Miracle on 34th Street (NBC Friday Night Special Presentation) explained

Series:	NBC Friday Night Special Presentation
Season:	1
Episode:	9
Length:	60 minutes
Director:	William Corrigan
Music:	Robert Ascher (credited as “Binny”)
Guests:	Ed Wynn Peter Lind Hayes Mary Healy Orson Bean
Prev:	All-Gershwin Program
Next:	Art Carney Show

"Miracle on 34th Street" is the Christmas episode, broadcast on November 27, 1959, of the American color anthology television series NBC Friday Night Special Presentation, which showcased drama, comedy and musical entertainment and occasional news special reports, while alternating once a month with The Bell Telephone Hour musical series, also in color, in the 8:30–9:30 pm time slot from September 11, 1959, until June 17, 1960.^[1]

Plot

The story takes place between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day in New York City, and focuses on the impact of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa.

Cast

• Ed Wynn as Kris Kringle
• Peter Lind Hayes as Fred Gaily
• Mary Healy as Doris Walker
• Orson Bean as Dr. William Sawyer
• Loring Smith as Mr. Shellhammer
• Hiram Sherman as R. H. Macy
• Susan Gordon as Susan Walker
• Lawrence Weber as Mr. Mara
• John Gibson as Judge Harper
• Joey Walsh as Al, post office employee
• Arnie Freeman as Lou, post office employee
• William Post, Jr. as Mr. Gimbel
• Shirley Eggleston as Peter's mother
• Frank Daly as the bailiff
• William Griffis as first Santa Claus

Production

Casting

The episode stars Ed Wynn, a recent Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture nominee for 1956's The Great Man and soon-to-be Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nominee for that year's production of The Diary of Anne Frank.^{[2] [3]} Co-starring with Wynn were married actors Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy.

Also in the cast, playing the befuddled psychiatrist, was Orson Bean, a regular, at the time, on the quiz show Keep Talking, and child actress Susan Gordon who, earlier that year, had worked on episodes of two other live TV series, Playhouse 90 and Goodyear Theatre, as well as in two theatrical films, The Man in the Net and The Five Pennies.^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}

Broadcast

Presented the Friday after Thankgiving, the live broadcast was directed by William Corrigan.

Recording

The broadcast was long believed to have no surviving copies, but a kinescope was discovered at the Library of Congress where it was shown in December 2005. Susan Gordon who played Mary Healy's daughter and was ten at the time of the broadcast, attended the screening.^[11]

Notes and References

1. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/08/07/88806164.html?pageNumber=47 Adams, Val. "SANTA CLAUS ROLE GOES TO ED WYNN Comic Gets Part in 'Miracle on 34th St.' on N.B.C.-TV — Sammy Glick Role Cast'" (The New York Times, August 7, 1959, page 47)
2. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19591214&id=igowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9QAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7043,1389347&hl=en Morse, Jim. "Ed Wynn's Recipe for Youth: He's a Firm Believer in Santa" (Toledo Blade, December 11, 1959, page 17)
3. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19591215&id=iwowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9QAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7157,1721427&hl=en Morse, Jim. "Ed Wynn's Recipe for Youth: 'I'm Not an Elder Anything,' Says Clown - Turned Serious" (Toledo Blade, December 15, 1959, page 27)
4. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/11/22/89302990.html Photo caption: "'Miracle on 34th Street'—A bearded Ed Wynn beckons Susan Gordon. Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes play the parents on the N. B. C. show, Friday at 8:30 P. M." (The New York Times, November 22, 1959)
5. https://books.google.com/books?id=OSuXAAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Ed+Wynn%22+%22Kris+Kringle%22&pg=PA292 Crump, William D. The Christmas Encyclopedia, 3d ed. (McFarland, 2001)
6. https://books.google.com/books?id=vfie60kGGuAC&dq=%22Ed+Wynn%22+%22Kris+Kringle%22&pg=PA145 Hischak, Thomas S. American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations (McFarland, 2012)
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=BUvTYfLP624C&dq=%22Ed+Wynn%22+%22Kris+Kringle%22&pg=PA256 Terrace, Vincent. Television Specials: 5,336 Entertainment Programs, 1936-2012, 2d ed. (McFarland, 2013)
8. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/11/28/80563583.html?pageNumber=43 R. F. S. "TV Review Ed Wynn, as Santa, Starts Yule Season" (The New York Times, November 28, 1959, page 43)
9. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19591128&id=tYotAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IZ0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5572,5533148&hl=en Dube, Bernard. "DIAL TURNS Kris Kringle Comedy Features Ed Wynn" (The Gazette, November 28, 1959, page 27)
10. Web site: Monush, Barry. "Holiday Cheer The Story of the Christmas Special" "The 'Miracle' Years" (The Paley Center for Media) . May 24, 2015 . May 25, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150525000345/http://www.paleycenter.org/story-of-the-christmas-special . dead .
11. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307164/trivia Details regarding the Library of Congress screening of Miracle on 34th Street