Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #204

Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.

Today's cartoon selection begins with one of the greatest Christmas cartoons of all time, Santa's Workshop (1932). This movie marks the fourth Silly Symphony in color and as is true of many of Disney's early color films, the filmmakers never took color for granted. I would dare to say that few filmmakers have ever used color as effectively as the Disney studio did at this time. All these decades later and this cartoon still looks incredible. Many of you may know that Walt Disney himself voiced Mickey in many cartoons. In this movie we get to hear him voice another character in a similar falsetto voice, this is one of Santa's elves and I am sure many of you will quickly recognize the voice. The other elves were voiced by J. Delos Jewkes and Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy). Walter Geiger voiced Santa. A working title for this film was Santa's Toy Shop. It premiered at the Roxy in New York on December 16, 1932 playing alongside the feature film, Man Against Woman. It played with this movie from the 16th to the 23rd. It would continue to play at the theatre from the 24th to January 1st, 1933 this time playing alongside the feature. Rare for a short cartoon at this time, Santa's Workshop was revived in big name movie theatres in 1933. This film went through production relatively fast beginning in September 1932 and hitting movie theatres by December of the same year. This cartoon would later receive a sequel, The Night Before Christmas (1933). In 1936 an idea for another Silly Symphony cartoon centering around Santa and his helpers at the north pole was proposed. In this cartoon a little boy would have been shrunk to the size of a toy and given a chance to see Santa's workshop. One title for this would have been The North Pole. This idea never came to be. The following is an Exhibitors Review from the Motion Picture Herald. "Santa's Workshop: This is the greatest one-reeler we have ever had the pleasure of screening in our theatre and did the kids flock in! It is filmed in glorious color and there is only one word that can describe it - beautiful. Just as the name suggests, it shows Santa's workshop where all of the toys are made and just the type of short for this season. We played this three days and many patrons young and old, saw it two or three times. Many thanks to Walt Disney and United Artists for this great short. Running time, eight minutes - J.J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C. General Patronage." The following are some Exhibitors Reviews from the Motion Picture Herald. "Santa's Workshop: Silly Symphony - An excellent all color short you will do well to book. They just rave over it. Running time, seven minutes - Wm. A. Crute, Victoria Theatre, Vancouver, B.C. Neighborhood Patronage." "Santa's Workshop: Silly Symphony - Excellent and drew considerable business. - B.R. Johnson, Orpheum Theatre, Kerrobert, Canada, Rural Patronage." "Santa's Workshop: Silly Symphonies - These cartoons are good but an exhibitor can feed his public up on them by booking too many. Once a week is plenty. Running time, eight minutes. - Edmund M. Burke, Fort Plain Theatre, Fort Plain, N.Y. General Patronage."

Next is Daffy Duck in Boston Quackie (1957). This film is a parody of the character Boston Blackie. That character first appeared in a 1914 book by Jack Boyle, followed by many other books featuring the characters. In only a few years the character was appearing in silent films. In the 1940's Chester Morris played the character in a series of 14 B-movies. In 1944 Morris also played the character in a radio series. In 1951, Kent Taylor played the character in a TV series called Boston Blackie that ran for 58 episodes. 

Now for some black and white Terry-Toons fun with Home Town Olympics (1936). 

Possibly the best of the Fleischer Brothers' Color Classics cartoons and a must watch for me every Christmas season is Christmas Comes But Once a Year (1936). As well as a really catchy title song and some fun gags, this cartoon has a warm Christmas-y feel. Unlike some of the studio's other attempts at sentimentality, this film never feels forced in this respect. Instead the sentimentality feels genuine and earned. Though most of the Color Classics featured one off characters, this short stars Grampy from the Betty Boop cartoons. Grampy was one of the best things about the later Betty Boop films and he definitely gets to shine here. The title song in this short movie would later be reused in the Popeye cartoon, Let's Celebrake (1938) with the lyrics changed to be about New Years instead. Some of Grampy's household toy ideas would later be used in the Casper cartoon, True Boo (1952). 

Motion Picture Herald, 1936

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Now for a delightful early Looney Tunes cartoon, The Booze Hangs High (1930). This short film predates such characters as Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Instead the star of the movie is Bosko, who was the first starring character for the Looney Tunes cartoons. While this movie may not feel much like the Looney Tunes cartoons that were yet to come, it is still a fun little film. The Booze Hangs High was only the 4th Looney Tunes cartoon. 

