Miracle on 34th Street is a 1947 Christmas film written by George Seaton from a story by Valentine Davies, directed by George Seaton and starring Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn. It is the story of what takes place in New York City following Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, as people are left wondering whether or not a department store Santa might be the real thing. Because of its Christmas theme, the film has become a perennial Christmas favorite.
The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Edmund Gwenn), Best Writing, Original Story (Valentine Davies) and Best Writing, Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture, losing to Gentleman's Agreement.
Davies also penned a short novella version of the tale, which was published by Harcourt Brace simultaneously with the film's release.
The film has become a number one critic's choice over the years; many of them title the film the best Christmas film ever.[citation needed]
Kris Kringle, AKA Santa Claus (Edmund Gwenn), is indignant to find that the person (Percy Helton) assigned to play Santa in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is intoxicated. When he complains to event director Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), she persuades Kris to take his place. He does such a fine job that he is hired to be the Santa for Macy's flagship New York City store on 34th Street.
Ignoring instructions to steer parents to goods that Macy's sells, Kris directs one shopper (Thelma Ritter) to another store for a fire engine for her son that Macy's does not have. She is so impressed, she tells Julian Shellhammer (Philip Tonge), head of the toy department, that she will become a loyal customer. Kris later informs another mother that archrival Gimbels has better skates for her daughter.
Fred Gailey (John Payne), an attorney and neighbor of Doris, is babysitting the young divorcee's six-year-old daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) and takes her to see Kris. In a touching scene, Susan observes as Kris speaks in perfect Dutch with an orphaned immigrant girl who does not know English.[1] When Doris finds out, she asks Kris to tell Susan that he is not really Santa Claus, but Kris surprises her by insisting he is.
Doris decides to fire him, worried that he is delusional and might harm someone. However, Kris has generated so much good publicity and customer goodwill for Macy's that a delighted R. H. Macy (Harry Antrim) promises Doris and Julian generous bonuses. To alleviate Doris's misgivings, Julian has Granville Sawyer (Porter Hall) give Kris a "psychological evaluation". Kris easily passes the test but antagonizes Sawyer by questioning Sawyer's own psychological health.
The store expands on the marketing concept. Anxious to avoid looking greedy by comparison, Gimbels implements the same referral policy throughout its entire chain, forcing Macy's and other stores to respond in kind. Eventually, Kris accomplishes the impossible: Mr. Macy shaking hands with Mr. Gimbel (Herbert Heyes).
Pierce (James Seay), the doctor at Kris's nursing home, assures Doris and Julian that Kris's delusion is harmless. Meanwhile, Fred offers to let Kris stay with him so he can be closer to work. Kris makes a deal with Fred – he will work on Susan's cynicism while Fred does the same with disillusioned Doris, still unhappy about her failed marriage.
Kris learns that Sawyer has convinced a young, impressionable employee, Alfred (Alvin Greenman), that he is mentally ill simply because he is generous and kind-hearted (Alfred plays Santa Claus at his neighborhood YMCA). Kris confronts Sawyer and raps him on the head with the handle of an umbrella. Doris and Julian only see the aftermath; Sawyer exaggerates his injury in order to have Kris confined to Bellevue Mental Hospital.
Tricked into cooperating and believing Doris to be part of the deception, a discouraged Kris deliberately fails his mental examination and is recommended for permanent commitment. However, Fred persuades Kris not to give up.
To secure his release, Fred gets a formal hearing before Judge Henry X. Harper (Gene Lockhart) of the New York Supreme Court. Ordered by Mr. Macy (who is determined to stand behind Kris "even if he failed twenty examinations") to get the matter dropped, Sawyer pleads with Fred not to seek publicity. To Sawyer's dismay, Fred thanks him for the idea. As a result, Judge Harper is put in an awkward spot – even his own grandchildren are against him for putting Santa Claus on trial (when it was actually a hearing) for lunacy.
Fred quits his job at a prestigious law firm to defend Kris and has a falling out with Doris, who calls his resignation an "idealistic binge" over some "lovely intangibles." He replies that one day she might discover that they are the only worthwhile things.
At the hearing, District Attorney Thomas Mara (Jerome Cowan), whose wife accused him of "persecuting" (rather than prosecuting) Santa Claus, gets Kris to assert that he is in fact Santa Claus and rests his case, believing he has prima facie proven his point. Fred stuns the court by arguing that Kris is not insane because he actually is Santa Claus – and Fred will prove it. Mara requests the judge rule that Santa Claus does not exist. Harper is warned privately in chambers by his political adviser, Charlie Halloran (William Frawley), that doing so would be disastrous for his upcoming reelection bid. The judge buys time by deciding to hear evidence before ruling.
Fred calls R.H. Macy as a witness. Mara pointedly asks if he really believes Kris to be Santa Claus. Macy starts to equivocate, but when Mara asks him point-blank, Macy remembers the expressions on the faces of small children upon seeing Kris and firmly states, "I do!" On leaving the stand, Macy questions Sawyer whether he got his psychology degree from a correspondence school, then fires him. Fred then calls Mara's own young son to the stand. Thomas Mara Jr. testifies that his father had told him that Santa was real and that "My daddy wouldn't tell me anything that wasn't so. Would you, daddy?" Outmaneuvered, Mara concedes the point.
