The Eternal Gift was recorded on Easter Sunday of 1940, the first time a complete High Mass in the Roman Catholic tradition had been so perpetuated. The ten-reel effort took about two years for pre-planning and post-production, and the film was released as a feature to theaters worldwide. (Edited versions were made available for home use.) Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen narrated as Fr. James R. Keane, O.S.M. was celebrant, Fr. Hugh Calkins was deacon, and Fr. Frank Calkins was sub-deacon within Chicago's 1902 Our Lady of Sorrows church (which incidentally was raised to the status of basilica in 1956.) Three dozen members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra accompanied approximately 200 vocalists through "The Mass of Christ the King".
—LouRugani