If the Columbia cartoon, Up N' Atom (1947), feels like a Looney Tunes cartoon, there is a reason for this. The cartoon was directed by Bob Clampett, who directed some legendary cartoons for Warner Brothers, and directed by Sid Marcus, who would later write the first Tasmanian Devil cartoon for Warner Brothers. Notice that the cat in this film looks a lot like Sylvester. 

Today's cartoon selection ends with the TV special, A Garfield Christmas Special (1987).

Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry. 

Resources Used

Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman 

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

 

Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #203

 Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons. 

Today's cartoon selection begins with a yuletide favorite, Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952).  This movie features a great cast of animators including, George Kreisl, Fred Moore, Bill Justice, Volus Jones, Blaine Gibson and Dan MacManus. Dan MacManus animates the opening scene of the cartoon. Fred Moore is recognized as one of the greatest Mickey animators of all time and he gets to show that off here as he animates Mickey chopping down the tree, Mickey decorating the tree, Mickey with the Christmas gifts, Mickey's reactions to Pluto's antics, Mickey holding the chipmunks and him and Pluto looking out the window. Bill Justice and Volus Jones animate much of the Chipmunks. Justice also animates the cameo of Minnie, Donald and Goofy at the end. George Kreisl animates much of Pluto's antics. Blaine Gibson animates very little in this movie with the tree lights going off and on. Pluto's Christmas Tree was a rare Mickey Mouse cartoon directed by Jack Hannah, who mostly directed Donald Duck cartoons. However this is not too surprising as this cartoon features two of Hannah's creations, Chip and Dale (whom the director most often used as adversaries for Donald). Hannah had directed an earlier Mickey Mouse cartoon that co-starred Chip and Dale with Squatters Rights (1946). Despite Hannah being one of the main directors of Disney shorts during this period, these marked the only two Mickey shorts he actually directed.

Next we join Little Roquefort and Percy the Cat in Seasick Sailors (1951). While these Terry Toons shorts, never quite lived up to Tom and Jerry, they could be a lot of fun on their own terms, as is the case here. 

Up next is one of my favorite of the early Merrie Melodies cartoons, The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (1933). I love the atmospheric feel to the early scenes in this cartoon. There is a delightful amount of detail in these opening moments. I also simply love the title song. Despite being a Christmas cartoon, this movie was released to theaters on January 7, 1933, just barely missing Christmas. The animation of the dolls singing, and dancing was reused from an earlier Merrie Melody, Red Headed Baby (1931).

Now for a silent movie starring KoKo the Clown, Egg Cited (1926). 

To read the article below, just click on the page and use your touch screen to zoom in. 

Pictures and the Picturegoer, 1924

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Now it is time for some Saturday Morning Minions. 

Next we join Daffy Duck in Scrap Happy Daffy (1943). This movie marks Daffy Duck's last apperance in a black and white cartoon. It is also simply a delightful film. The short is directed by Frank Tashlin, who would go on to direct many live action feature films. His Looney Tunes are some of the most cinematic and feature wonderful filmmaking. The use of editing and montage here are excellent and hold up to many of the great live action films of the time. Yet this is also simply a very funny cartoon, including one of the funniest fade-out/fade-ins in the history of cartoons. This cartoon appears in Jerry Beck's book, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes.

Now for Popeye in Floor Flusher (1954). 

While it is easy to say that the DePatie-Freling cartoons of the mid and late 1970's were not on par with the studio's cartoons of the 1960's and early 70's without any sense of doubt, A Pink Christmas (1978) is a huge exception. This TV special is about as good a cartoon as the studio ever made. This dialogue-less special is somewhat based on O. Henry's The Cop and the Anthem. The Pink Panther has often been compared to Charlie Chaplin, mostly because he is a pantomime character. This though is probably the most Chaplin-esque film the cartoon cat ever stared in. It beautifully combines comedy and pathos, and the idea of a poor tramp like character looking for food of course has roots in Chaplin as well. In fact, this film borrows a gag from Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) (involving shoveling snow). It succussed very well. It is both very funny and very moving.





 

Thanks for joining me, come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry. 

