It's A Wonderful Life
Directed by Frank Capra
Filmed at RKO Studios/Encino California
Directed by Frank Capra
Produced byFrank Capra
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich
Albert Hackett
Jo Swerling
Frank Capra
Based on" The Greatest Gift"
by Philip Van Doren Stern
Starring James Stewart
Donna Reed
Lionel Barrymore
Henry Travers
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Edited by William Hornbeck
Production
company Liberty Films
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
Running time 130 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget$3.18 million
Box office$3,300,000
Produced byFrank Capra
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich
Albert Hackett
Jo Swerling
Frank Capra
Based on" The Greatest Gift"
by Philip Van Doren Stern
Starring James Stewart
Donna Reed
Lionel Barrymore
Henry Travers
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Edited by William Hornbeck
Production
company Liberty Films
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
- December 20, 1946
Running time 130 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget$3.18 million
Box office$3,300,000
Plot:
Donna Reed as Mary Bailey and James Stewart as George Bailey On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey is suicidal. Prayers for him reach Heaven, where Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George in order to earn his angel wings. To prepare, Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life. The first is in 1919, when 12-year-old George saves his younger brother Harry, who falls through the ice on a frozen pond, from drowning; George loses his hearing in one ear as a result. While working after school at the local drug store, George sees that his employer, Mr. Gower, distraught over his son's death from the flu, has accidentally added poison to a child's prescription drug, and intervenes to stop it from causing harm.
On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George talks to Mary Hatch, who has had a crush on him from an early age. They are interrupted by news of his father's death. George postpones his travel plans in order to sort out the family business, Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, a longtime competitor to Henry F. Potter, the local banker and the richest man in town. Potter wishes to dissolve the Building and Loan to take over its business. George convinces the board of directors to vote against Potter. They agree, on condition that George runs the business, along with his absent-minded uncle Billy. George and Mary get married. On their way to their honeymoon, they witness a run on the bank and use their honeymoon savings to lend financial support at the Building and Loan until the bank reopens.
Over time George establishes Bailey Park, a housing development with small houses financed by loans from Bailey Building and Loan, which allows people to own their own homes rather than pay rent to live in Potter's overpriced slums. Potter, frustrated at losing control of the housing market, attempts to lure George into becoming his assistant; George is momentarily tempted, but rejects the offer.
During World War II, George is ineligible for service because of his bad ear. Harry becomes a Navy pilot and shoots down a kamikaze plane that would have bombed an amphibious transport; he is awarded the Medal of Honor. On Christmas Eve morning 1945, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry. Uncle Billy goes to Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan. (The $8,000 was worth over $100,000 in 2017 dollars. He teases Potter, taking his newspaper and bragging about Harry being on the front page; the banker angrily grabs the newspaper, inside of which Billy has unintentionally tucked the envelope containing the money. Upon seeing the money, Potter realizes the potential scandal could lead to the Building and Loan's downfall. Potter hides the money, knowing its loss will cause severe financial problems for the Building and Loan. When Uncle Billy cannot find the money, he and George frantically search for it. When the bank examiner arrives to review their records, George berates his uncle for endangering the Building and Loan, goes home and takes out his frustration on his family. He apologizes to his wife and children, then leaves.
George with his guardian angel Clarence George desperately appeals to Potter for a loan. When George offers his life insurance policy as collateral, Potter says George is worth more dead than alive and phones the police to have him arrested. George gets drunk at a local bar and is involved in a fight before he leaves and goes to a nearby bridge, thinking of suicide. The film's narrative catches up to the time of the opening scene. Before he can jump, Clarence dives into the river just before George does, causing George to rescue Clarence rather than killing himself. George does not believe Clarence's subsequent claim to be his guardian angel.
When George says he wishes he had never been born, Clarence decides to grant his wish and show George an alternate timeline in which he never existed. Bedford Falls is named Pottersville and is a less congenial place. Mr. Gower has recently been released from prison for manslaughter, because George was not there to stop him from putting poison in the pills. The Building and Loan has closed down, as George never took over after Mr. Bailey's passing.
George's mother does not recognize him; she reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the collapse of the Building and Loan. In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George discovers the grave of his brother. Clarence tells him all the soldiers on the transport died, as Harry was never there to save them, because George had never saved Harry from drowning. Mary never married; when George says he is her husband, she screams for the police, causing George to flee and the local policeman to give chase.
George, now convinced that Clarence is really his guardian angel, runs back to the bridge and begs for his life back; the alternate timeline changes back to the original reality. George runs home to await his arrest. Mary and Uncle Billy arrive, having rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to cover the missing $8,000 and for Potter's warrant to be torn up. Harry arrives and toasts George. A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls a story that says the sound means that an angel has just earned his wings, signifying Clarence's promotion.
