Quotes
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Fred Gailey: Look Doris, someday you`re going to find that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn`t work. And when you do, don`t overlook those lovely intangibles. You`ll discover those are the only things that are worthwhile.
Doris: Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don`t you see? It`s not just Kris that`s on trial, it`s everything he stands for. It`s kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.
Charles Halloran: All right, you go back and tell them that the New York State Supreme Court rules there`s no Santa Claus. It`s all over the papers. The kids read it and they don`t hang up their stockings. Now what happens to all the toys that are supposed to be in those stockings? Nobody buys them. The toy manufacturers are going to like that; so they have to lay off a lot of their employees, union employees. Now you got the CIO and the AF of L against you and they`re going to adore you for it and they`re going to say it with votes. Oh, and the department stores are going to love you too and the Christmas card makers and the candy companies. Ho ho. Henry, you`re going to be an awful popular fella. And what about the Salvation Army? Why, they got a Santa Claus on every corner, and they`re taking a fortune. But you go ahead Henry, you do it your way. You go on back in there and tell them that you rule there is no Santy Claus. Go on. But if you do, remember this: you can count on getting just two votes, your own and that district attorney`s out there.
Judge Henry X. Harper: The District Attorney`s a Republican.
Fred Gailey: Is it true that you`re the owner of one of the biggest department stores in New York City?
Mr. R. H. Macy: THE biggest!
Mrs. Mara: Sometimes I wish I married a butcher or a plumber.
District Attorney: My dear, if I lose this hearing, you may very well get your wish.
Doris: Would you please tell her that you`re not really Santa Claus, that actually is no such person?
Kris Kringle: Well, I hate to disagree with you, but not only IS there such a person, but here I am to prove it.
Fred: That baseball player sure looks like a giant to me.
Susan: Sometimes people grow very large, but that`s abnormal.
Fred: I`ll bet your mother told you that, too.
Susan: I believe... I believe... It`s silly, but I believe.
District Attorney: What is your name?
Kris Kringle: Kris Kringle.
District Attorney: Where do you live?
Kris Kringle: That`s what this hearing will decide.
Judge Henry X. Harper: A very sound answer, Mister Kringle.
District Attorney: Do you really believe that you`re Santa Claus?
Kris Kringle: Of course.
District Attorney: [long pause] The state rests, your honor.
[Doris is trying to convince Susan there is no Santa Claus]
Susan Walker: But when he spoke Dutch to that girl...
Doris Walker: Susan, I speak French, but that doesn`t make me Joan of Arc.
Kris Kringle: You see, Mrs. Walker, this is quite an opportunity for me. For the past 50 years or so I`ve been getting more and more worried about Christmas. Seems we`re all so busy trying to beat the other fellow in making things go faster and look shinier and cost less that Christmas and I are sort of getting lost in the shuffle.
Kris Kringle: You know what the imagination is?
Susan Walker: Oh, sure. That`s when you see things, but they`re not really there.
Kris Kringle: Well, that can be caused by other things, too.
Susan Walker: If you`re really Santa Claus, you can get it for me. And if you can`t, you`re only a nice man with a white beard like mother says.
Fred Gailey: All my life I`ve wondered something, and now`s my chance to find out. I`m going to find the answer to a question that`s puzzled the world for centuries. Does Santa Claus sleep with his whiskers outside or in?
Kris Kringle: Always sleep with them out. Cold air makes them grow.
Kris Kringle: Now wait a minute, Susie. Just because every child can`t get his wish that doesn`t mean there isn`t a Santa Claus.
Kris Kringle: No, but don`t you see, dear? Some children wish for things they couldn`t possibly use like real locomotives or B-29s.
Mr. Shellhammer: But... but maybe he`s only a little crazy like painters or composers or... or some of those men in Washington.
Alfred, Macy janitor: Yeah, there`s a lot of bad `isms` floatin` around this world, but one of the worst is commercialism. Make a buck, make a buck. Even in Brooklyn it`s the same - don`t care what Christmas stands for, just make a buck, make a buck.
Kris Kringle: Oh, Christmas isn`t just a day, it`s a frame of mind... and that`s what`s been changing. That`s why I`m glad I`m here, maybe I can do something about it.
Doris Walker: I was wrong when I told you that, Susie. You must believe in Mr. Kringle and keep right on doing it. You must have faith in him.
Susan Walker: You mean it`s like, `If at first you don`t succeed, try, try again.`
Doris Walker: Yes.
Susan Walker: I thought so.
Fred Gailey: Your Honor, every one of these letters is addressed to Santa Claus. The Post Office has delivered them. Therefore the Post Office Department, a branch of the Federal Governent, recognizes this man Kris Kringle to be the one and only Santa Claus.
