“Miracle on 34th Street” turns 70 as its iconic film balloon returns,
Now turning 70, “MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET” gave Macy’s flagship store and its holiday Parade an iconic status
I N the beginning of the 1947 classic “Miracle on 34th Street,” young Susan Walker (played by 8-year-old Natalie Wood) watches the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from a window as balloon wranglers manage an enormous baseball player.
“He certainly is a giant,” the neighbor, Fred Gailey (John Payne), comments.
“Not really,” Susan replies, with all the imagination of a rock. “There are no giants, Mr. Gailey.”
It’s the first indication the film gives that the child’s in deep need of a little Christmas magic.
Susan is hardened beyond her years by a no-nonsense mother (Maureen O’Hara), and it’ll take a Kris Kringle who works at Macy’s to teach the family to believe.
In honor of the film’s 70th anniversary, that early scene’s helium-filled baseball player, Harold, makes his triumphant return to the Parade this year. Though Harold has appeared as a clown, a fireman, and a policeman over the years, 2017 marks the first time he’ll be back as a baseball player since 1946, when the Parade was filmed live for the film. The new 30-foot-tall balloon will appear in greyscale as a throwback to the black-and-white movie, which has also been re-released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital HD.
It’s a fitting celebration for a film that’s inextricably linked with Macy’s and continues to be part of the department store’s brand to this day via its “Believe” messaging.
It was bound to happen. Much of the movie takes place at Macy’s iconic Herald Square flagship, where a department store Santa named Kris Kringle incites the company’s adoption of a policy of directing customers to other stores when their needs can’t be best met at Macy’s. The laudable practice leads to booming business, and eventually to R. H. Macy himself proclaiming in court that he believes Kringle is the actual Santa Claus.
Praised for ingenuity, humor and spirit, the heartwarming film received rave reviews upon its opening, and in 1948 it went on to win three Oscars. Repeat viewing every Christmas has turned it into one of the most enduring holiday movies of all time.
Some saw it coming, even back then. In The Post’s 1947 review, Archer Winsten wrote that the film was “a blend of sentiment, faith, and sound business practices that should delight large numbers of people for large amounts of time.”
Seventy years later, viewers still believe.