For years "Home Alone" audiences have wondered how the onscreen parents of Macaulay Culkin's character Kevin McCallister could afford such a massive suburban house in Chicago. The film's director has finally answered the burning question.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Columbus recalled having a discussion with screenwriter John Hughes about what jobs Kate and Peter McCallister worked.
It was decided that Kate, played by Catherine O'Hara, "was a very successful fashion designer." This was alluded to in the film when Kevin tries to thwart home invaders Larry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), by placing mannequins in the windows to give the impression of a party.
Things were not so clear cut for Pete, who was played by the late John Heard.
"The father could have, based on John Hughes' own experience, worked in advertising, but I don’t remember what the father did," Columbus said.
He did however rule out the patriarch being involved in any organized crime, despite fan theories online.
The real home, situated in Winnetka, Illinois, went on the market for $5.25 million and was recently sold, People reported.
"We’re thrilled with the way this home captured everyone’s attention and hearts due to its well-deserved place in cinematic history and the timeless holiday memories it evokes," listing agents Dawn McKenna and Katie Moor of Coldwell Banker Realty said in a statement.
The property previously belonged to Tim and Trisha Johnson, who purchased it in 2012 for $1.585 million. Another former resident, Laura Abendshien, lived in the house while the movie was filming and recounted her experience on the U.K. morning show This Morning.
"We stayed in the house pretty much the entire period, which was about four or five months," she said, according to People. "In order to avoid appearing onscreen, we would have to crawl around the window line from room to room."
Abendshien also recalled the cast hanging around her house between scenes.
"They would spend time in the house when they weren't filming their scenes. Macaulay Culkin used my room to study with his tutor, and his brother [Keiran], wasn't filming as much, so he would just hang out in my room," she said.
"We saw something special was happening, but we didn't anticipate how much of a hit it would be," she added of the success of the 1990 film.
"It was very surreal when the movie came out and all of a sudden it's holiday season in 1990 and it was an endless row of cars and people wanted to see the house and take photographs and that was very new to us, but we grew to love it and we shared the magic of the movie."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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