50 Fun Facts About Miracle on 34th Street

In the 1947 film, who plays Kris Kringle?

The London-born actor won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role, and later appeared in Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry.

How does Kris end up in the red suit at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?

Event director Doris Walker recruits him on the spot, and he does so well that Macy's hires him for the store on 34th Street.

Kris shocks his employers by sending a shopper to which rival store to find a fire engine?

The rival stood a block away on Herald Square, and their feud gave America the phrase 'Does Macy's tell Gimbels?'

Which actress plays Doris Walker, the Macy's events director and Susan's mother?

She had just moved back to post-war Ireland and was reluctant to return; she later received an honorary Oscar in 2014.

The young Susan Walker is played by which future star of Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story?

Born Natalia Zakharenko in San Francisco, she was eight during filming and went on to three Oscar nominations.

What is the name of the lawyer neighbour who defends Kris in court and courts Doris?

John Payne played him, and later starred as a reluctant gunfighter in the TV western The Restless Gun.

What convinces Susan that Kris might really be Santa, when she watches him with a little orphan girl?

Doris has raised Susan not to believe in fairy tales, so the scene is the first crack in her scepticism.

Kris is sent to Bellevue after striking the store psychologist Granville Sawyer on the head with what?

Sawyer had declared Kris dangerous and recommended he be institutionalised.

Which branch of the federal government does Fred cite in court as recognising Kris as Santa Claus?

Mail sorters had dumped every letter addressed to Santa on Kris, and the sacks are hauled into court as evidence.

Which witness at the hearing testifies that Santa Claus is real because his own father told him so?

It leaves the prosecutor unable to argue that Santa does not exist without contradicting himself.

What do Fred and Doris spot inside the house Susan wanted for Christmas in the final scene?

The film never says outright whether Kris is Santa, and the cane is the closest it comes to an answer.

Which actor plays Judge Henry X. Harper, who must rule on whether Kris is sane?

William Frawley, later Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, plays the political fixer who warns the judge what ruling against Santa would do to his career.

Which actor plays the store psychologist Granville Sawyer?

Kris's dislike of him is the one time the gentle old man loses his temper.

Who directed the 1947 film and won an Oscar for its screenplay?

Valentine Davies won a separate Oscar for the original story, and published a short novelisation with Harcourt Brace.

The parade scenes were filmed live during the real Macy's parade of which year?

O'Hara recalled 'a mad scramble' in which each scene could be shot only once as the floats went by.

Studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck insisted the Christmas film be released in which month of 1947?

He believed more people went to the movies in warm weather, so the trailers hid the Christmas setting entirely.

The film opened in New York City on June 4, 1947, at which theatre?

It was released by 20th Century-Fox, which retitled it The Big Heart for British audiences.

Under what title was the film originally released in the United Kingdom?

British distributors apparently thought '34th Street' would mean nothing to their audience.

How many Academy Awards did the 1947 film win?

Supporting actor, original story and screenplay; it lost Best Picture to Gentleman's Agreement.

The 1947 film lost the Best Picture Oscar to which other 20th Century-Fox film, about antisemitism?

Both were 20th Century-Fox releases, so the studio won either way.

The film was made on a budget of roughly how much?

It returned about $2.7 million in domestic rentals, more than ten times its cost.

In which year was the film selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry?

By then it had been colorised for two decades; the 1985 version was one of the first full-length black-and-white films to get the treatment.

Why did the Catholic Legion of Decency rate the 1947 film 'morally objectionable in part'?

A single mother raising a child alone was still a delicate subject on screen in 1947.

The residence for the aged where Kris lives at the start of the film is called what?

His mailing address there is one of the details that make his sanity hearing so awkward.

Except in 1932, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has always ended with which figure's arrival?

The only exception was 1932, when Santa led the parade instead of closing it.

Macy's rival in the film held its own Thanksgiving parade in which city, four years before Macy's?

The Philadelphia store was also the first in the world to move customers by escalator; the chain closed for good in 1987.

In the 1994 remake, who plays Kris Kringle?

The Gandhi director had just played John Hammond in Jurassic Park the year before.