Donna Reed as Mary Bailey and James Stewart as George Bailey On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey is suicidal. Prayers for him reach Heaven, where Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George in order to earn his angel wings. To prepare, Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life. The first is in 1919, when 12-year-old George saves his younger brother Harry, who falls through the ice on a frozen pond, from drowning; George loses his hearing in one ear as a result. While working after school at the local drug store, George sees that his employer, Mr. Gower, distraught over his son's death from the flu, has accidentally added poison to a child's prescription drug, and intervenes to stop it from causing harm.
On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George talks to Mary Hatch, who has had a crush on him from an early age. They are interrupted by news of his father's death. George postpones his travel plans in order to sort out the family business, Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, a longtime competitor to Henry F. Potter, the local banker and the richest man in town. Potter wishes to dissolve the Building and Loan to take over its business. George convinces the board of directors to vote against Potter. They agree, on condition that George runs the business, along with his absent-minded uncle Billy. George and Mary get married. On their way to their honeymoon, they witness a run on the bank and use their honeymoon savings to lend financial support at the Building and Loan until the bank reopens.
Over time George establishes Bailey Park, a housing development with small houses financed by loans from Bailey Building and Loan, which allows people to own their own homes rather than pay rent to live in Potter's overpriced slums. Potter, frustrated at losing control of the housing market, attempts to lure George into becoming his assistant; George is momentarily tempted, but rejects the offer.
During World War II, George is ineligible for service because of his bad ear. Harry becomes a Navy pilot and shoots down a kamikaze plane that would have bombed an amphibious transport; he is awarded the Medal of Honor. On Christmas Eve morning 1945, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry. Uncle Billy goes to Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan. (The $8,000 was worth over $100,000 in 2017 dollars. He teases Potter, taking his newspaper and bragging about Harry being on the front page; the banker angrily grabs the newspaper, inside of which Billy has unintentionally tucked the envelope containing the money. Upon seeing the money, Potter realizes the potential scandal could lead to the Building and Loan's downfall. Potter hides the money, knowing its loss will cause severe financial problems for the Building and Loan. When Uncle Billy cannot find the money, he and George frantically search for it. When the bank examiner arrives to review their records, George berates his uncle for endangering the Building and Loan, goes home and takes out his frustration on his family. He apologizes to his wife and children, then leaves.
George with his guardian angel Clarence George desperately appeals to Potter for a loan. When George offers his life insurance policy as collateral, Potter says George is worth more dead than alive and phones the police to have him arrested. George gets drunk at a local bar and is involved in a fight before he leaves and goes to a nearby bridge, thinking of suicide. The film's narrative catches up to the time of the opening scene. Before he can jump, Clarence dives into the river just before George does, causing George to rescue Clarence rather than killing himself. George does not believe Clarence's subsequent claim to be his guardian angel.
When George says he wishes he had never been born, Clarence decides to grant his wish and show George an alternate timeline in which he never existed. Bedford Falls is named Pottersville and is a less congenial place. Mr. Gower has recently been released from prison for manslaughter, because George was not there to stop him from putting poison in the pills. The Building and Loan has closed down, as George never took over after Mr. Bailey's passing.
George's mother does not recognize him; she reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the collapse of the Building and Loan. In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George discovers the grave of his brother. Clarence tells him all the soldiers on the transport died, as Harry was never there to save them, because George had never saved Harry from drowning. Mary never married; when George says he is her husband, she screams for the police, causing George to flee and the local policeman to give chase.
George, now convinced that Clarence is really his guardian angel, runs back to the bridge and begs for his life back; the alternate timeline changes back to the original reality. George runs home to await his arrest. Mary and Uncle Billy arrive, having rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to cover the missing $8,000 and for Potter's warrant to be torn up. Harry arrives and toasts George. A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls a story that says the sound means that an angel has just earned his wings, signifying Clarence's promotion.
It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations:
Award Result Nominee / Winner
Best Picture Nominated Frank Capra
Winner was Samuel Goldwyn - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Director Nominated Frank Capra
Winner was William Wyler - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Actor Nominated James Stewart
Winner was Fredric March - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Film Editing Nominated William Hornbeck
Winner was Daniel Mandell - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Sound Recording Nominated John Aalberg
Winner was John P. Livadary - The Jolson Story
Technical Achievement Award Won Russell Shearman and RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Dept.
For the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets.
Award Result Nominee / Winner
Best Picture Nominated Frank Capra
Winner was Samuel Goldwyn - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Director Nominated Frank Capra
Winner was William Wyler - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Actor Nominated James Stewart
Winner was Fredric March - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Film Editing Nominated William Hornbeck
Winner was Daniel Mandell - The Best Years of Our Lives
Best Sound Recording Nominated John Aalberg
Winner was John P. Livadary - The Jolson Story
Technical Achievement Award Won Russell Shearman and RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Dept.
