Fred Gailey

Fred Gailey was a protagonist of the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street. He was played by John Payne.

By 1947 Fred was a young lawyer and a junior partner with a law firm. He lived in the same building as Doris Walker - a manager at Macy's Department Store, and Walker's daughter Susan.

Due to the position of Fred's apartment he had a commanding view of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and he invited Susan over to watch the parade in the hopes that he would be able to meet Doris Walker. He succeeded, meeting Doris in person for the first time following the parade and the pair became friends.

Fred also soon became friends with Kris Kringle. Kringle pitched in at the last minute to play Santa Claus at the parade after the one Doris had hired showed up drunk, and was hired on to play Santa at the store over the next month. Kringle insisted that he was Santa Claus, leading to much consternation by Doris and toy department manager Julian Shellhammer. Despite their concerns Mr. Macy was thrilled with the new Santa and the positive impact he was having with their customers, so they kept Kringle on. Doris and Shellhammer decided to have him stay closer to the store to better keep an eye on him, and Gailey volunteered his extra bed for that purpose. Gailey was finally able to figure out a life long mystery that way as to whether Santa slept with his whiskers under or over the covers, Kringle responded that he kept them out since cold air helped them grow.

While at the store Kringle got along with everyone except store psychologist Granville Sawyer. Becoming angry over Sawyer's treatment of young Albert, Kringle confronted him and gave him a tap on the head with his cane. After that Sawyer insisted on a competency test - to which Shellhammer and Doris were forced to agree to. Feeling hurt over Doris agreeing to it, Kringle deliberately failed the test. The doctors at Bellevue recommended Kringle be committed.

Sawyer tried to have the matter dropped but by then it was too late since Kringle had been officially examined. Gailey intervened on behalf of his friend. Going to Judge Harper he requested the judge hold a competency hearing to which he could call witnesses. The judge agreed and held off on signing the commitment papers.

In the hearing that followed Gailey announced his intention to prove the existence of Santa Claus. This led to some tension between Doris and Gailey - she felt that he was being unrealistic in his goals and was overreaching. Meanwhile the law firm he was part of demanded he drop the case or they would drop him. Gailey refused and resigned from the firm. He told Doris he was going to focus his efforts on helping people like Kringle who were in trouble and needed help.

After several witnesses - including prosecutor Thomas Mara's son Thomas Mara Jr. - testified that they believed in Santa Claus the State of New York conceded the existence of Santa Claus. But they then insisted on definitive proof that Kringle was Santa Claus.

Fred was in a real bind, not being able to find anyone who could definitively prove that Kris Kringle was Santa Claus. Kringle meanwhile had received a letter from Susan Walker, and Doris had wrote on the letter that she believed in Kringle too - making him very happy. A few seconds later a baliff asked Gailey to come with him.

Fred discovered that the United States Postal Service had delivered a large amount of mail to Kringle at the courthouse. Taking three of the letters as evidence, he came back in to court and gave them to Judge Harper, saying that the Federal government was recognizing Kringle as Santa Claus. When Mara stated that he didn't think three letters was sufficient proof, Fred responded that he had further evidence but he hesitated to produce that evidence. Harper insisted so Gailey had the postal employees bring all the mail in and dump it on Harper's desk. Harper then ruled that since the Federal Government was recognizing Kringle as Santa Claus he wasn't going to dispute that and ordered the case dismissed.

The following day after a Christmas party Kringle gave Doris and Fred directions for an alternate route home. The route took them past a house which Susan saw and insisted they stop at. Running into the house Susan told her mother and Fred it was her house, that Kringle had given it to them. Seeing it was for sale Doris and Fred decided to buy the house and start a family together.

Fred claimed that he must be a fairly good lawyer, that he had taken a little old man and proven to the world that he was Santa Claus. But then seeing a hat and cane left in the house Fred said maybe he hadn't done such a wonderful thing after all.