The 1994 remake replaces Macy's with a fictional store called what?

Macy's declined to let its name be used, and Gimbels had gone out of business in 1987, so the rival became Shopper's Express.

Which writer-producer, famous for Home Alone, co-wrote and produced the 1994 remake?

Les Mayfield directed, and Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up despite a lukewarm 59 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Which child actress, also seen in Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda, plays Susan in the 1994 remake?

Elizabeth Perkins plays her mother, renamed Dorey, and Dylan McDermott plays the lawyer, renamed Bryan Bedford.

Instead of the mail sacks, the 1994 remake's judge is persuaded by the words printed on what?

If the Treasury can put its faith in God on the currency, the judge reasons, New York can put its faith in Santa Claus.

The 1994 remake earned about $46m worldwide on a budget of roughly how much?

It opened only eighth at the domestic box office with $2.8 million.

Which composer of The Music Man wrote the 1963 Broadway musical Here's Love?

He wrote the book, music and lyrics himself, and it ran 334 performances at the Shubert Theatre.

Which 1951 song pairs in counterpoint with 'Pine Cones and Holly Berries' in Here's Love?

Meredith Willson had written it in 1951; licensing companies have since often billed the show as Miracle on 34th Street: The Musical.

Who played Kris Kringle in the 1959 television adaptation?

Thomas Mitchell had done the 1955 hour-long version and Sebastian Cabot took the beard in 1973.

The 1973 TV movie version starred Sebastian Cabot as Kris alongside which Emmy-winning actress as Doris?

David Hartman played the lawyer and Roddy McDowall the psychologist.

Who plays Charlie Halloran, the adviser who tells the judge that ruling against Santa is electoral suicide?

Four years later he became Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy.

The 1947 film holds what approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes?

That is based on 52 critics' reviews, most written decades after the film's release.

The film's story is set between which two holidays in New York City?

It opens on the morning of the parade and closes on Christmas Day at the dream house.

Which company carried out the 1985 colorisation of the film?

The colour version aired on television that Christmas and sparked the wider debate over colorising classics.

In the 1994 remake, Susan's third Christmas wish, revealed only in the final scene, is what?

Her other two wishes, a father and the house from the Cole's catalogue, have just come true, so the adults glance at Dorey's stomach and kiss.

In the 1994 remake, who plays Bryan Bedford, the lawyer neighbour who proposes to Dorey?

Dorey turns him down at first; they marry after Christmas Eve midnight mass once the court case is won.

The 1994 remake's London premiere was a Royal Film Performance attended by whom?

The New York premiere at Radio City Music Hall came with a half-hour Rockettes stage show and a performance by Kenny G.

Which actor, fresh off a studio suspension, defended Kris in court in his last film for Fox?

Maureen O'Hara had just moved back to post-war Ireland and only agreed to return after reading the script.

Per Richard Attenborough, how was the child character first written in Hughes's 1994 draft?

Mara Wilson said she related to Susan's scepticism because she was Jewish, though she still believed in the tooth fairy at the time.

What is the name of the District Attorney who prosecutes Kris in the 1947 film?

He rests his case as soon as Kris claims to be Santa, then concedes Santa exists after his own son testifies, but demands proof Kris is the one and only.

In the 1994 remake, executives of which fictional rival chain pay a drunk ex-Santa to provoke Kris?

The real rival from 1947 had closed in 1987, so a fictional name was needed; the staged assault gets Kris arrested for raising his walking stick.

Which actor turned down the role of Kris Kringle in 1947, whereupon it went to his cousin?

The cousin was born Edmund Kellaway in Wandsworth and acted under the name Gwenn; he went on to win the Supporting Actor Oscar for the part.

How many cameras did assistant director Arthur Jacobson use on the real 1946 Macy's parade?

Every scene could be shot only once. O'Hara recalled the bitter cold and envying Natalie Wood and John Payne, who watched from a window.

Who played Kris in the 1955 one-hour television version made for The 20th Century Fox Hour?

That version cut the drunken Santa entirely and was later rerun as 'Meet Mr. Kringle'. Macdonald Carey and Teresa Wright played Fred and Doris.