Elf Rejected Macy's Santa Demand

Macy's originally agreed to serve as the department store in Elf and even offered its Santaland and Thanksgiving parade, but it demanded that the scene exposing the store Santa as a fake be removed. Director Jon Favreau refused to alter the story, licensed the name of the defunct Gimbels chain, and gained the freedom to create his own fictional store. The Gimbels interior was built inside the cafeteria of a psychiatric hospital near Vancouver.

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