For the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets.
25 Wonderful Facts About It’s a Wonderful Life
BY JENNIFER M WOOD
DECEMBER 20, 2016
PARAMOUNT PICTURESMary Owen wasn’t welcomed into the world until more than a decade after Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life made its premiere in 1946, 70 years ago this month. But she grew up cherishing the film and getting the inside scoop on its making from its star, Donna Reed—who just so happens to be her mom. Though Reed passed away in 1986, Owen has stood as one of the film’s most dedicated historians, regularly introducing screenings of the ultimate holiday classic, including during its annual run at New York City’s IFC Center. She shared some of her mom’s memories with us to help reveal 25 things you might not have known about It’s a Wonderful Life for the 70th anniversary of its premiere.
1. IT ALL BEGAN WITH A CHRISTMAS CARD.After years of unsuccessfully trying to shop his short story, The Greatest Gift, to publishers, Philip Van Doren Stern decided to give the gift of words to his closest friends for the holidays when he printed up 200 copies of the story and sent them out as a 21-page Christmas card. David Hempstead, a producer at RKO Pictures, ended up getting a hold of it, and purchased the movie rights for $10,000.
2. CARY GRANT WAS SET TO STAR IN THE ADAPTATION.When RKO purchased the rights, they did so with the plan of having Cary Grant in the lead. But, as happens so often in Hollywood, the project went through some ups and downs in the development process. In 1945, after a number of rewrites, RKO sold the movie rights to Frank Capra, who quickly recruited Jimmy Stewart to play George Bailey.
3. DOROTHY PARKER WORKED ON THE SCRIPT.
By the time It’s a Wonderful Life made it into theaters, the story was much different from Stern’s original tale. That’s because more than a half-dozen people contributed to the screenplay, including some of the most acclaimed writers of the time—Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, Marc Connelly, and Clifford Odets among them.
4. SCREENWRITERS FRANCES GOODRICH AND ALBERT HACKETT WALKED OUT.Though they’re credited as the film’s screenwriters with Capra, the husband and wife writing duo were not pleased with the treatment they received from Capra. “Frank Capra could be condescending,” Hackett saidin an interview, “and you just didn't address Frances as ‘my dear woman.’ When we were pretty far along in the script but not done, our agent called and said, ‘Capra wants to know how soon you'll be finished.’ Frances said, ‘We're finished right now.’ We put our pens down and never went back to it.”
5. CAPRA DIDN’T DO THE BEST JOB OF SELLING THE FILM TO STEWART.After laying out the plot line of the film for Stewart in a meeting, Capra realized that, “This really doesn’t sound so good, does it?” Stewart recalled in an interview. Stewart’s reply? “Frank: If you want me to be in a picture about a guy that wants to kill himself and an angel comes down named Clarence who can’t swim and I save him, when do we start?”
6. IT WAS DONNA REED’S FIRST STARRING ROLE.
Though Donna Reed was hardly a newcomer when It’s a Wonderful Life rolled around, having appeared in nearly 20 projects previously, the film did mark her first starring role. It’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role today, but Reed had some serious competition from Jean Arthur. “[Frank Capra] had seen mom in They Were Expendable and liked her,” Mary Owen says. “When Capra met my mother at MGM, he knew she'd be just right for Mary Bailey.”
7. MARY OWEN IS NOT NAMED AFTER MARY BAILEY.Before you ask whether Owen was named after her mom’s much beloved It’s a Wonderful Life character, “The answer is no,” says Owen. “I was named after my great grandmother, Mary Mullenger.”
8. BEULAH BONDI WAS A PRO AT PLAYING STEWART’S MOM. Beulah Bondi, who plays Mrs. Bailey, didn’t need a lot of rehearsal to play Jimmy Stewart’s mom. She had done it three times previously—in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts, and Vivacious Lady—and once later on The Jimmy Stewart Show: The Identity Crisis.
9. CAPRA, REED, AND STEWART HAVE ALL CALLED IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE THEIR FAVORITE MOVIE.
Liberty Films
Though their collective filmographies consist of a couple hundred movies, Capra, Reed, and Stewart have all cited It’s a Wonderful Life as their favorite movie. In his autobiography, The Name Above the Title, Capra took that praise even one step further, writing: “I thought it was the greatest film I ever made. Better yet, I thought it was the greatest film anybody ever made.”
10. THE MOVIE BOMBED AT THE BOX OFFICE.Though it has become a quintessential American classic, It’s a Wonderful Life was not an immediate hit with audiences. In fact, it put Capra $525,000 in the hole, which left him scrambling to finance his production company’s next picture, State of the Union.