Resources Used

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Brothers Cartoons by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald 

The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes edited by Jerry Beck 

http://afilmla.blogspot.com/search/label/Shorts_RKO?updated-max=2006-08-26T01:00:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=25&by-date=false

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: Elf (2003)

 

A wonderfully fun, Christmas time comedy.

Buddy (Will Ferrell) is a human who as a baby at the orphanage snuck out of his crib and climbed into Santa Claus' (Ed Asner) bag. There he finds himself accidently brought to the North Pole. There he is adopted by Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) and grows up believing himself to be an elf. When he discovers that he is in fact a human, he decides to travel to New York and meet his birth father (James Caan). However he learns that his father is on the naughty list and possess little Christmas spirit. When he meets his father, the two have a hard time connecting and he doesn't believe Buddy's story about being raised by elves. 

What makes this movie work so well is that underneath all of the comedy, this is a film with a real sense of heart. The original script for the film was dark and quite cynical. This script was written by David Berenbaum and had been around since 1993 with the idea of Jim Carrey as the star. When much later the script made its way to director Jon Favreau, Favreau was initially turned off by this darkness. However after some thought he realized that this could be turned into something much lighter and less cynical. Favreau said about this film, "I wanted to keep it a PG movie, not a PG-13 movie that made fun of Christmas." The result was a very warm-hearted and charming Christmas movie. This good-hearted charm shows up from the very start. The early scenes in the North Pole are both very funny and sweet. I love how the elves don't bully or ostracize Buddy for being very different, but they always go out of their way to make him feel like he belongs. This undeniable sweetness is present throughout the whole film. Much of the comedy comes from Buddy's wide-eyed innocence. No matter what happens to him this innocence and sense of awe for the world around him, never fades aways. Though there is a lot of fish out of water comedy, the film never feels like it is completely making fun of the character, but instead inviting you to try and see the world through Buddy's eyes and see how magical it can bad. There is also a wonderfully sweet romance here that works perfectly. This is especially true because of the great chemistry between Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel.

Besides just being sweet this movie is also very funny. Will Ferrell is seen to his best advantage here. He brings a lot of comedic energy to the character and his joyous and innocent delivery of each joke makes each one all the funnier. Ferrell even got to improvise much of the comedy. The scene where he first arrives in New York is completely improvised. On the last day of shooting Will Ferrell and a small crew walked around New York as Will improvised a lot of very funny comedy. This is not the only wonderful comedy sequence in the film. Buddy's first date, his interaction with the very short writer Miles Finch (Peter Dinklage) and especially his meeting of the department store Santa are wonderful and have naturally found their way into the Christmas memories of many movie fans. The department store Santa scene lead to a change in the film. The store used in the movie was originally going to be Macy's as a tribute to Miracle on 34th Street (1947). However Macy's did not want the film to show their store having a fake Santa, feeling that would hurt their image. So to keep the Miracle on 34th Street tribute the department store used changed to Gimbels which was the other store used in that classic movie. It is a good thing that this scene was kept as it is a highlight of the picture and has become a favorite of many Christmas movie fans, adoring T-shirts, GIFs and much more. Also giving a lot of good comedy to this movie is the scenes between Buddy and his dad. The contrast between Ferrell’s high energy and innocent performance contrasted with James Caan, playing one of the tough guy characters he played so wonderfully, simply leads to a lot of really funny moments. 

This movie has rightfully become considered a real Christmas classic and will continue to be a Christmas tradition for movie fans for many years to come.

Resources Used

Christmas in the Movies by Jermey Arnold

Movie Review: Violent Night

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

A real yuletide treat with all the R-rated violence to fill your heart with Christmas joy. 

