Would the Original Casting Have Made The Film Even More Beloved?
Not many people know this, but Darryl F. Zanuck, studio head of Twentieth Century Fox, wanted John Wayne to play the part of Fred Gailey in the classic holiday film Miracle on 34th Street . Perhaps he was anticipating the five films that the Duke and Maureen O’Hara would end up making together (starting three years later), or perhaps Mr. Zanuck just liked the idea of John Wayne, fresh off of numerous war films, playing the idealistic young lawyer who risks his career to defend a ‘nice old man with whiskers’ who believes himself to be Santa Claus.
Fate, and sloppy penmanship, took their toll, though. When Mr. Zanuck scribbled down his ideas for casting to the director of Miracle on 34th Street, George Seaton, Seaton thought that he had written John Payne. Seaton, not surprisingly, was a big fan of Payne’s, delighting in his work in films such as The Dolly Sisters and Footlight Serenade and swooped in to get him before someone else did.
By the time Mr. Zanuck discovered what had happened, it was too late to make the changes. Wardrobe had been ordered and John Wayne could simply not fit into the clothes tailored for the more slender John Payne. Rumor has it that the Duke also objected to wearing an apron in the one scene in which it was called for.
While it’s nice that the film gave John Payne his greatest claim to screen immortality, one does wonder what John Wayne would have done with the role. Alas, it was not to be.
What kind of a man is Captain Renault?
Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so.