Castle Noel in Medina, Ohio claims to own Cousin Eddie's RV from the 1989 holiday classic Christmas Vacation. This article was originally written to talk about the RV and the purportedly authentic movie prop, until a reader wrote in and gave me some bad news:
"That is not the screen-used RV from Christmas Vacation. Your own photos are evidence that it's not. Look at the screenshot you posted. There are 2 vents located immediately to the left of the RV's entrance door. Now, look at the photo of the Castle Noel RV. The 2 vents are located over the rear axle indicating that the Castle Noel RV has a completely different floor plan than the actual movie used vehicle. Castle Noel leads visitors to believe that's it's authentic when it's obviously not. It's a nicely done replica which is what they should say. If they purchased it thinking that it was, they should have done the very simple task of screen matching and might possibly have saved themselves a ton of money. But, with what they've made selling tickets to people who thought they were seeing the real thing, it probably doesn't matter now."
I did some further digging to confirm that it's simply a replica. Here's what I found:
1. An Ohio Magazine article states that "...a replica of Cousin Eddie's made-to-look-rusty RV from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is parked ..."
2. A Cleveland Magazine article reports that the RV "came from an LA prop house," and notes that everything in the museum was "authenticated except the RV."
The troubling part is that the staff at Castle Noel definitely said that it was the actual vehicle used in the movie, not a replica.
People posed with the replica to take photos. The tour guide went into a spiel about how the purported prop was driven from Hollywood to Ohio. He said the rust spots were just Hollywood magic painted on just for the movie, because the 1973 Ford Condor II RV model was manufactured to be rust-proof.
It all seemed very well rehearsed, leading me to assume that they're grifting customers on purpose.
Having watched the movie a dozen times, I was a little giddy to see the prop in person. You can imagine my disappointment when I learned the truth.
Castle Noel does have a myriad of authenticated movie props from Christmas films, but the RV is unquestionably a replica. I wouldn't really recommend a visit to the place unless you're a die-hard fan of Christmas movies, and would really appreciate seeing some of the costumes and props they have. Casual movie watchers will likely be deterred by the steep $28 admission fee anyway. I did not enjoy my visit there.
The rumor about the RV being authentic seems to have proliferated so much that there are plenty of online sources (including this one, previously) that claim the prop is authentic. Even ChatGPT is misinformed, as it was apparently trained on incorrect data about the RV's authenticity.
I put my phone up to the windshield to get a glimpse of the interior. It's not in bad shape, considering its age. There doesn't appear to be anything interesting inside, but you can see the same type of glassware that Chevy Chase (Clark Griswold) and Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie) drank from in one scene.
