Miracle On 34th Street | 1994
With this remake of the 1947 Christmas favourite, Miracle On 34th Street, Macy’s store wanted nothing to do with the production, so the name of the department store becomes the fictitious ‘CF Cole’s’.
It’s still set in New York, but that’s not where you’ll find most of the film’s locations. There were only five days filming in the Big Apple. Apart from a couple of establishing shots, New York is restricted to the opening Thanksgiving Day Parade on Central Park West between 72nd and 78th Streets – and Dorey Walker (Elizabeth Perkins) and Bryan Bedford’s (Dylan McDermott) night out at the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park.
The clue to the film’s real location comes in the opening credits. Like most John Hughes productions, Miracle... was filmed in Chicago.
The exterior of ’CF Cole’s’ is not a department store at all, but the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 South Michigan Avenue at East Adams Street in the Loop. Of course, it’s the art gallery visited by Ferris and chums in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
‘Central Park Zoo’, where Kris Kringle (Richard Attenborough) gets propositioned by the rival superstore, is actually Lincoln Park Zoo, 2100 North Clark Street in Lincoln Park, north of the city centre.
‘St Francis’ Church’, where Dorey and Bryan finally tie the knot, is Holy Name Cathedral, 735 North State Street at East Chicago Avenue.