This movie may be simply dumb fun, but it is just the kind of dumb fun that I love. Though admittedly it takes this movie a little bit to get going, once it gets going it is simply delightful. For those of you who don't know the basic plot of this movie, Santa Claus beats the heck out of some bad guys to help protect a little girl who believes in him. The violence here is not for the squeamish, but that is just what will endear this film to many others. What makes it work so well for me is the over-the-top cartoony-ness to all this violence and the fact that there is a wonderfully dark sense of humor to much of the action here. The filmmakers know just why someone will go to see a movie with this plot and so they just have a lot of fun with the action scenes and if you see this film in a theater, you will see just how well this pays off. The most violent and bloody moments are the ones where you will hear the most laughter and that is just the way it should be. This especially pays off during a scene that is the best Home Alone homage you will ever see. If you see this movie, you will recognize this scene immediately. Yet beneath all this R-rated violence and dark humor, this movie has a surprisingly warm heart. This film is really about Santa Claus becoming cynical and forgetting why he became Santa in the first place, until he meets a little girl who believes in him and the spirit of Christmas. This could have made for a really charming family film, if that is what the filmmakers wanted to make. Even if this is not that family film, it still has a few moments that make you feel warm inside between the blood and guts. One might say that this is an R rated Christmas film with the heart of a G rated Christmas film. Holding this all together is a wonderful performance by David Harbour as Santa Claus. He somehow manages to feel like both an action hero and the real Santa. 

My biggest complaint about this movie is the villains. They are simply not as memorable or fun as they should be. They are simply generic villains. Even the humor revolving around their characters often falls flat. There are also some story points that do feel quite rushed (dang it, I want a full feature length movie about this Santa's backstory). 

This may not be a movie for everyone, but if you are the type of person a film like this would appeal to (which I apparently am), you are in for a lot of fun. 

Is There a Santa Claus?

 

Radio and Television Mirror, 1950 

Mrs. Santa Claus on the Air

 

Radio Showmanship, 1947

Hal Roach Presents A Silent Film Comedy Christmas

Hello my friends and Merry Christmas. With apologies to Mack Sennett, no producer ever brought us a better selection of live action comedy films than Hal Roach. After all how can any comedy fan not love Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, Our Gang, Charley Chase or the much underappreciated Boyfriends films. Since Christmas is so close, I feel it is only right to celebrate with a selection of two classic comedy shorts produced by Hal Roach and centering around my favorite time of year. Both of these films comes from the silent era and in my mind are Christmas classics. 

First up is one of my favorite silent comedy films (not just shorts, but films), a classic starring Laurel and Hardy, Big Business (1929). One of the most important rules in all Laurel and Hardy-dom is the law of tit for tat. If someone does something bad to you, you must do something worse to them. This film takes that idea to extremes by doing what Laurel and Hardy films do best. This is to start with a simple somewhat mundane idea (like selling Christmas trees) and step by step turn it into over the top slapstick comedy. This type of comedy has never and will never be better than in this fantastic comedy.


Anyone interested in where classic films were shot should watch this video as well.

A 1926 advertisement in The Motion Picture News Magazine.


Up next comes a Christmas themed short staring Hal Roach's second most popular comedy team, Our Gang, Good Cheer (1926). Though sentimentality would later find its way into the Our Gang films, during the silent era, this was rare. However Good Cheer is an exception featuring a surprising amount of sentimentality. Of course being a Christmas film helps make this one of the more successful sentimental Our Gang shorts. This is a purely delightful film from start to finish. One exhibitor's review from The Exhibitors Herald was very positive stating "Another dandy from Our Gang." Another was not as positive calling the film "Only fair." Another exhibitor's review from the same magazine was much harsher in its criticism stating "This is what I would call a very poor comedy and from the reaction, the audience felt the same way." Still another review (not an exhibitor's this time) was extremely positive stating "A great comedy and full of the usual bright titles that make these distinctive. When you consider that this was made in September during the hottest weather Hollywood had this year, it's all the more remarkable!" 

-Michael J. Ruhland

P.S. For anyone interested I have written about another silent Christmas themed comedy short from Hal Roach Studios on this blog and you can read that by clicking here. 

Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: Noelle (2019)

When the Disney+ streaming service started it came with some new original movies as well as a huge collection of Disney classics. These new original movies were an original Christmas movie called Noelle and the live action remake of Lady and the Tramp. I have not yet seen the new version of Lady and the Tramp and probably never will with my low opinion of the Disney live action remakes (even as a huge Disney fan I can't muster any excitement for them). However I will admit I quite enjoyed Noelle.