Mara then demands that Fred prove that Kris is "the one and only" Santa Claus on the basis of some competent authority. While Fred searches frantically, Susan, by now a firm believer in Kris, writes him a letter to cheer him up, which Doris also signs. A mail sorter (Jack Albertson) sees that Susan's letter is addressed to the New York County Court House and realizes that the post office could clear out the many letters to Santa taking up space in its dead letter office by delivering them to Kris.
Kris is uplifted by Susan's letter. Fred learns that Kris has received over 50,000 pieces of mail. He presents Judge Harper with three letters addressed to "Santa Claus", which the U.S. Post Office has just delivered to Kris. Fred asserts that the post office qualifies as a competent authority and that by delivering the letters to Kris is acknowledging that he is in fact the Santa Claus. Mara challenges Fred by recalling the post office's dead letter office, which contains thousands of such letters. When Harper demands that Fred produce "further exhibits", the judge finds his bench inundated with 21 bags of letters, all presumably from the dead letter office. Declining to dispute the Post Office's "legal recognition" of Kris as Santa Claus, Harper dismisses the case. Afterwards, Doris invites Kris to dinner, but he reminds her that "It's Christmas Eve!"
On Christmas morning, Susan is disillusioned because Kris was apparently unable to get her what she told him she wanted most. As they are about to leave, Kris gives Fred and Doris a route home that avoids traffic. Along the way, Susan is overjoyed to see the house of her dreams (exactly matching the drawing she had given Kris earlier) with a For Sale sign in the front yard. Fred learns that Doris had encouraged Susan to have faith, and suggests they get married and purchase the house. He then boasts that he must be a great lawyer, since he managed to do the seemingly impossible. However, when he notices a cane leaning against the fireplace that looks just like the one Kris used, he wonders, "Maybe I didn't do such a wonderful thing after all."
Although the film is set during the Christmas season, studio head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that it be released in May, arguing that more people went to the movies during the summer. So the studio rushed to promote it while keeping its Christmas setting a secret. Fox's promotional trailer depicted a fictional producer roaming the studio backlot and encountering such stars as Rex Harrison, Anne Baxter, Peggy Ann Garner, and Dick Haymes extolling the virtues of the film. In addition, the movie posters prominently featured O'Hara and Payne, with Gwenn's character kept in the background. The film opened in New York City at the Roxy Theatre on June 4, 1947.[3] By contrast, modern home video packaging has Gwenn and Wood dominating the imagery, with the DVD release having Kringle in his Santa Claus costume.
The Christmas window displays seen in the film were originally made by Steiff for Macy's. Macy's later sold the window displays to FAO Schwartz in New York. FAO Schwartz then sold the windows to the Marshall & Ilsley Bank of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they are on display every December in the bank's lobby on North Water Street.
The house shown at the end of the film is a 1703 square foot single family home built in 1943 at 24 Derby Road, Port Washington, New York. The home looks practically the same as it did in 1947, except that the roof line has been altered by the addition of a window.
Miracle on 34th Street received mostly positive reviews from critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1947.[4][5] The film currently holds a 94% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[6]
The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Edmund Gwenn), Best Writing, Original Story (Valentine Davies) and Best Writing, Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Picture, losing to Gentleman's Agreement.
It was ranked ninth by the American Film Institute on 100 Years... 100 Cheers, a list of America's most inspiring films.[7] In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Miracle on 34th Street was acknowledged as the fifth best film in the fantasy genre.[8][9]
In 2005, Miracle on 34th Street was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[10][11]
American Film Institute Lists
In the book Reel Justice, the authors claim that Judge Harper could have dismissed the case early without the political repercussions he feared. In their theory, once the prosecutor rested his case immediately after Kris Kringle admitted in court simply that he believed he was Santa Claus, Judge Harper could have ruled that prosecution had forfeited its opportunity to prove that Kringle was dangerous (the basic point of such hearings; Kringle's actual mental state itself being irrelevant), and ordered him immediately released. However, this high standard for involuntary commitment was not instituted until 1975 with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision O'Connor v. Donaldson.
When demonstrating that he has taken several mental examinations in the past, Kris Kringle answers his own question about who was the Vice President under John Quincy Adams as Daniel D. Tompkins. Tompkins actually served only under James Monroe. John C. Calhoun is the correct answer to Kringle's question.
Rowland Hussey Macy died in 1877, 70 years prior to the time of the film.
