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This Miracle on 34th Street trivia quiz has 45 free questions with answers and covers the 1947 classic and everything that grew from it: Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle, Maureen O'Hara and a nine-year-old Natalie Wood, the drunk parade Santa, the fire engine at Gimbels, the umbrella and Mr. Sawyer, the competency hearing, the mail sacks and the cane in the dream house. It also covers how the film was made and sold, from the real 1946 Macy's parade footage to Darryl Zanuck's decision to release a Christmas film in June, its three Oscars and its place in the National Film Registry, and then the 1994 remake with Richard Attenborough and Mara Wilson, the television versions and Meredith Willson's Broadway musical. It is written for holiday movie nights, Christmas trivia parties and classic-film fans who can quote the courtroom scene. Easy questions cover the story most people know; the hard ones ask about the budget, the Catholic Legion of Decency and who directed the 1955 TV version. Every answer has been checked against a reliable source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the 1947 film, who plays Kris Kringle?
Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn, born in London in 1877, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Kris Kringle and later appeared in Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955).
Q 02How does Kris end up in the red suit at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
The hired man is drunk
Kris finds the hired man is drunk and complains to Doris Walker, who puts him in the suit on the spot; he does so well that Macy's hires him for the store.
Q 03Which actress plays Doris Walker, the Macy's events director and Susan's mother?
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara plays Doris Walker; she had just returned to Ireland after the war and was reluctant to come back for the role, and she received an honorary Oscar in 2014.
Q 04The young Susan Walker is played by which future star of Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story?
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Zakharenko in San Francisco in 1938, was eight during filming and went on to Oscar nominations for Rebel Without a Cause and Splendor in the Grass.
Q 05What is the name of the lawyer neighbour who defends Kris in court and courts Doris?
Fred Gailey
Fred Gailey, the young attorney who lives across the hall from Doris and Susan, takes Kris's case, wins the hearing, and wins Doris by the end.
Q 06What convinces Susan that Kris might really be Santa, when she watches him with a little orphan girl?
He speaks Dutch to her
Kris speaks Dutch to the girl, an orphan newly arrived from Holland, and sings with her; Doris has raised Susan not to believe in fairy tales, so this is the first crack in her scepticism.
Q 07Which branch of the federal government does Fred cite in court as recognising Kris as Santa Claus?
The Post Office
The Post Office delivered sacks of letters addressed to Santa Claus to Kris at the courthouse, and Fred argues that a federal agency has thereby recognised him as the one and only Santa.
Q 08Which witness at the hearing testifies that Santa Claus is real because his own father told him so?
The DA's young son
Fred calls the District Attorney's young son, who testifies that his father told him Santa is real; the prosecutor concedes the point rather than contradict himself in open court.
Q 09What do Fred and Doris spot inside the house Susan wanted for Christmas in the final scene?
A cane like Kris's
The film never says outright whether Kris is Santa, and the cane is the closest it comes to an answer.
Q 10Which actor plays Judge Henry X. Harper, who must rule on whether Kris is sane?
Gene Lockhart
Gene Lockhart, the Canadian-born character actor who had played Bob Cratchit in the 1938 A Christmas Carol, plays Judge Henry X. Harper, who must decide whether Kris is sane.
Q 11Which actor plays the store psychologist Granville Sawyer?
Porter Hall
Porter Hall, who had played the train witness Mr. Jackson in Double Indemnity (1944), plays Granville Sawyer, the fussy store psychologist whose complaint gets Kris sent to Bellevue.
Q 12Who directed the 1947 film and won an Oscar for its screenplay?
George Seaton
George Seaton directed and won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay; Valentine Davies won a separate Oscar for the original story, which he also published as a novella with Harcourt Brace.
Q 13The parade scenes were filmed live during the real Macy's parade of which year?
1946
The parade footage was shot during the actual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 28, 1946, which meant each shot could be attempted only once as the floats went by.
Q 21Why did the Catholic Legion of Decency rate the 1947 film 'morally objectionable in part'?
Doris is a divorcée
The Legion objected because Doris is a divorcée, and divorce shown without condemnation was still a delicate subject on screen in 1947.
Q 22The residence for the aged where Kris lives at the start of the film is called what?
Brooks Memorial
On his Macy's employment card Kris gives his address as the Brooks Memorial Home for the Aged in Great Neck, Long Island, whose physician Dr. Pierce later vouches that he is harmless.
Q 23Which figure's arrival traditionally closes the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Old St. Nick
Q 14Studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck insisted the Christmas film be released in which month of 1947?
May
Zanuck insisted on a May 1947 release because he believed more people went to the movies in warm weather, so the trailers hid the film's Christmas setting entirely.
Q 15The film opened in New York City on June 4, 1947, at which theatre?
The Roxy
It opened at the Roxy, the huge 1927 movie palace on Seventh Avenue at 50th Street that served as 20th Century-Fox's New York showcase until its demolition in 1960.
Q 16Under what title was the film originally released in the United Kingdom?
The Big Heart
In Britain the film was released as The Big Heart, since distributors thought '34th Street' would mean nothing to their audience.
Q 17How many Academy Awards did the 1947 film win?
Three
It won three Oscars, for Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Story and Best Screenplay, out of four nominations; its only loss was Best Picture.
Q 18The 1947 film lost the Best Picture Oscar to which other 20th Century-Fox film, about antisemitism?
Gentleman's Agreement
Gentleman's Agreement, Elia Kazan's drama starring Gregory Peck as a reporter posing as Jewish, took Best Picture for 1947, so 20th Century-Fox won either way.
Q 19The film was made on a budget of roughly how much?
$630,000
The film was made for about $630,000 and returned roughly $2.65 million in US rentals, more than four times its cost.
Q 20In which year was the film selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry?
2005
The Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry in 2005, alongside Toy Story and The French Connection, as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Old St. Nick, Santa Claus on his sleigh float, has closed the Macy's parade nearly every year since the first one in 1924, marking the start of the Christmas season.
Q 24Macy's rival in the film held its own Thanksgiving parade in which city, four years before Macy's?
Philadelphia
The rival's Philadelphia store staged the city's first Thanksgiving parade in 1920, four years before Macy's began its own in New York; the chain closed for good in 1987.
Q 25In the 1994 remake, who plays Kris Kringle?
Richard Attenborough
Richard Attenborough, the Oscar-winning director of Gandhi, had just played John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993) the year before.
Q 26The 1994 remake replaces Macy's with a fictional store called what?
Cole's
Macy's declined to let its name be used in the remake, so the store became the fictional C.F. Cole's, with a made-up discount chain standing in for its rival.
Q 27Which writer-producer, famous for Home Alone, co-wrote and produced the 1994 remake?
John Hughes
John Hughes, the writer-producer behind Home Alone, co-wrote the remake's screenplay and produced it; Les Mayfield, who had made Encino Man, directed.
Q 28Which child actress, also seen in Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda, plays Susan in the 1994 remake?
Mara Wilson
Mara Wilson plays Susan Walker; she had been Robin Williams's youngest daughter in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) and went on to the title role in Matilda (1996).
Q 29Instead of the mail sacks, the 1994 remake's judge is persuaded by the words printed on what?
A dollar bill
Susan's card to the judge holds a dollar bill with 'In God We Trust' circled; if the Treasury can put its faith in God, he reasons, New York can put its faith in Santa Claus.
Q 30The 1994 remake earned about $46m worldwide on a budget of roughly how much?
$28 million
The remake was budgeted at about $28 million and took roughly $46 million worldwide, opening against the far bigger Christmas hit The Santa Clause.