Noelle (Anna Kendrick) is the daughter of Santa Claus (Jay Brazeau), and someone who loves Christmas more than anything in the world. Her brother Nick (Bill Hader) is being trained to be the next Santa but is not especially interested. After Santa dies, it is time for Nick to take over as the next Santa. He struggles with this and soon becomes completely miserable. Noelle suggests that Nick take the weekend and go somewhere to get away from all the stress. After the weekend is over he doesn't come back and Noelle sets out on a journey to find her brother bringing Christmas cheer to the people she meets along the way.

Yes that storyline sounds very familiar and if you aren't able to guess early on where the film is going than you have never seen a movie before. Despite this familiarity I found a lot to enjoy here. Anna Kendrick is downright fantastic in the lead role bringing tons of energy and charm to this character. Never does her high energy or enteral optimism and kindness ever feel forced. There is a real sincerity to this performance that can charm even a Scrooge. The humor in this movie is often quite funny. I was surprised by the amount of times I actually laughed watching this. Don't get me wrong there are some jokes that fall flat, but the ones that work are really good. Of course Anna Kendrick's great delivery helps a lot. The story may be very cliché but it is simply and charmingly told without any excess.

This may neither be a Christmas classic or a Disney classic but for what it is it is quite charming and a good movie to get you in the Christmas spirit.

By the way try to see how many hidden Mickeys you can find. There are a heck of a lot of them.

-Michael J. Ruhland  

Celebrating Christmas With Laurel and Hardy at the Old Town Music Hall

This weekend is the annual Christmas festival at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, California. I was able to see last night's show and loved it. This festival is always a treat and this year was no exception. As I have mentioned many times, the Old Town Music Hall is one of my favorite places to see old movies and a place that I recommend all my fellow film lovers go to when they are in Southern California. If you are interested in going (and why wouldn't you be) you can see the schedule and what movies are coming up here.

There was a Laurel and Hardy theme this year, which was no problem with me or anyone else there. The films this year included both a silent Laurel and Hardy short and a sound feature, both Christmas themed.

The silent short was Big Business (1929). This may be the duo's best silent comedy and maybe one of the laugh out loud funniest silent comedies. In this film Stan and Ollie are selling Christmas trees in California. They aren't very good at this and fail to sell one to their first two customers. Their third customer though is when their real problems begin. This customer is the one and only James Finlayson (one of the best supporting comic actors in the history of the movies and one that has proved on various occasions to be the perfect foil for Laurel and Hardy). At first this is just another customer who doesn't want a Christmas tree. However when he closes the door and the Christmas tree gets caught in it, this ends up causing one of the biggest slapstick fights in silent comedy history. Supposedly this film was originally going to revolve around Stan and Ollie trying to sell Christmas trees to each new customer, with the James Finlayson scenes playing a smaller role, but the crew found out that this was the funniest part of the movie and that most of the film should revolve around that.

This film perfectly shows what Laurel and Hardy do best. It follows their familiar, but surefire formula of tit for tat. Someone does something to Stan and Ollie, and they do something back to him. This continues until it reaches ridiculous extremes. This in the end represents another essential element of many of the duo's best movies taking a simple idea and pushing it to ridiculous extremes in a surprisingly believable way. This is one of the most pure and funniest examples of both these formulas and therefore one of the duo's laugh out loud funniest films, silent or sound. This is as good as it gets.

The great thing about the Old Town Music Hall is that I got to see this film the way it was intended to be seen. This is with an audience and with live musical accompaniment (by the very talented Bill Field on the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ (a vintage 1925 organ that was made to accompany silent movies)). If you have never been able to see a silent film this way you are missing out. This is a completely different experience than watching these film on TV or DVD and is something I think every film lover should do in their life. The film feels so new and fresh, even to someone who has seen it as many times as I have. This showing also proves that the film is still a crowd pleaser, as the audience was in hysterics. It is rare to see a movie audience enjoying themselves as much as one watching Laurel and Hardy, and with a film like Big Business, this is especially true.
 
After an intermission we watched the feature film, Babes in Toyland (1934, also with Laurel and Hardy). I have written about this film before on this blog as you can read here. Because of this I won't write much about the movie here, but what I will say is like Big Business this is a perfect crowd pleaser. The audience was howling with laughter at the funny scenes here and again seeing it with an audience again made it feel fresh and new even to someone who has seen this movie as many times as I have. If you have a chance to see this with an audience don't miss it for the world.

