CHICKASHA, Okla. (KOKH) — The Chickasha Community Foundation (CCF) says Warner Brothers reached out to them, demanding the removal and destruction of the town’s leg lamp.
They say the entertainment company claims the structure is copyright infringement.
Jim Cowan with the CCF tells Fox 25 there have been a lot of back-and-forth conversations, though no lawsuits have been filed about the 40-foot-tall replica structure.
“The leg lamp has worked,” Cowan said. “We’re not trying to infringe upon anything.”
Documents from October 2024 that Fox 25 obtained shows Warner Brothers telling many Chickasha groups that it owns the copyright and trademark for the leg lamp from the movie, “A Christmas Story.”
According to records, Warner Brothers then demanded the removal and destruction of the CCF’s replica structure.
“The one’s that hate this thing, they didn’t want to understand it. They were just like, ‘Told you we were going to get sued. Told you we were going to get sued. The reality is there has been no lawsuit. The biggest thing is this isn’t an amusement park. It didn’t cost you $20 to come in and see the world’s largest leg lamp. The only thing we’re selling is officially licensed merchandise. So there is no infringement.”
Cowan says when the Foundation first wanted to bring a leg lamp to town, the CCF asked Warner Brothers if they wanted to help pay for it.
Records show Warner Brothers responded in 2019, saying in part that they decided not to grant the permission that was requested.
“It’s a piece of art that is not owned by the city,” Cowan said. “It’s owned by the Chickasha Community Foundation, and the land is owned by the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO).”
Mayor Zachory Grayson says while the city isn’t involved in this situation, he hopes it doesn’t result in litigation.
“I don’t want them to go into a lawsuit because obviously the only people who win in lawsuits are lawyers,” Mayor Grayson said. “Hope there’s a way forward with Warner Brothers and the Community Foundation to work it out.”
An anonymous Chickasha resident who helped Fox 25 obtain those documents provided our newsroom with the following statement:
A growing group of taxpayers have actively been seeking information since October ‘22. We have been very concerned with issues that began to surface at a city council meeting regarding copyright infringement, funding of projects, and unusual influence. We notified the authorities early on and many of the ORR towards transparency and financial integrity were ignored or purposefully met with legal refusal.
There are 6800 documents on a flashdrive from an ORR, and all are available being as they are public record. The State Attorney General’s office and the OK State Auditor’s Office both have copies of the flashdrive that contains all of the public documents from which those posted have been found.
The City of Chickasha /Chickasha Industrial Authority of which we obtained them from have the documents as well. The Economic Development Council of Chickasha was not cooperative in our itemized request.
We have nothing to hide, we have no ill will, we are simply fighting for truth, integrity, financial transparency, accountability and honesty regarding our taxpayer dollars and decisions for our community. It’s all public record for those willing to research this ever changing storyline.
An ORR has also been filed at USAO, it is currently being challenged, but we are hopeful USAO will fulfill this ORR filed November 2024.
Note: Warner Bros. didn’t immediately respond to emails inquiring about the situation.
