EXCLUSIVE: Secrets and Scandals of Chevy Chase's 'National Lampoon's Vacation' More Than 40 Years On From Box Office Hit
The comedy sends the Griswold family on an ill-fated cross-country car trip to fictional Walley World.
July 15 2025, Published 7:00 a.m. ET
Summer is here and so are family road trips– but no doubt yours will go a lot smoother than that of the Griswold family in the classic comedy National Lampoon's Vacation, which provides a yardstick of the slapstick ways traveling can go awry ... and filming it was just as hilarious.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the star-studded 1983 comedy as it sends the Griswold family on an ill-fated cross-country car trip to fictional Walley World, dubbed "America's Favorite Family Fun Park."
Trip Gone Wrong
Christie Brinkley kept cruising with the cast long after her scenes wrapped.
On the way, they are plagued by everything and anything that can go wrong and arrive at Walley World only to find the place closed.
Chevy Chase stars as the alarmingly optimistic Clark Griswold, who ignores the advice of wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) to fly to Walley World and buys an ugly and boxy station wagon to drive from Chicago to California.
He wants to grow closer to his kids, Rusty (Anthony Michael Hall) and Audrey (Dana Barron). Along the way, they have dealings with Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid), a car salesman (Eugene Levy), a motorcycle cop (James Keach), and theme park owner Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken).
The great Imogene Coca played mean Aunt Edna after first turning down the part because she didn't think she could play a nasty character.
Then, during filming, she was concerned she was being too mean to her castmates. Chase later said she was one of the sweetest ladies in the world.
John Candy banked a cool $1 million for his brief appearance at the end as Walley World security officer Russ Lasky, and supermodel Christie Brinkley plays "The Girl in the Ferrari," who flirts with Clark on the road.
A Big Debut
Jane Krakowski made her big-screen debut as Cousin Vicki at just 14.
Vacation also marked the film debut of then 14-year-old Jane Krakowski, who plays Cousin Vicki.
John Hughes penned the Harold Ramis-directed comedy based on an equally ill-fated family trip to Disneyland when he was 5 years old.
The cast and crew actually embarked on a real road trip that lasted 55 days, shooting in more than 15 locations across four states ... and while Brinkley’s scenes took only a few days to shoot, she was having so much fun she stayed along for the ride for most of the filming at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif., which served as Walley World.
The Revolution roller coaster "plays" the roller coaster Clark calls "Whipper Snapper" – and was the first real-life coaster to have a 360-degree vertical loop.
The cast members were really taken for a ride during the Walley World scenes – they rode all the coasters and other rides so many times they got sick.
A Wild Ride
John Candy scored $1 million to play Walley World’s frazzled guard.
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Barron recalled the coasters made her so ill she had to take motion sickness medication and would pass out on nearby benches between takes. Hall revealed his expressions of being scared on the coasters weren’t brilliant acting … he was genuinely terrified.
In Hughes' original script, Clark snaps when he learns Walley World is closed and drives to the home of Roy Walley to hold the theme park owner and his top executives hostage. But test audiences hated the ending because they were promised a visit to Walley World. So, four months after filming ended, Ramis called the cast back to shoot an alternate ending and hired Candy to play the lone security guard. Test marketing went through the roof with the new ending.
Although the original ending has never been commercially shown, Chase said he has a copy of it. The first ending was refocused as part of the climax of the 1989 sequel, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Imogene Coca worried she was too harsh playing the cranky Aunt Edna.
One of Chase’s favorite scenes is the dishwashing sequence – look closely and you see D'Angelo scraping food off the plates, and Chase merely giving them a wipe and putting them in the cupboard without actually washing them.
The summer romp was totally ignored by the Oscars, but not by moviegoers – Vacation muscled out sequels to Jaws and Star Wars to open No. 1 at the box office and raked in nearly $62 million.
It also spawned a number of sequels and is considered one of the best comedy films of all time.