Miracle on 34th Street was first released on VHS in the late 1980s. In 1985, it became one of the first full-length black-and-white films to be colorized. The 4½ month process was carried out by American Film Technologies. In 1993, this version was released on VHS and was followed four years later by a "50th Anniversary Edition". The first DVD release came in October 1999. In November 2006, it was rereleased as a 2-disc "Special Edition" DVD, in both the original black-and-white and a version newly computer-colorized by Legend Films. This issue also included a documentary interviewing many of the actors and production crew, and a full-length commentary by Maureen O'Hara. In October 2009, 20th Century Fox released the black-and-white version on Blu-ray.[15]
There are four remakes of the movie, as well as a Broadway musical. In addition, Lux Radio Theater broadcast an adaptation in 1948 and it was adapted as a half-hour radio play on two broadcasts of Screen Director's Playhouse, all featuring Edmund Gwenn in his screen role. In addition, Samuel French, Inc. owns the rights to a stage version performed by community theaters and others.
A 1955 one-hour television adaptation of the movie starred Thomas Mitchell as Kris, Macdonald Carey as Fred, Teresa Wright as Doris, and Sandy Descher as Susan. This version did not show the drunken Santa at all. Titled "The Miracle on 34th Street", it originally aired as an episode of The 20th Century Fox Hour. It was later re-run as "Meet Mr. Kringle".
Ed Wynn played Kris in a 1959 television adaptation of the movie. Also featured was Orson Bean. It was broadcast live and in color on NBC the day after Thanksgiving. NBC made a kinescope of the program, probably for broadcasting opening night on the West Coast. The copy was in a large collection of kinescopes donated by NBC to the Library of Congress and recently unearthed by Richard Finegan, who reported his experiences in the December 2005 issue of Classic Images.
A 1963 Broadway musical version, entitled Here's Love, was written by Meredith Willson.
A 1973 version featured Jane Alexander, David Hartman, Roddy McDowall, Sebastian Cabot as Kris (oddly sans his natural beard; he was forced to shave and wear a false beard for the role), Suzanne Davidson, Jim Backus, David Doyle and Tom Bosley. It was adapted by Jeb Rosebrook from the George Seaton screenplay, and directed by Fielder Cook. Mrs. Walker's first name is changed to Karen in this version. This would prove to be the final version in which the department store was actually Macy's. David Doyle, who played R. H. Macy in this version had played Mr. Sawyer in the original Broadway cast of Here's Love 10 years earlier.
A 1994 feature film starred Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, J. T. Walsh, Timothy Shea, James Remar, Jane Leeves, Simon Jones, William Windom and Mara Wilson. It was adapted by John Hughes from the Seaton script, and directed by Les Mayfield. Due to Macy's refusal to give permission to use its name, it was replaced by the fictitious "Cole's". Gimbels no longer existed by 1994 and was replaced with the fictional "Shopper's Express". Alvin Greenman (Alfred in the original version) played a doorman. This version had a more serious tone than the original and a large portion was rewritten, although the majority of the plot and characters remained intact. The film also added a subtext concerning religious faith.
The book was adapted into a stage play by Will Severin, Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder and John Vreeke (possibly in 2006). It seems to be run in many community and regional theaters around the Christmas season, including Racine, Wisconsin's Racine Theatre Guild[16] in December 2009. The characters' names are those used in the novella, and the stage setting is distinctly late 1940s. Production rights are held by Samuel French, Inc.[17]
The flagship Macy's Department Store at Herald Square in New York features a 30 Minute Puppet version of the story within its Santaland display, featuring the voice talents of Broadway stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Victoria Clark.
| 1947 |
1955 |
1959 |
1963 Broadway musical |
1973 |
1994 |
| Doris Walker |
Karen Walker |
Dorey Walker |
| Frederick M. Gailey |
Bill Schaffner |
Bryan Bedford |
| Kris Kringle |
| Susan Walker |
| Cleo |
|
[eliminated] |
| Drunk Santa |
|
[no name given] |
|
[no name given] |
Tony Falacchi |
| Julian Shellhammer |
Mr. Shellhammer |
Marvin Shellhammer |
Horace Shellhammer |
Donald Shellhammer |
| Mrs. Shellhammer |
[eliminated] |
| Alfred |
|
Alfred |
[eliminated] |
| Granville Sawyer |
Dr. Albert Sawyer |
Dr. William Sawyer |
Dr. Bartholomew Sawyer |
Dr. Henry Sawyer |
[eliminated] |
| R. H. Macy |
Mr. Macy |
R. H. Macy |
C. F. Cole |
| Mr. Gimbel |
Victor Landbergh |
| Dr. Pierce |
[eliminated] |
Dr. Pierce |
[eliminated] |
| Hon. Henry X. Harper |
Hon. Harper |
Hon. Martin Group |
Hon. Harper |
Hon. Henry Harper |
| Charlie Halloran |
|
[eliminated] |
| Thomas Mara |
Mr. Mara |
Thomas Mara |
Ed Collins |
| Mrs. Mara |
[eliminated] |
|
[eliminated] |
Rebecca Collins |
| Macy's Department Store |
Cole's Department Store |
| Gimbels Department Store |
Shopper's Express |
Streaming audio
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Total Revenue:  US$26.313 billion ( FY 2007) · Employees: 182,000 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: M · Website: macysinc.com
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