Movie Musings: Disney and More

Miracle on 34th Street 70th Anniversary Blog part 1

Last year Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) celebrated its 70th anniversary. This year, another holiday classic celebrates the same. But unlike “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Seaton’s Miracle on 34th Street (1947) was a huge hit when it was released! It was critically acclaimed, won accolades, and remains a classic today. To celebrate, these next two blogs will be a “walk down 34th Street,” with 34 interesting facts about this treasured holiday film. Please feel free to comment if you’d like!

1. When the film’s co-writer/director George Seaton pitched the idea of “Miracle on 34th Street,” to 20th Century Fox Studio Chief Darryl Zanuck, Zanuck detested the idea and did not want to allow Seaton to make it. Seaton was determined, however, and continued to persist, so Zanuck ultimately agreed to grant the film a medium-sized budget. BUT…only if Seaton would write/direct three other film projects assigned by Zanuck unconditionally. The films were Apartment for Peggy (1948), Chicken Every Sunday (1949), and The Big Lift (1950). “Apartment for Peggy,” starred “Miracle on 34th Street,” actors Edmund Gwenn and Gene Lockhart and “Chicken Every Sunday,” starred “Miracle on 34th Street,” actors Natalie Wood, William Frawley, Porter Hall, and Percy Helton.

2. Although the film takes place in New York at Christmastime, the film had its premiere in New York on June 4th, 1947. 20th Century Fox Studio Chief Darryl F. Zanuck claimed that more people go to the movies in hotter weather.

3. Maureen O’Hara, who played Doris Walker, initially did not want to make the film. She had recently returned to Ireland after having been prevented by the United States Government, along with a great deal of other immigrants, to return to her home country due to the breakout of World War II. She reluctantly came back to America, but fortunately changed her attitude and was very delighted that she was going to make it once she read the script.

4. The film won three Oscars: Best Supporting Actor Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, Best Writing, (Original Story), Valentine Davies, and Best Writing, (Screenplay), George Seaton. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, but lost to Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947). The film also received the Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

5. Maureen O’Hara and John Payne (who played Fred Gailey) in the film were very close friends in real life. They made a total of four films together: “Miracle,” To The Shores of Tripoli (1942), Sentimental Journey (1946), and Tripoli (1950), where they were both directed by O’Hara’s then-husband, Will Price.

6. John Payne specifically said that “Miracle on 34th Street,” was his personal favorite of all his films. 

7. William Frawley played the bit role of Judge Harper’s friend Charlie Halloran in the film. This was just four years prior to when Frawley became best known as Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy (1951-1957).

8. In the first courtroom scene, there is a moment where Fred Gailey is interviewing Thomas Mara Jr. (played by Robert Hyatt), the son of Gailey’s prosecuting lawyer opponent. Gailey asks “junior” how he knows that there is a real Santa Claus and his now famous reply “Because my daddy told me so.” was a line the young actor came up with himself.

9. Natalie Wood simultaneously made two films for 1947. “Miracle,” and “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” with co-stars Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.

10. Although there is a scene in the film where Natalie Wood’s character, Susan Walker, discovers that Kris Kringle’s beard is real, Edmund Gwenn’s “beard” was not real. Gwenn improvised his reaction in the scene when Wood pulled on it to see if it was real or not.

11. This film was the feature film debut of six-time-Oscar-nominee Thelma Ritter, who played Peter’s mother.

12. “Miracle on 34th Street,” was only the second film distributed by 20th Century Fox to be shot on-location in New York City. The first film was The House on 92nd Street (1945).

13. On an audio commentary for the film, Maureen O’Hara specifically recalled that when they were halfway through shooting the film, the entire cast and crew believed that Edmund Gwenn was, in fact, the real Santa Claus.

14. When Edmund Gwenn accepted his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Kris Kringle, his acceptance speech was “Now I know there’s a Santa Claus.”

15. The film has received numerous re-adaptations throughout the years. It was first re-adapted in 1955 by Fox as a television series, with Thomas Mitchell from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” as Kris Kringle. There were also two made-for-television movie adaptations in 1959 with Ed Wynn as Kringle and in 1973 with Sebastian Cabot as Kringle. Fox readapted the film theatrically in 1994 with Sir Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle, Elizabeth Perkins as Dorey Walker, Dylan McDermott as Brian Bedford and Mara Wilson as Susan Walker. Sadly, none of the remakes were quite as successful as their original predecessor.

16. There is a scene in the film where Kris Kringle speaks Dutch to a little Dutch girl with no subtitles shown on screen. The English translation for the Dutch spoken in that scene is Santa is asking what the little girl wants for Christmas and she replies nothing because Santa already got her the wonderful gift by being adopted by her new mother.

17. Alvin Greenman who played the young janitor, Alfred in the film also makes a cameo as the doorman named Alfred in 1994 remake.

“Miracle on 34th Street,” is a film that depicts that there truly is a Santa Claus, or it rather just depends on how you look at it. Furthermore, it’s a beautiful reminder that although we do live in a very realistic world, the world is full of mysterious, controversial things that no one fully understands or has ever been able to fully explain. But what we don’t realize too easily is that faith in those things provides the motivation that everyone needs to have good attitudes towards the crudeness that real life often brings and to not grow up feeling like depressed, cynical failures. As they say in the film “Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to,” or in other words we should all carefully balance common sense with faith in our lives.

That’s the first half of our “walk down 34th Street”—more to come in next week’s blog.