“Well, I’ve wrestled with reality for 35 years now doctor, and I’m happy to say I’ve finally won out over it.”
Universal-International paid $750,000 for the film rights to playwright Mary Coyle Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play. Chase first wrote Harvey as a novel and later developed it as a Broadway play that opened in 1944. Frank Fay originated the role of Elwood P. Dowd on the Broadway stage until Jimmy Stewart replaced him. Bing Crosby was the first choice for the movie, but he passed. For the film, Stewart suggested to director Henry Koster that he shoot Elwood’s scenes wider on screen so it would appear as if Harvey, the “pooka” (the invisible white rabbit) was always in the frame with him. In the film version, Harvey is said to be 6′ 3″ tall, but in the stage version Harvey’s height was changed to 6′ 8″ in order to be more of a contrast to Stewart’s height, which was 6′ 3″. That way Stewart could always appear to be looking up at Harvey. Though Elwood was certainly an alcoholic, only at one time in the entire picture is he actually seen taking a drink. Josephine Hull was the first to perform the role of Elwood’s fretful sister Veta Louise Simmonson on Broadway and got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film. Although Stewart was nominated for Best Actor, Humphrey Bogart won it for The African Queen, beating out Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Montgomery Clift in, A Place in the Sun. The Jimmy Stewart Museum, located in Stewart’s hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania, will on ocassion bestow ‘The Harvey Award’ to a distinguished celebrity in honor of Stewart's spirit of humanitarianism.
