75 Years of Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle on 34th Street: The Perfect Christmas Classic (75 Years)

Technically this is a special interest publication put out by the people at "Time" magazine under the old "Life" moniker, but it's a nice tribute to this classic film, and I'm glad to have found it, because I believe there's too much fuss made about It's a Wonderful Life when this is such a satisfying Christmas fable. There are some nifty publicity and behind-the-scenes photos, portraits of the four main actors in the film, a short history of the Macy's parade, a discussion about Macy's rival Gimbel's, but, really, why, oh, why, if this was a tribute to the 1947 film did they have to devote eight pages to the Richard Attenborough remake? Couldn't we have had brief portraits of the careers of the supporting actors, including Porter Hall as Dr. Sawyer, William Frawley as Halloran, Jerome Cowan as DA O'Mara, Gene Lockhart as Judge Harper, and Philip Tonge as Shellhammer, not to mention brief mention of character actress Thelma Ritter (this was her first film!) and the "guy at the post office who saved Santa Claus," future Oscar winner Jack Albertson? I sure would have been more interested in them than photos of the dorky remake.