Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Miracle on 34th Street is a 1947 film about a single mother and her daughter in New York City, discovering that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Santa Claus just might be the real thing.

Fast Facts

1. Directed by George Seaton
2. Produced by William Perlberg
3. Written by Valentine Davies, George Seaton
4. Released May 2, 1947
5. Running Time: 96 Minutes

Cast

1. Maureen O'Hara as Doris Walker
2. John Payne as Frederick M. Gailey
3. Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle
4. Natalie Wood as Susan
5. Porter Hall as Granville Sawyer
6. William Frawley as Charlie Halloran
7. Jerome Cowan as District Attorney Thomas Mara
8. Philip Tonge as Julian Shellhammer
9. Alvin Greenman as Alfred
10. Gene Lockhart as The Honorable Henry X. Harper
11. Harry Antrim as R. H. Macy
12. Herbert H. Heyes as Mr. Gimbel
13. James Seay as Dr. Pierce, a geriatrics physician at Brooks Memorial Home
14. Thelma Ritter as a harried shopper
15. Percy Helton as the drunken Santa Claus stand-in in the parade
16. Ann Staunton as Mrs. Mara
17. Bobby Hyatt as Thomas Mara, Jr.
18. Jack Albertson and Guy Thomajan as two U.S. Postal Service employees

Remakes

• 1955: Television movie entitled The Miracle on 34th Street, starring Thomas Mitchell as Kris Kringle and Sandy Descher as Susan Walker aired as an episode of The 20th Century Fox Hour.
  
  
• 1959: Television movie starring Ed Wynn as Kris Kringle and featured Orson Bean broadcast live and in color on NBC the day after Thanksgiving.
  
  
• 1963: Broadway musical version entitled Here's Love was written by Meredith Willson.
  
  
• 1973: Television movie starring Jane Alexander, David Hartman, Roddy McDowall, Sebastian Cabot, Suzanne Davidson, Jim Backus, David Doyle and Tom Bosley.
  
  
• 1994: Feature film version starring Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, J.T. Walsh, Timothy Shea, James Remar, Jane Leeves, Simon Jones, William Windom and Mara Wilson was adapted by John Hughes. Macy's refusal to grant permission to use their name, and was replaced by the fictitional "Cole's". Gimbels no longer existed and was replaced with the fictional "Shopper's Express". Alvin Greenman, who played Alfred in the original version, was featured as the doorman.

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