturated reds, greens and golds in the family home. The silver tuna, or its exterior anyway, is a real-world house at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the United States, according to Realtor.com. It appears to have enough space for Kevin and his four siblings to each have their own rooms, but also can accommodate an army of visitors. "We stayed in the house pretty much the entire period that they were filming...In order to avoid appearing on screen, we would have to crawl around under the window line, from room to room, especially in the evening..."

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport served as the filming location for both the Chicago and Paris airport scenes, posing as France's Orly Airport. Other locations seen in the movie were Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette and Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park. In fact, the entirety of the movie was shot in Illinois, despite the plot revolving around a trip Kevin McAllister's had taken to Paris. Watching and quoting the iconic Christmas movie "Home Alone" isn't the only way fans of the movie like to celebrate the holiday season. Directed by Chris Columbus, written by John Hughes, and musically scored by John Williams, "Home Alone" is an incredibly successful production many enjoy watching and re-watching. The film has been nominated for awards six times and has won eleven Film and TV Awards, ranging from Oscars to Golden Globes.

The Federal Reserve says the McCallisters were 1 percenters in 'Home Alone' - Entertainment Weekly News

The Federal Reserve says the McCallisters were 1 percenters in 'Home Alone'.

Posted: Wed, 20 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

'Home Alone': Unique, Surprising Things to Know About the Holiday Film - Business Insider

'Home Alone': Unique, Surprising Things to Know About the Holiday Film.

Posted: Tue, 19 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Given Hughes’ movies’ location, Home Alone’s production scouted locations in the Chicago area. They eventually settled on the property that would become the iconic Home Alone house. The set team ultimately decided to build the entire interior of the home in the gymnasium of New Trier High School, also in Winnetka.

In 2021, the house was made available as an Airbnb for one night only for fans of the movie who want to experience what it's like to live like a McCallister. Home Alone was filmed in Winnetka, Illinois, around 16 miles outside Chicago. While its exterior was used for the film, not everything inside the house was used. Production only used the interior shots of the living room and the famous grand staircase.

At that time, there were few film studios in Chicago, and John Hughes lived north of the city. “Filming in an empty high school meant we were in close proximity to his family,” explains Cauley. “He could visit the sets easily or stop in and see filming, and then go home and write.” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Uncle Buck were also filmed in Chicago. But the fun and games soon come to an end when Kevin is faced by the wet bandits—two bumbling burglars who have their sights set on robbing the McCallister home. Villains Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) soon realize the house isn’t vacant like they first thought, and an endless game of cat and mouse ensues, with Kevin setting intricate booby traps to protect himself and his family home. All with a little help from old man Marley and his wicked brother Buzz’s pet tarantula, of course.

The tacky wallpaper in the master suite has been replaced with a chic grey & white striped print. Additionally, the once hardwood floors are now decked out in white carpeting. The dining room, which featured red walls in the film, is now adorned in a warm cream color painted with vines and pear trees.

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