11. A COPYRIGHT LAPSE AIDED THE FILM’S POPULARITY.Though it didn’t make much of a dent at the box office, It’s a Wonderful Life found a whole new life on television—particularly when its copyright lapsed in 1974, making it available royalty-free to anyone who wanted to show it for the next 20 years. (Which would explain why it was on television all the time during the holiday season.) The free-for-all ended in 1994.
12. THE ROCK THAT BROKE THE WINDOW OF THE GRANVILLE HOUSE WAS ALL REAL.
Though Capra had a stuntman at the ready in order to shoot out the window of the Granville House in a scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock through it, it was all a waste of money. “Mom threw the rock herself that broke the window in the Granville House,” Owen says. “On the first try.”
13. IT TOOK TWO MONTHS TO BUILD BEDFORD FALLS.Shot on a budget of $3.7 million (which was a lot by mid-1940s standards), Bedford Falls—which covered a full four acres of RKO’s Encino Ranch—was one of the most elaborate movie sets ever built up to that time, with 75 stores and buildings, 20 fully-grown oak trees, factories, residential areas, and a 300-yard-long Main Street.
14. SENECA FALLS, NEW YORK IS “THE REAL BEDFORD FALLS.”Though Bedford Falls is a fictitious place, the town of Seneca Falls, New York swears that it's the real-life inspiration for George Bailey’s charming hometown. And each year they program a full lineup of holiday-themed events to put locals (and yuletide visitors) into the holiday spirit.
15. THE GYM FLOOR-TURNED-SWIMMING POOL WAS REAL.Though the bulk of the film was filmed on pre-built sets, the dance at the gym was filmed on location at Beverly Hills High School. And the retractable floor was no set piece. Better known as the Swim Gym, the school is currently in the process of restoring the landmark filming location.
16. ALFALFA IS THE TEENAGER BEHIND THAT SWIMMING POOL PRANK.Though he’s uncredited in the part, if Freddie Othello—the little prankster who pushes the button that opens the pool that swallows George and Mary up—looks familiar, that’s because he is played by Carl Switzer, a.k.a. Alfalfa of The Little Rascals.
17. DONNA REED WON $50 FROM LIONEL BARRYMORE ... FOR MILKING A COW.Though she was a Hollywood icon, Donna Reed—born Donnabelle Mullenger—was a farm girl at heart who came to Los Angeles by way of Denison, Iowa. Lionel Barrymore (a.k.a. Mr. Potter) didn’t believe it. “So he bet $50 that she couldn't milk a cow,” recalls Owen. “She said it was the easiest $50 she ever made.”
18. THE FILM WAS SHOT DURING A HEAT WAVE.It may be an iconic Christmas movie, but It’s a Wonderful Life was actually shot in the summer of 1946—in the midst of a heat wave, no less. At one point, Capra had to shut filming down for a day because of the sky-high temperatures—which also explains why Stewart is clearly sweating in key moments of the film.
19. CAPRA ENGINEERED A NEW KIND OF MOVIE SNOW.Capra—who trained as an engineer—and special effects supervisor Russell Shearman engineered a new type of artificial snow for the film. At the time, painted cornflakes were the most common form of fake snow, but they posed a bit of an audio problem for Capra. So he and Shearman opted to mix foamite (the stuff you find in fire extinguishers) with sugar and water to create a less noisy option.
20. THE MOVIE WASN’T REQUIRED VIEWING IN REED’S HOUSEHOLD.Though It’s a Wonderful Life is a staple of many family holiday movie marathons, that wasn’t the case in Reed’s home. In fact, Owen herself didn’t see the film until three decades after its release. “I saw it in the late 1970s at the Nuart Theatre in L.A. and loved it,” she says.
21. ZUZU DIDN’T SEE THE FILM UNTIL 1980.Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the film, didn’t see the film until 1980. “I never took the time to see the movie,” she told Detroit’s WWJ in 2013. “I never just sat down and watched the film.”
22. THE FBI SAW THE FILM. THEY DIDN’T LIKE IT.In 1947, the FBI issued a memo noting the film as a potential “Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry,” citing its “rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘Scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.”
23. THE MOVIE’S BERT AND ERNIE HAVE NO RELATION TO SESAME STREET.
Yes, the cop and cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life are named Bert and Ernie, respectively. But Jim Henson’s longtime writing partner, Jerry Juhl, insists that it’s by coincidence only that they share their names with Sesame Street’s stripe-shirted buds.
“I was the head writer for the Muppets for 36 years and one of the original writers on Sesame Street,” Juhl told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2000. “The rumor about It's a Wonderful Life has persisted over the years. I was not present at the naming, but I was always positive [the rumor] was incorrect. Despite his many talents, Jim had no memory for details like this. He knew the movie, of course, but would not have remembered the cop and the cab driver. I was not able to confirm this with Jim before he died, but shortly thereafter I spoke to Jon Stone, Sesame Street's first producer and head writer and a man largely responsible for the show's format … He assured me that Ernie and Bert were named one day when he and Jim were studying the prototype puppets. They decided that one of them looked like an Ernie, and the other one looked like a Bert. The movie character names are purely coincidental.”
