{"id":23428,"date":"2015-10-26T06:39:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T12:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=23428"},"modified":"2015-10-26T06:39:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T12:39:01","slug":"ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-miracle-on-34th-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-miracle-on-34th-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Things You Didn&#8217;t Know about Miracle on 34th Street"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three films made in quick succession post World War II have endured in the minds of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> fans as among the best of films ever made: It\u2019s a Wonderful Life, The Bishop\u2019s Wife and Miracle on 34th Street. But of those three films only Miracle on 34th Street was hailed as a classic from the start. <\/p>\n<p>The movie business in those first post-war years was risky at best. When films like It\u2019s a Wonderful Life failed to capture the public\u2019s imagination they lost money. 20th Century Fox was confident that the story would be a hit but didn\u2019t feel the film\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> theme would appeal to broad audiences. Instead of releasing the film in November or December it was released in May 1947 under the assumption that more people go to the movies in the summer. The low cost of the film combined with a long box office run made the film profitable for the studio and it enjoyed a sterling reputation as a classic film from the beginning. <\/p>\n<p>Post war movies had several elements the censors watched for. The use of profanity, sexuality and violence were obviously monitored. But few realize the strains put on film storylines by having to conform to industry standards. In It\u2019s a Wonderful Life producers had to argue to get past the fact that the villain, played by Lionel Barrymore, was never held accountable for his thievery in the film. In Miracle on 34th Street Maureen O\u2019Hara\u2019s role as a single working mother though typical enough due to the war alone was somewhat problematic for some film censors. <\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Hara\u2019s character of Doris Walker was one the studio heads were critical of. What kind of man would want such a cold hearted individual who would deny her child the magic of fairy tales? They were afraid audiences would find her too abrasive. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/--uyzf7X_0c\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Miracle on 34th Street had one thing It\u2019s a Wonderful Life and The Bishop\u2019s Wife both lacked: a positive storyline that echoed the sentiments of \u201cWhite Christmas\u201d, that Irving Berlin song made famous by Bing Crosby in 1942 that became something of an anthem for a generation that marched off to war. <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> and home and family \u2013 and <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Santa<\/a> Claus \u2013 was beloved of the American public and they embraced this film as emblematic of those feelings. <\/p>\n<p>John Payne, who plays O\u2019Hara\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">love<\/a> interest in the film as aspiring lawyer Fred Gailey, had been unhappy about the quality of roles he was playing. But when he read the story of Miracle on 34th Street he purchased the movie rights to it. Payne remained so endeared of the story that for years afterwards he wanted to produce a sequel, even telling O\u2019Hara at one point that he was working on a script. Sadly he passed in 1989 and nothing was ever made of his thoughts on adding to the story. <\/p>\n<p>Here are ten things you don\u2019t know about Miracle on 34th Street:<\/p>\n<p>1. O\u2019Hara describes a closeness among the cast and crew on Miracle on 34th Street that is not normal for a film. She credits the storyline and the fact the crew knew from the beginning that Miracle on 34th Street would resonate with the movie-going public. Natalie Wood would call her \u201cMamma Maureen\u201d and O\u2019Hara would call Wood \u201cNatasha\u201d, the name her parents had given her. <\/p>\n<p>2. The movie was made in a hurry. Producers only decided to take on the project at the end of October 1946. Within weeks they had recalled O\u2019Hara from vacationing in Ireland, a move that infuriated the star because she had not seen her family there for seven years due to travel restrictions brought on by the war. All that was necessary because Macy\u2019s had agreed to let producers use the real Macy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a> Day parade as a backdrop as long as they didn\u2019t impede its progress. The film finished filming in March 1947 and released in May. <\/p>\n<p>3. Macy\u2019s department store and real-life competitor Gimbels both figure prominently in the movie. At the time, both were considered household names. 20th Century Fox took a risk in completing the production before getting both companies to sign off on the use of their names in the movie. They screened the film for executives privately and received enthusiastic approval. Almost 50 years later when John Hughes brought a remake of Miracle on 34th Street to the big screen Macy\u2019s refused to have anything to do with it, declaring the original \u201cperfect\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>4. The movie was originally titled The Big Heart, a title movie studio executives loved. But the title of the project was in flux the entire time. At one time the working title was \u201cIt\u2019s Only Human\u201d and then became \u201cMr. Kringle\u201d before it was settled to call the film \u201cMiracle on 34th Street\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>5. In the final scenes of the movie where Susan Walker spots her dream house it was so cold that the cameras froze. Neighbors saw the halt in production and invited cast and crew indoors to their own fireplaces to warm things up. This earned one lucky family a night on the town courtesy of O\u2019Hara. <\/p>\n<p>6. Edmund Gwenn got behind the reins of Santa\u2019s sleigh for the Macy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a> Day parade in 1946 and played <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Santa<\/a> through-out. Nobody knew he was making a movie. <\/p>\n<p>7. The prosecuting attorney Thomas Mara, Sr. was based on real life New York district attorney Thomas E. Dewey, who famously ran for president twice and lost. <\/p>\n<p>8. Natalie Wood was 8-years old at the time of the production of Miracle on 34th Street. She had a photographic memory and always got her lines right. She was dubbed \u201cone-take Natalie\u201d for her preparedness and professionalism, even as a child. <\/p>\n<p>9. Edmund Gwenn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Kris Kringle. When he accepted the award he said, \u201cNow I know there is a <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Santa<\/a> Claus!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>10. Miracle on 34th Street brought the eyes of the nation to Macy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/sneaking-christmas\/\">Thanksgiving<\/a> Day parade. It had been a tradition in New York since 1924 and enjoyed some early local television coverage. But the movie brought the tradition to the awareness of the country and it became one of the earliest events to receive coast-to-coast television coverage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three films made in quick succession post World War II have endured in the minds of Christmas fans as among the best of films ever made: It\u2019s a Wonderful Life, The Bishop\u2019s Wife and Miracle on 34th Street. But of those three films only Miracle on 34th Street was hailed as a classic from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":161,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,36,25],"tags":[385,312],"class_list":["post-23428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-features","category-christmas-history","category-christmas-movies","tag-christmas-film-history","tag-miracle-on-34th-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}