Trivia for
Vacation (1983) More at IMDbPro »

• The theme park that served as Walley World was actually Six Flags Magic Mountain. The roller coaster referred by Clark as the "Whipper Snapper" is actually called "The Revolution" and was the first roller coaster to have a 360 degree vertical loop.
  
  
• The Wagon Queen Family Truckster is actually a modified Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon.
  
  
• Based on the article "Vacation 58" by John Hughes, which appeared in September 1979 issue of National Lampoon.
  
  
• As the Griswalds are leaving Chicago, you can see the Buckingham fountain (a popular attraction in Chicago's Grant Park used in the intro to "Married with Children" (1987)) in the background at one point.
  
  
• There was a Walley World Water Park in London, Ontario, Canada, which opened several years after the movie was released. John Candy was invited to the opening of the park but the park owners couldn't afford his appearance fee.
  
  
• The "W" in Clark W. Griswold stands for Wilhelm.
  
  
• Apparently, it was originally scripted that after Aunt Edna was tied to the roof of the car, there was a shot of her fingers moving implying she was, in fact, still alive. This was considered "cruel" to have a live person on the roof of a car by the ratings board, so it was cut and she remained dead.
  
  
• The childhood pictures of Audrey on the living room wall were actual portfolio shots from the young commercial-acting days of Dana Barron.
  
  
• Exterior filming of the Griswolds "on the road" took a greater part of three months, crossing numerous states.
  
  
• The scene where the station wagon goes airborne in the Arizona desert actually caused some production changes due to the hard nose-landing that wasn't expected. Among those were matching the exact front-end damage on other station wagons used in other scenes.
  
  
• In the Walley World scenes, Anthony Michael Hall is taller than Beverly D'Angelo, than from previous scenes in the film where he matched her height. This occurred because Hall grew three inches after principal photography, and the ending was re-shot months later, after the initial ending failed with test-audiences.
  
  
• The first ending of the film consisted of the Griswold family going to the house of the owner of Walley World, and holding his family hostage and making them sing and dance. This did not go over well with test-audiences and the in-park scenes with John Candy was a last minute alternate.
  
  
• Harold Ramis has an uncredited role as an off-camera voice of one of the police officers at Walley World.
  
  
• Daisy Mabel (Cousin Eddie's tongueless daughter) was played by director Harold Ramis's own daughter, Violet Ramis.
  
  
• All of the distant shots of Walley World, including the sign the family truckster drives under, were matte paintings.
  
  
• The St. Louis inner city and the Dodge City main street were created on the Warner Brothers' backlot.
  
  
• The character of Roy Walley was based on a combination of the brothers Roy Edward Disney and Walt Disney, right down to the thin mustache.
  
  
• The poster art was by fantasy illustrator Boris Vallejo.
  
  
• Imogene Coca originally turned down the part of Aunt Edna because she did not think she could portray such a mean character. Even during filming, she was often concerned that she was being (too) mean to her fellow cast members.
  
  
• According to Harold Ramis, he was inspired to shoot wide angle shots of Clark alone in the desert by La guerre du feu (1981).
  
  
• The gas station and sporting goods store were located at the intersection of Ocean Ave and Santa Monica Blvd in Santa Monica and have since been torn down and replaced by hi-rises.
  
  
• The original ending in which the family holds Walley and his family hostage was part of the ending to Christmas Vacation (1989).
  
  
• Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
  
  
• This was the only "Vacation" movie to receive an "R" rating in the US by the MPAA. The European Vacation (1985) and Christmas Vacation (1989) sequels received "PG-13" ratings, while Vegas Vacation (1997) was rated "PG".
  
  
• In the DVD commentary, director Harold Ramis mentions that for the scene in which the Family Truckster jumps into the air, several of the crew members had made bets against 2nd unit director Dick Ziker that he couldn't jump the car more than 50 feet (even drawing lines in the sand to measure the distance). Ziker ended up winning that bet, as he jumped the car more than 50 feet.
  
  
• In the DVD commentary, Chevy Chase mentions that the scene in which Rusty puts his feet up on top of the driver's seat was originally not in the script, but the producers liked it, so it was kept in the movie.
  
  
• Film debut of Christie Brinkley.
  
  
• The opening scene was filmed at Star Ford in Glendale, CA. The dealership is still there (as of early 2009) with the same buildings that were in the movie.
  
  
• Imogene Coca played Aunt Enda in this title and her long-time comic partner, Sid Caesar, played the role of Mr. Ellis, in Vegas Vacation (1997). Both of the characters die of old age in each film.
  
  
• Chevy Chase appears in some scenes wearing a black Chicago Bears ball cap. He wears the same Chicago Bears cap throughout all four Vacation movies.
  
  
• The license plate of the Griswolds' old car was RPL-434.
  
  

• SPOILER: Scripted with Disneyland as the Griswold's destination, but Disney objected, pointing out that they are open 365 days a year.
  
  

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