24. SOME PEOPLE ARE ANXIOUS FOR A SEQUEL.Well, two people: Producers Allen J. Schwalb and Bob Farnsworth, who announced in 2013 that they would be continuing the story with a sequel, It’s a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story, which they planned for a 2015 release. It didn’t take long for Paramount, which owns the copyright, to step in and assure furious fans of the original film that “No project relating to It’s a Wonderful Life can proceed without a license from Paramount. To date, these individuals have not obtained any of the necessary rights, and we would take all appropriate steps to protect those rights.”
25. THE FILM’S ENDURING LEGACY WAS SURPRISING TO CAPRA.“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen," Capra said of the film’s classic status. "The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud… but it’s the kid who did the work. I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.”
"Auld Lang Syne" (Scots pronunciation: [ˈɔːl(d) lɑŋˈsəin]: note "s" rather than "z")[1] is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788[2][3] and set to the tune of a traditional folk song (Roud # 6294). It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world, its traditional use being to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, it is also sung at funerals, graduations and as a farewell or ending to other occasions. The international Boy Scout youth movement, in many countries, uses it to close jamborees and other functions.
The song's Scots title may be translated into standard English as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago",[4] "days gone by" or "old times". Consequently, "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "for (the sake of) old times".
The song's Scots title may be translated into standard English as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago",[4] "days gone by" or "old times". Consequently, "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "for (the sake of) old times".
It's A Wonderful Life
Directed by Frank Capra
6 things you probably didn't know about 'It's a Wonderful Life'Even if you've seen the Christmas classic 100 times, we bet you didn't know that ... well, just keep reading.
ZUZU AND GEORGE: You can see Karolyn Grimes, who played Jimmy Stewart's daughter, at a festival in New York. (Photo: ZUMA Press)You know the story: Angels, bells, “Auld Lang Syne,” a depressed and partially deaf savings-and-loan manager who tries to end it all only to be treated to an epiphanic retrospective of his life courtesy of a bumbling trainee-seraphim named Clarence.
Whether it warms your heart or you find it entirely too saccharine, Frank Capra’s 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” like Mariah Carey’s Christmas album or five additional pounds, is pretty darn hard to avoid during the holidays. This year, settle down with a mug of hot cocoa, a slice of your Aunt Enid’s fruitcake (the do-goodery thing to do) and try watching the Christmastime TV staple with these six fascinating “It’s a Wonderful Life” factoids in mind. You may never look at Henry F. Potter (or Alfalfa) the same way again …
Cary Grant, Alfalfa and a big Christmas card
George 'Spanky' McFarland and Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer way before a grown-up Switzer had a small role in this Christmas classic. (Photo: © Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved)
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is based on “The Greatest Gift,” a 1939 short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern. After spending several years trying to sell his story to publishers with no success, Stern self-published his work and sent it to 200 friends as a 21-page Christmas card in 1943. RKO Pictures wound up getting a hold of “The Greatest Gift” and bought the rights to the story with Cary Grant pegged as the star. As they tend to do in Hollywood, things fell through and the project languished before acclaimed director Frank Capra came on board in 1945 and named Jimmy Stewart as his leading man in the role of suicidal do-gooder, George Bailey. Jean Arthur, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers, who called the character “too bland,” were all said to be in the running for the role of Mary Hatch Bailey. Donna Reed, an actress who went on to become the ultimate upper-middle-class TV housewife, ultimately secured the role.
And another interesting casting note: That’s a grown-up Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer in the small role of Freddie, Mary’s obnoxious date in the film’s famous dance floor-turned-swimming pool scene (and yes, that pool exists at Beverly Hills High School). “It’s a Wonderful Life” was one of Switzer’s few post-“Our Gang” adult roles as he shifted his attention to hunting-dog breeding, and was killed in 1959 at the age of 31 after being shot in the groin in a drunken dispute over $50.
It’s not a wonderful box office return
You’d think that given its “totally beloved by everyone” status, “It’s a Wonderful Life” would have been embraced by both critics and the public alike immediately after its release. Moviegoers must not have been feeling all that sentimental in December 1946 because that wasn’t the case at all. The film received generally mixed reviews — it did, however, garner five Academy Award nominations but won none — and was somewhat of a box-office flop, failing to recoup its $3.7 million cost (it made $3.3 million during its initial run). Sure, not an epic financial and critical failure on par with “Ishtar,” “Gigli” or “Santa Claus: The Movie” but a disappointment nonetheless. And get this: Out of the 400 films released in 1947 (it was technically released on Dec. 20, 1946, so that it could be considered for the Academy Awards but went into general release on Jan. 7, 1947), “It’s a Wonderful Life” placed 26th in box office revenues, one spot ahead of another dripping-with-cheesy-sentiment Christmas classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.”
