According to a Mar 1948 NYT news item, Harold Daniels, the director of the film’s pageant sequences, interested three wealthy oilmen from Tulsa, OK--Neil Bogan, Ted Law and John McNutt--into financing a record of the Lawton, OK, Easter pageant under the banner of Principal, Films, Inc. According to the Var review, the pageant, an annual event, was begun twenty-four years earlier by the Rev. A. Mark Wallock, who wrote the screen narration and served as technical advisor on the film. Re-enacting the story of Christ’s birth, his teachings, crucifixion and resurrection, the pageant drew a large cast of non-professional actors from the surrounding areas and attracted thousands of visitors from all over the country. It was staged at Holy City in the Wichita Mountains outside of Lawton, at a site constructed by the state soley for its production.
       Publicity materials contained in the file on the film in the AMPAS Library add that filming began the day after Rev. Wallock’s Eastern Sunrise service in 1948 and continued for several weeks. Final location shots were filmed in Lawton in early Dec 1948. After the pageant portion was completed, according to an Apr 1949 Time article, producers Kroger Babb and J. S. Jossey acquired the 16mm print, blew it up to 35mm and added the modern day story. That portion, directed by William Beaudine, was filmed at the Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, CA, and was completed on 16 Dec 1948. Ten days later, Rev. Wallock, who had been ailing throughout the production, died.
       According to materials contained in the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, Hallmark wanted to release the film as The Prince of Peace, but discovered that Principal Films, the producer of the pageant film, already owned that title. Consequently the film was released as The Lawton Story. In the early 1950s, the confusion between the two companies was cleared up, and the title of The Lawton Story was changed to The Prince of Peace. According to a 1951 LADN item, the film was screened in two parts, with an advertisement for a souvenir program inserted in the middle. The proceeds from that program went to defray the cost of the next year’s pageant.
       Kroger Babb, though listed as producer, was actually a huckster who specialized in film exploitation. He told the 11 Nov 1977 Los Angeles Times, “That picture, you couldn’t give it away.” Telephone poles were visible in the background, and Oklahoma accents were so strong that it was known as “the only film that had to dubbed from English into English.” “But I said, ‘nothing’s hopeless if it’s advertised right.’” Babb claimed that it was his idea to change the title to The Prince of Peace” and create an ad campaign with lines like “Be Brave—bring your troubles and your family to history’s most sublime event.” When they “four-walled” the film from town to town, crowds lined up to see it, Babb said.