Valentine Davies

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Valentine Davies (25 August 1905 - 23 July 1961) was an American film and television writer, producer, and director. He is best known for Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and The Benny Goodman Story (1955). He was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of The Glenn Miller Story in 1955.

He was born in New York, died in Hollywood, served in the Coast Guard and graduated from the University of Michigan. He wrote a number of Broadway plays, was president of the Screen Writers Guild and general chairman of the Academy Awards program, yet few would remember his name. But his Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street is remembered by anyone who "believes."

Valentine Davies' 1947 novel Miracle on 34th Street became a movie the same year, earning the author an Academy Award for the best original story. The film itself was nominated for the top picture. Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle, won an Oscar for best supporting actor, and George Seaton received one of the gold statues for his screenplay of Davies' story. Though not an award-winner for this effort, child actor Natalie Wood won the hearts of viewers as Susan Walker, the little girl whose doubt in the existence of Santa Claus is transformed by her association with Gwenn's Kris Kringle.

Miracle on 34th Street stands beside It's a Wonderful Life as one of the two most enduring of America's holiday movies," says Frank Beaver, professor of film and video studies. "As with Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street draws its continuing appeal by reaffirming ideas of faith in a modern, often cynical world. Both also find strong sentimental appeal in the reassurance of children for whom the Christmas holiday season means so much. Davies and Seaton in Miracle on 34th Street explore, philosophically, the always timely seasonal issues of faith and trust as the basis of real-life miracles."