In the years following its release, “It’s a Wonderful Life” fell somewhat into obscurity only to re-emerge on the scene and receive some serious loving during the 1970s and '80s when it began appearing, somewhat relentlessly, on television during the holiday season. In 1990, the nearly 45-year-old film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.
Will the real Bedford Falls please stand up?
Seneca Falls, in New York's Finger Lakes Region, is one of the towns claiming to be the real Bedford Falls. (Photo: The Real Bedford Falls)
In name, the fictional burg of Bedford Falls is popularly thought to be a combination of Bedford Hills, a hamlet within the chichi Westchester County, New York, town of Bedford (home to Martha Stewart and a host of other high rollers that don’t quite share the proletarian woes of George Bailey) and Seneca Falls, a more working-class village in New York’s Fingers Lakes region near Rochester. But which town, Bedford Hills or Seneca Falls, is the true inspiration for Bedford Falls?
The tourism bureau of Seneca Falls is banking on the fact that they’re the real deal. In fact, Seneca Falls has an entire website, The Real Bedford Falls, dedicated to pointing out the numerous similitudes between the two towns. The evidence is convincing enough (despite road signs in the film pointing to Katonah and Chappaqua which are both in Westchester County in or near the town of Bedford): Frank Capra reportedly visited Seneca Falls in 1945 although no solid proof of this exists; the film references nearby cities like Elmira, Rochester and Buffalo; both are mill towns; and both sport large Italian populations and an abundance of Victorian homes.
Whatever the case, Seneca Falls has certainly embraced its supposed alter ego with the year-old It’s A Wonderful Life Museum and the annual It’s A Wonderful Life Festival with special appearances by the “Bailey Sisters” themselves, Karolyn Grimes(Zuzu) and Carol Coombs-Mueller (Janie). Visitors can book a room at the Hotel Clarence, a recently restored boutique hotel named after, of course, George Bailey’s guardian angel.
And it should be pointed out that the actual filming location of Bedford Falls was not anywhere near either Bedford Hills or Seneca Falls: The entire town was erected as an elaborate 4-acre set at the RKO Ranch in Encino, Calif.
Let it (faux) snow!
Now that we’ve established that the town of Bedford Falls was not filmed on location in some sleepy upstate New York burg during the winter but on a massive studio backlot in the San Fernando Valley during the middle of the summer, you’re probably wondering how Frank Capra made his fictional town look so darned wintry — fake snow and lots of it. And this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill fake snow. Prior to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” most productions used cornflakes painted white to simulate snowflakes but, as you can imagine, this was a rather loud way to go about it and the dialogue during snowy scenes was usually dubbed in during post-production due to actors stepping on crunchy snowflakes.
Capra insisted on recording the sound live during the film’s snow-filled scenes so a new, less disruptive snow made from water, soap and a fire-fighting chemical called Foamite was invented and pumped through a wind machine. A total of 6,000 gallons of this new faux snow solution was used in the film. And although “It’s a Wonderful Life” may have performed poorly at the Academy Awards, the RKO Effects Department received a technical award from the Academy for the innovative stunt snow.
The original Bert and Ernie
Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie weren't named for the movie's characters. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Long before fruit-shaped bachelors-for-life Bert and Ernie took up residence in a basement apartment at 123 Sesame Street, there was Bert and Ernie of Bedford Falls fame. In the film, police officer Bert (Ward Bond) and cab-driving Ernie (Frank Faylen) played good-hearted friends of the Baileys. Neither character showed a predilection towards rubber duckies, pigeons, striped sweaters or unibrows. So did Jim Henson name his Bert and Ernie after Frank Capra’s Bert and Ernie?
According to those close to the orange and yellow odd couple, it’s a total coincidence. Clarifies former "Sesame Street" writer Jerry Juhl to The San Francisco Chronicle:
I was the head writer for the Muppets for 36 years and one of the original writers on ‘Sesame Street.’ The rumor about ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ has persisted over the years. I was not present at the naming, but I was always positive it was incorrect. Despite his many talents, Jim had no memory for details like this. He knew the movie, of course, but would not have remembered the cop and the cabdriver. I was not able to confirm this with Jim before he died, but shortly thereafter I spoke to Jon Stone, Sesame Street's first producer and head writer and a man largely responsible for the show's format. (Jon, sadly, is no longer with us either.) He assured me that Ernie and Bert were named one day when he and Jim were studying the prototype puppets. They decided that one of them looked like an Ernie, and the other one looked like a Bert. The movie character names are purely coincidental.I’m dreaming of a red Christmas
In addition to getting the thumbs down from many critics and filmgoers in the late 1940s, “It’s a Wonderful Life” received an official mark of disapproval from the FBI, which pegged the poignant film as Communist propaganda thanks to its populist themes and, more specifically, unflattering portrayal of big-city bankers.
