QWhy is "happiness" spelled wrong in the title?
AThe title is intentionally misspelled, as it also appears as graffiti in a scene in the film. The misspelled phrase is actually taken from an essay written in 1776 that argued that whites and blacks were created equal. The essay, which was written by Lemuel Haynes, a biracial man living in New England during the Revolution, quoted Thomas Jefferson's well-known sentence from the United States Declaration of Independence, but spelled the last word of the sentence with a y. The sentence, as it appears in Lemuel's essay, is as follows: "We hold these truths to be self-Evident, that all men are created Equal, that they are Endowed By their Creator with Ceartain [sic] unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happyness."(Taken from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pursuit_of_Happyness)
QDoes the real Chris Gardner appear in the film?
AYes. In the end. He walks in front of Will Smith.
QAre there any differences between the movie story and the real story?
AHere's a few:The Dean Witter internship wasn't unsalaried, but had a $1,000/mo. stipend.The internship lasted 10 months, not 6.Chris Jr. was 18 months old, not preschool aged, when his mother left him with his father.They were not rejected from a women's shelter; Glide Memorial, where they stayed in the movie and in real life, was a single mothers' shelter at the time.He did not have to work short hours; in fact he started early and stayed late.He was a bone scanner salesman, but not self-invested; he quit the job before taking the internship.
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