Lighten up Ted Turner's TBS cable network is once again running a Christmas Eve 24-hour marathon airing of Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story" beginning 7 p.m. tonight. You can't help but wonder ... Whatever happened to the original infamous "leg lamp" so prized by late actor Darren McGavin's "Old Man" character in the film? Following the completion of the movie, director Bob Clark and the studio gave the prop to Shepherd, who provided the narration for the film. By the time Shepherd died in 1999 at his Florida home (he would have been 85 this year), he had already been preceded in death by his wife Leigh in 1998 and the couple had no children. So it was Irwin Zwilling, who was Shepherd's accountant and close friend, took possession of the leg lamp and other prized collections while handling the author and radio personality's estate. "I would talk to Shep each day," Zwilling told me. "Even if I would be traveling, my wife and I would still hear from him by telephone." Although Shepherd shared his views, opinions and stories with millions of radio listeners and fans of his writings throughout the years, Zwilling described him as a private person who preferred to talk about day-to-day dealings rather than memories of Northwest Indiana or his famous connections. "I met Shep in 1978, and I think what he liked most about our friendship was that I wasn't a fan who asked a lot of questions about his life experiences," Zwilling said. Zwilling, who now controls all of the creative licensing and intellectual rights for Shepherd's work, said he always admired Shepherd's uncanny wisdom about what appealed to others. "Shep had a great voice and he'd receive many, many offers to do commercials and voice-over work," Zwilling said. "He'd turn most things down because he would never sign on to anything he didn't believe in. I think one of the few commercials he ever did was for Sealtest Ice Cream, and that's because he liked it." But Zwilling said Shepherd realized from the beginning that director Clark's filming of "A Christmas Story" would be a movie that would live on forever in the hearts of fans. "I remember Shep talking about 'A Christmas Story' and saying 'Irwin, people are going to watch this movie over and over because it's done well and there's a connection,'" Zwilling said. He also recalled how Shepherd turned down his director friend Stanley Kubrick, who wanted Shepherd to be the voice of HAL 9000 the computer in his 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." "Those two men never spoke after that, until Kubrick called Shep just four days before his own death in 1999, which was the same year Shep died," Zwilling said. "What's best about Jean Shepherd is he lived the stories and memories he shared with so many others. And his voice still lives in his work." Zwilling remains very protective of both Shepherd's name and his memories. Remember Brian Jones of San Diego, whom I wrote about in this column last July when he purchased on eBay the actual house in Cleveland used for the exterior shots for Ralphie Parker's family home in "A Christmas Story?" Jones contacted Zwilling earlier this year to ask about having the original leg lamp on loan and on display last month during the opening weekend of the restored house over Thanksgiving weekend, to which Zwilling declined.