Like all shows at the Old Town Music Hall, the films were not the only part of the night. Before hand we got treated to some music on the Mighty Wurlitzer. First a very talented young man named Edward Torres played a medley of to two classic Christmas songs from the 1940's and then the incredibly talented Bill Field took over playing a medley of many great Christmas carols. This was followed by a sing-a-long where all the words appeared on the screen. These songs included White Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells and Silver Bells.


I believe going to the movies should be an experience and a great night out and the Old Town Music Hall always provides just that. Again if you are ever in Southern California this place is a must go.


-Michael J. Ruhland     

Michael's Christmas Movie Guide: Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

One of the most popular and influential Christmas movies is also one of the best.

This was the fourth film from director George Seaton, at least as a director before becoming a director he had been a writer at MGM then Fox. He had written for such films as The Wizard of OZ, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, and The Song of Bernadette. Before this film he had directed  Diamond Horseshoe, Junior Miss and The Shocking Miss Pilgrim. Seaton also wrote this film.

Edmund Gwenn was not only a convincing Santa Claus to the audience, but also to then child actress, Natalie Wood. She believed he was the real Santa Claus, and who can blame her. She didn't realize he wasn't until she saw him out of costume at the wrap party. Not surprisingly Edmund Gwenn won a well deserved academy award for best supporting actor.

Maureen O'Hara was forced into this movie. She had in fact returned to Ireland, before being called to come back to America to play the role of the mom. She however fell in love with the script.

Despite the fact that this is obviously a Christmas film, Fox studio head, Darryl F. Zanuck felt the movie should be released in June, instead of at Christmas time. His reasoning was that people don't go to the theaters at Christmas time. Because of this most of the film's advertisements avoid saying this film had anything to do with Christmas or Santa Claus. Even the original title of the film, Christmas Miracle on 34th Street, was changed to Miracle on 34th Street.

Zanuck even felt this film was too cheesy for audiences. Boy was he wrong this film grew to become a classic, and boy is it. This is an excellent movie by any standards. The cast is perfect, the directing is great, the writing top notch and everything comes together perfectly. There are so many scenes that are so charming they can even win over someone whose heart is two sizes too small. One of my favorite of these scenes is the scene with Kris and the little Dutch girl. This scene is not necessary to the movie, but  it adds so much. It makes us love Kris all the more and helps us understand why such a doubting little girl starts to believe Kris is Santa. What also helps this film to work so great is that it never tells us whether or not Kris really is Santa. We have to go on faith just as Susan and Doris do. Watching this movie many of us become like children again, believing in something, because of our hearts rather than our cynical mind. A man who embodies Christmas so perfectly and wins over our cynical adult selves, must be Santa and we don't need the movie to show us what we feel in our hearts to be true. This is a movie that challenges the cynic in us by winning us over with pure childlike joy and wonder. This is not one of those movies that's beloved because it's considered a classic, but a classic because it is rightfully so beloved. This is a must watch.

This film is one of only three Christmas films to ever be nominated for best picture. The others were The Bishop's Wife (released the same year), and It's a Wonderful Life (released the year before).

This film also has appearing in the toy department Warner Brothers cartoon characters despite this being a Fox film. This is odd, but perfectly in line with the film's message.

This film won Boxoffice Magazine's Blue Ribbon Award to read more about this (from Boxoffice Magazine itself) click here.

The following is an article from Boxoffice Magazine (dated July 12, 1947).

"PITTSURG - 'Duel in the Sun' and 'Miracle on 34th Street' both in extended runs, were leaders, the former playing at Loew's Penn at increased prices, with the latter on view in J.P. Harris at regular prices. Other downtown offerings grossed under par. Admissions generally in the area are hitting only 75 per cent of average this period.


"Record crowds are turning out for sports events, including night games, operettas, park attractions etc."


The following is from the same issue of Boxoffice magazine.


"CINCINNATI - With exception of the Shubert, which did alright with 'Miracle on 34th Street,' Cincinnati box offices fell off considerably during a desultory week. 'Miracle' did a big 160 per cent; the Lyric did average business with a duel program, 'The Two Mrs. Carrolls' and 'Dishonored Lady.' All other houses fell below average."    

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83570/Miracle-on-34th-Street/articles.html
http://mediahistoryproject.org/