Ever since Jeff Norton of La Mirada saw the movie, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” at the age of 15, he was an instant fan.
Norton collected memorabilia celebrating the 1983 Chevy Chase comedy for years. And four years ago, he paid the movie what could be the ultimate seasonal compliment — he turned his house into the Griswold Christmas House Display for the holidays.
This year, Norton took the tribute a detail-sweating step further. He added a mock second floor to his display on Golva Drive, to make his home look even more like the house in the slapstick holiday comedy.
La Mirada city officials were not amused. They are telling him to take it down and could cite him, which could result in hundreds of dollars in fines for the homeowner.
It’s just a prop, Norton declared in response. “The second story is not real and is not functional,” he said.
“It’s just made up to look like the movie,” he said. “It’s no more elaborate than a blow-up Santa Claus. It’s just part of my display. I want them to have someone come out and explain to me why they’re doing all of this. It seems ridiculous.”
In a Friday email, La Mirada City Manager Jeff Boynton said Norton does a great job with his display — the city last year gave him its holiday home decorating Award — but added that the structure on the roof could be dangerous.
“The city is concerned the unpermitted second-story structure could potentially cause unintended injuries or property damage to members of the public if it were to become detached from the roof,” Boynton wrote. “There are no concerns with the other holiday decorations.”
Norton said his structure is like a plastic fabric and lightweight. He didn’t use any plywood.
Boynton said he is still concerned.
“Reindeer and Santa Claus on roofs are usually inflatables, made of fabric and air, and likely pose little risk of harm,” he wrote. “City staff observed the property owner using lumber and other building materials on this structure. It certainly isn’t made of fabric and air.”
Boynton said a follow-up inspection will be conducted within the next week. and if the structure remains, a final notice will be issued again requesting the structure to be removed.
So far, Norton hasn’t been cited, Boynton wrote.
Norton said he just wants to work with the city to resolve the debate.
“My whole point is that we should have worked together to do whatever it took to make this safe,” he said.
Norton said he became a fan of the movie, the third of the popular “Vacation” movies, written by comedy icon John Hughes.
“The movie is absolutely hilarious,” he said of the movie, in which family man Clark Griswold wants to enjoy a perfect Christmas. He pushes his long-suffering wife, Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and children to make sure everything is simply perfect, including the tree and house decorations.
However, things go awry quickly. His bumbling cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his family of bumpkins show up unplanned and start living in their down-at-the-heels camper on the Griswold property.
Even worse, Clark’s employers renege on the holiday bonus he needs to fund his perfect holiday.
“I gravitated to it,” he said of the movie. “It was part of a family tradition when I was younger. I wanted my parents to do the house like Clark.”
He purchased his current house 20 years ago — and four years ago bought a 1972 Condor motorhome that resembles the rough-and-tumble RV in the movie.
Norton also decided to recreate the Griswold home, because of his sister, Julie, and father, Randy, who have died in the last three years. They were also huge fans of the movie and helped with the early incarnations of the display.
“They were a big reason why I did this,” he said. “We had a really good time with this. Every year since I started, I keep building on the whole display. “
Thousands of people typically come to see the house — and the street typically is closed to auto traffic for non-residents during the holiday season.
The original Griswold house, by the way, isn’t a real home in a real city, though it’s supposed to be in the Chicago suburbs. It’s a prop house on a Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank and also appears in the Disney series “WandaVision,” according to IMDB.
Norton’s display also features a Ford Taurus standing in for the Griswold’s “Family Truckster” station wagon and a 1983 Ford LTD in the role of a police patrol car.
Last year, he painted his house the telltale yellow of the Griswolds’ movie abode.
And so this year, the second story.
“It would appear we might have run into an obstacle,” he said of the city. “One option I’m not willing to do is take it down.”