Christmas has come early for Hammond, hometown of "A Christmas Story" author Jean Shepherd.
Two vintage photos have surfaced of the Cam-Lan, the long-rumored model for the eatery that hosted the Parker family's memorable "Chinese turkey" yule dinner in the 1983 film. The snaps are destined for a documentary on Hammond locales and landmarks referenced in the holiday classic.
Shepherd based his yarn about a little boy's quest for a BB gun on his boyhood in the 1930s and 1940s.
Assistant City Planner Beth Downes said the restaurant images -- a gift from the late restaurateur's son -- topped her wish list. The scene where a chef hacks off the head of a roast duck "is one of the most popular in the movie," she said Friday. "We thank the family for helping us out."
Kelly Sang, 59, donated the images after friends mailed clips of a Times story relating how Hammond, celebrating the 25th anniversary of "Christmas Story," is seeking memorabilia for a commemorative film. Sang, a retired Kraft salesman, phoned promptly.
Restaurateur-father Charles Sang saw and enjoyed "A Christmas Story" during its initial run, his son said in a call from his Orlando home. The senior Sang, a Chinese immigrant with an eighth-grade education, was proud to be associated with the comedy.
"He loved America and became American," Kelly Sang said.
Charles Sang, born in 1908, immigrated at 16 and found work as a busboy in Illinois. He launched his own eatery, at 5256 Hohman Ave., during Shepherd's junior year at Hammond High School in 1938. The eatery's name, Cam-Lan, means Golden Dragon in Chinese.
Like the movie's Bo-ling Chop Suey Palace, Hammond's lone Chinese restaurant was upscale, with wood paneling, white linen tablecloths and starched napkins.
"I should know, I had to fold them," Kelly Sang joked.
Shepherd, as was his habit, took creative license. Charles Sang always wore a suit, and he hired Caucasian waitresses, so the bit where Chinese waiters mangle carols ("Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra!") is fiction.
For the record, Sang, who died in 1993, shuttered the restaurant on holidays so no one ever feasted on "Chinese turkey." He offered turkey chop suey one Thanksgiving, but "hardly anyone came," his son said. That ended his bid for holiday patrons.
Yet classic Peking duck -- served with head intact -- did grace the menu, said Kelly Sang's sister Sylvia Ricketts, of Griffith. Their solicitous father dispatched duck heads without flinching.
"He always wanted to please the customers," Ricketts said.
The restaurant was a family affair, with Charles Sang greeting guests and filling water glasses, wife Pearl making egg rolls and washing dishes, and the children assisting their parents. Daughter Margaret Lee, who waitressed as a teen, lives in Highland.
Sang sold the Cam-Lan in 1969, but his retirement was short-lived. Two years later, he opened the Ho Sai Gai Restaurant in Highland. He retired again seven years later. Pearl Sang died in 1992.
If his father ever served food to Shepherd, he didn't recognize him, Kelly Sang said. His parent "knew customers by their order, like 'beef chop suey.'"
Kelly Sang and his siblings are invited to the Hammond commemorative film's premiere Nov. 22, Downes said.