Judge Henry X. Harper: Uh, since the United States Government declares this man to be Santa Claus, this court will not dispute it. Case dismissed.
Susan Walker: There`s no such thing as giants.
Fred Gailey: What about the one Jack killed?
Susan Walker: Jack? Jack who?
Fred Gailey: Jack from "Jack and the Beanstalk".
Susan Walker: I never heard of that.
Fred Gailey: Sure you have. You must have forgotten. It`s a fairy tale.
Susan Walker: Oh... one of those. I don`t know any of those. My mother thinks they`re silly.
Kris Kringle: To market, to market, to buy a fat pig! Home again, home again, jiggety-jig. To market, to market, to buy a fat hog! Home again, home again, jiggety-...
Kris Kringle: If that`s normal, I don`t want it!
Kris Kringle: [smells other Santa`s breath] You`ve been drinking.
Drunken Santa Claus: Well, it`s cold outside. A man`s gotta do something to keep warm.
Mr. R. H. Macy: [to Sawyer] "Psychologist". Where`d you graduate from, a correspondence school?
[starts to walk away, then turns back to Sawyer]
Mr. R. H. Macy: You`re fired.
Trivia
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Despite the fact that the film is set during Christmas, studio head Darryl F. Zanuck insisted that it be released in May because he argued that more people went to the movies during the summer. So the studio began scrambling to promote it while keeping the fact that it was a Christmas movie a secret.
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# Maureen O`Hara was ultimately forced into her role against her will, as she had just returned to Ireland before being called back to America for the film. However, she immediately changed her sentiments upon reading the script.
There are 21 mail bags carried into the courtroom at the end of Kris`s hearing.
Natalie Wood was eight years old when she made this film.
Thelma Ritter`s screen debut.
20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was very much against making this film because he thought it too corny to succeed. He finally agreed to a medium-sized budget provided writer/director George Seaton would accept his next three assignments unconditionally. Seaton, who desperately wanted to get the picture made, agreed.
When Dr. Pierce explains Kris` belief that he is Santa Claus, he offers for comparative purposes a Hollywood restaurant owner who believes himself to be a Russian prince despite evidence to the contrary, but rather conveniently fails to recall the man`s name. This was a reference to Michael Romanoff, owner of Romanoff`s in Hollywood, a popular hangout for movie stars at the time.
2006: Ranked #9 on the American Film Institute`s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time.
Ranked #5 on the American Film Institute`s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Fantasy" in June 2008.
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# The scenes of the Macy`s Thanksgiving Day Parade are of the actual parade held in 1946. As such, careful preparation was necessary for the shots as retakes were obviously out of the question. 20th Century-Fox had cameras positioned along the parade route at the starting line at 77th Street, on Central Park West, on the 3rd floor of an apartment building at 253 West 58th Street, in Herald Square and on 34th Street at 7th Avenue.
Cinematographer Charles G. Clarke was taken off the picture and sent to Mexico to finish principal photography on the troubled production of Captain from Castile (1947). Lloyd Ahern replaced him.
In the untranslated dialogue with the Dutch girl, Santa Claus asks the child what she wants for Christmas the girl says she wants nothing, telling Santa she got her gift by being adopted by her new mother.
Unbeknownst to most parade watchers, Edmund Gwenn played Santa Claus in the actual Macy`s Thanksgiving Day Parade held November 28, 1946. He fulfilled the duties of most parade Santas, including addressing the crowd from the marquee of Macy`s after the parade was over. He was introduced to the crowd by actor Philip Tonge (he played Mr. Shellhammer in the movie) and he later unveiled the mechanical Christmas display windows to the accompaniment of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky`s "Nutcracker Suite." This gesture symbolized the opening of the Christmas shopping season at the store.
According to Hedda Hopper`s "Looking at Hollywood" newspaper column of May 3, 1947 "when the picture opens at the Roxy, Macy`s will close for half a day so it`s 12,000 employees can see the first showing."
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# Both the actual Macy`s and Gimbels department stores were approached by the producers for permission to have them depicted in the film. Both stores wanted to see the finished film first before they gave approval. If either store had refused, the film would have had to been extensively edited and reshot to eliminate the references. Fortunately at the test viewing, both businesses were pleased with the film and gave their permission.
The scenes at Macy`s were shot on location at the main New York store on 34th Street itself. Shooting was complicated by the fact that the crew`s power needs exceeded the store`s electricity capacity and required additional power sources arranged in the store`s basement.
The Dutch girl spoke true Dutch, but with a heavy American accent.
The role of Kris was originally offered to Cecil Kellaway, who turned it down. The role went to Edmund Gwenn, Kellaway`s cousin. Cecil Kellaway did play Santa in the _ "Bewitched" (1964)_ script A Vision of Sugar Plums which featured child star Bill Mumy.
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