Reads a section of a 1947 FBI memo titled “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry”:
With regard to the picture "It's a Wonderful Life", [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a "scrooge-type" so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists. In addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. [redacted] related that if he made this picture portraying the banker, he would have shown this individual to have been following the rules as laid down by the State Bank Examiner in connection with making loans. Further, [redacted] stated that the scene wouldn't have "suffered at all" in portraying the banker as a man who was protecting funds put in his care by private individuals and adhering to the rules governing the loan of that money rather than portraying the part as it was shown. In summary, [redacted] stated that it was not necessary to make the banker such a mean character and "I would never have done it that way."Despite the FBI suspicions, Frank Capra and the film’s screenwriters (interesting enough, the gleefully unsentimental Dorothy Parker worked, uncredited, on the script) were not among those blacklisted in 1947 by Hollywood as a result of cinema-centric activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
ZUZU AND GEORGE: You can see Karolyn Grimes, who played Jimmy Stewart's daughter, at a festival in New York. (Photo: ZUMA Press)You know the story: Angels, bells, “Auld Lang Syne,” a depressed and partially deaf savings-and-loan manager who tries to end it all only to be treated to an epiphanic retrospective of his life courtesy of a bumbling trainee-seraphim named Clarence.
Whether it warms your heart or you find it entirely too saccharine, Frank Capra’s 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” like Mariah Carey’s Christmas album or five additional pounds, is pretty darn hard to avoid during the holidays. This year, settle down with a mug of hot cocoa, a slice of your Aunt Enid’s fruitcake (the do-goodery thing to do) and try watching the Christmastime TV staple with these six fascinating “It’s a Wonderful Life” factoids in mind. You may never look at Henry F. Potter (or Alfalfa) the same way again …
Cary Grant, Alfalfa and a big Christmas card
George 'Spanky' McFarland and Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer way before a grown-up Switzer had a small role in this Christmas classic. (Photo: © Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved)
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is based on “The Greatest Gift,” a 1939 short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern. After spending several years trying to sell his story to publishers with no success, Stern self-published his work and sent it to 200 friends as a 21-page Christmas card in 1943. RKO Pictures wound up getting a hold of “The Greatest Gift” and bought the rights to the story with Cary Grant pegged as the star. As they tend to do in Hollywood, things fell through and the project languished before acclaimed director Frank Capra came on board in 1945 and named Jimmy Stewart as his leading man in the role of suicidal do-gooder, George Bailey. Jean Arthur, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers, who called the character “too bland,” were all said to be in the running for the role of Mary Hatch Bailey. Donna Reed, an actress who went on to become the ultimate upper-middle-class TV housewife, ultimately secured the role.
And another interesting casting note: That’s a grown-up Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer in the small role of Freddie, Mary’s obnoxious date in the film’s famous dance floor-turned-swimming pool scene (and yes, that pool exists at Beverly Hills High School). “It’s a Wonderful Life” was one of Switzer’s few post-“Our Gang” adult roles as he shifted his attention to hunting-dog breeding, and was killed in 1959 at the age of 31 after being shot in the groin in a drunken dispute over $50.
It’s not a wonderful box office return
You’d think that given its “totally beloved by everyone” status, “It’s a Wonderful Life” would have been embraced by both critics and the public alike immediately after its release. Moviegoers must not have been feeling all that sentimental in December 1946 because that wasn’t the case at all. The film received generally mixed reviews — it did, however, garner five Academy Award nominations but won none — and was somewhat of a box-office flop, failing to recoup its $3.7 million cost (it made $3.3 million during its initial run). Sure, not an epic financial and critical failure on par with “Ishtar,” “Gigli” or “Santa Claus: The Movie” but a disappointment nonetheless. And get this: Out of the 400 films released in 1947 (it was technically released on Dec. 20, 1946, so that it could be considered for the Academy Awards but went into general release on Jan. 7, 1947), “It’s a Wonderful Life” placed 26th in box office revenues, one spot ahead of another dripping-with-cheesy-sentiment Christmas classic, “Miracle on 34th Street.”
In the years following its release, “It’s a Wonderful Life” fell somewhat into obscurity only to re-emerge on the scene and receive some serious loving during the 1970s and '80s when it began appearing, somewhat relentlessly, on television during the holiday season. In 1990, the nearly 45-year-old film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress.
Will the real Bedford Falls please stand up?
