I will be traveling on Rudy Day so wanted to post this month's movie. Miracle on 34th Street. I thought it would be appropriate for November since it begins with the Thanksgiving and takes us all the way to Christmas. Some fun facts I found online... Enjoy the movie.
It was so cold during the filming of the scene at the end of the film where Natalie Wood spots her dream house on the street and runs inside that the cameras actually froze. While technicians worked on fixing them, a woman who lived in one of the neighboring houses invited the cast inside to stay warm. The Good Samaritan was rewarded when Maureen O'Hara as a thank you took her and her husband to the 21 Club later that night.
The scenes inside Macy's were actually shot at the famous department store at Herald Square. They had to be shot at night so as not to interfere with regular store business.
The rivalry between department stores Macy's and Gimbels depicted in the film was very real. The two stores were just blocks from each other in New York and major competitors for the same business. The rhetorical question "Does Macy's tell Gimbels?" was a popular phrase used throughout the 1930s-1960s which meant that business competitors are not supposed to share trade secrets with one another.
Gimbels Department Store closed its doors permanently in 1986.
Macy's department store founder R.H. Macy is portrayed in the film by actor Harry Antrim even though the real R.H. Macy passed away in 1877.
When John Hughes' production company wanted to do a theatrical re-make of the film in 1994, they could not get Macy's to participate. "We feel the original stands on its own and could not be improved upon," said a company spokesperson at the time. The re-make instead called its fictional store Cole's.
It was so cold during the filming of the scene at the end of the film where Natalie Wood spots her dream house on the street and runs inside that the cameras actually froze. While technicians worked on fixing them, a woman who lived in one of the neighboring houses invited the cast inside to stay warm. The Good Samaritan was rewarded when Maureen O'Hara as a thank you took her and her husband to the 21 Club later that night.
The scenes inside Macy's were actually shot at the famous department store at Herald Square. They had to be shot at night so as not to interfere with regular store business.
The rivalry between department stores Macy's and Gimbels depicted in the film was very real. The two stores were just blocks from each other in New York and major competitors for the same business. The rhetorical question "Does Macy's tell Gimbels?" was a popular phrase used throughout the 1930s-1960s which meant that business competitors are not supposed to share trade secrets with one another.
Gimbels Department Store closed its doors permanently in 1986.
Macy's department store founder R.H. Macy is portrayed in the film by actor Harry Antrim even though the real R.H. Macy passed away in 1877.
When John Hughes' production company wanted to do a theatrical re-make of the film in 1994, they could not get Macy's to participate. "We feel the original stands on its own and could not be improved upon," said a company spokesperson at the time. The re-make instead called its fictional store Cole's.
