Backstory: Miracle on 34th Street

Christmas Past

Brian Earl

Kids & Family, Society & Culture

4.9 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2018

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Miracle on 34th Street doesn't fit today's standards for what makes a movie Christmassy. It involved a cynical child and a Santa Claus who gets locked up in a mental health institution before undergoing a public psych hearing. Not only that, but the movie was released in June of 1947. And yet, it has gone on to become not only a beloved movie, but also a cherished tradition. How did that happen? We'll find out with the help of film critic Alonso Duralde.Music in this episode“Losing Love” — De...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hollywood, mid-1940s. The glitter, the glamour. Tinsletown had its most tinselly.
0:11.7	The decade that gave us Citizen Kane and Casablanca.
0:15.5	Song and dance numbers from the likes of Judy Garland and Fred Astaire.
0:19.5	The swashbuckling of Errol Flynn,
0:22.0	the sheer star power of Carrie Grant and Betty Grable.
0:25.5	The Dream Factory, they called it,
0:28.1	where studios churned out mile after mile of celluloid star stuff
0:32.4	that captured imaginations and earned a place in our cultural memory.
0:37.0	Let's take a little trip back in time and pay a visit to a producer's office at 20th century
0:42.8	Fox, where someone's about to pitch the next big box office draw.
0:51.9	Boss, I got a swell idea for a picture.
0:54.7	It's going to knock your all gile socks right off.
0:57.3	Well, all right, let's hear it.
0:58.7	It's the story of a little girl and Santa Claus.
1:02.1	Ooh, a Christmas picture. I like it.
1:04.2	But get this.
1:05.5	We'll release it in June.
1:07.4	Um...
1:08.2	And none of our advertising will even mention the Christmas stuff.
1:11.8	But it is a Christmas picture.
1:13.9	It has Santa Claus, right?
1:15.4	Two Santas.
	...

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