Seneca Falls, in New York's Finger Lakes Region, is one of the towns claiming to be the real Bedford Falls. (Photo: The Real Bedford Falls)
In name, the fictional burg of Bedford Falls is popularly thought to be a combination of Bedford Hills, a hamlet within the chichi Westchester County, New York, town of Bedford (home to Martha Stewart and a host of other high rollers that don’t quite share the proletarian woes of George Bailey) and Seneca Falls, a more working-class village in New York’s Fingers Lakes region near Rochester. But which town, Bedford Hills or Seneca Falls, is the true inspiration for Bedford Falls?
The tourism bureau of Seneca Falls is banking on the fact that they’re the real deal. In fact, Seneca Falls has an entire website, The Real Bedford Falls, dedicated to pointing out the numerous similitudes between the two towns. The evidence is convincing enough (despite road signs in the film pointing to Katonah and Chappaqua which are both in Westchester County in or near the town of Bedford): Frank Capra reportedly visited Seneca Falls in 1945 although no solid proof of this exists; the film references nearby cities like Elmira, Rochester and Buffalo; both are mill towns; and both sport large Italian populations and an abundance of Victorian homes.
Whatever the case, Seneca Falls has certainly embraced its supposed alter ego with the year-old It’s A Wonderful Life Museum and the annual It’s A Wonderful Life Festival with special appearances by the “Bailey Sisters” themselves, Karolyn Grimes(Zuzu) and Carol Coombs-Mueller (Janie). Visitors can book a room at the Hotel Clarence, a recently restored boutique hotel named after, of course, George Bailey’s guardian angel.
And it should be pointed out that the actual filming location of Bedford Falls was not anywhere near either Bedford Hills or Seneca Falls: The entire town was erected as an elaborate 4-acre set at the RKO Ranch in Encino, Calif.
Let it (faux) snow!
Now that we’ve established that the town of Bedford Falls was not filmed on location in some sleepy upstate New York burg during the winter but on a massive studio backlot in the San Fernando Valley during the middle of the summer, you’re probably wondering how Frank Capra made his fictional town look so darned wintry — fake snow and lots of it. And this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill fake snow. Prior to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” most productions used cornflakes painted white to simulate snowflakes but, as you can imagine, this was a rather loud way to go about it and the dialogue during snowy scenes was usually dubbed in during post-production due to actors stepping on crunchy snowflakes.
Capra insisted on recording the sound live during the film’s snow-filled scenes so a new, less disruptive snow made from water, soap and a fire-fighting chemical called Foamite was invented and pumped through a wind machine. A total of 6,000 gallons of this new faux snow solution was used in the film. And although “It’s a Wonderful Life” may have performed poorly at the Academy Awards, the RKO Effects Department received a technical award from the Academy for the innovative stunt snow.
The original Bert and Ernie
Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie weren't named for the movie's characters. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Long before fruit-shaped bachelors-for-life Bert and Ernie took up residence in a basement apartment at 123 Sesame Street, there was Bert and Ernie of Bedford Falls fame. In the film, police officer Bert (Ward Bond) and cab-driving Ernie (Frank Faylen) played good-hearted friends of the Baileys. Neither character showed a predilection towards rubber duckies, pigeons, striped sweaters or unibrows. So did Jim Henson name his Bert and Ernie after Frank Capra’s Bert and Ernie?
According to those close to the orange and yellow odd couple, it’s a total coincidence. Clarifies former "Sesame Street" writer Jerry Juhl to The San Francisco Chronicle:
I was the head writer for the Muppets for 36 years and one of the original writers on ‘Sesame Street.’ The rumor about ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ has persisted over the years. I was not present at the naming, but I was always positive it was incorrect. Despite his many talents, Jim had no memory for details like this. He knew the movie, of course, but would not have remembered the cop and the cabdriver. I was not able to confirm this with Jim before he died, but shortly thereafter I spoke to Jon Stone, Sesame Street's first producer and head writer and a man largely responsible for the show's format. (Jon, sadly, is no longer with us either.) He assured me that Ernie and Bert were named one day when he and Jim were studying the prototype puppets. They decided that one of them looked like an Ernie, and the other one looked like a Bert. The movie character names are purely coincidental.I’m dreaming of a red Christmas
In addition to getting the thumbs down from many critics and filmgoers in the late 1940s, “It’s a Wonderful Life” received an official mark of disapproval from the FBI, which pegged the poignant film as Communist propaganda thanks to its populist themes and, more specifically, unflattering portrayal of big-city bankers.
Reads a section of a 1947 FBI memo titled “Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry”:
With regard to the picture "It's a Wonderful Life", [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a "scrooge-type" so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists. In addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. [redacted] related that if he made this picture portraying the banker, he would have shown this individual to have been following the rules as laid down by the State Bank Examiner in connection with making loans. Further, [redacted] stated that the scene wouldn't have "suffered at all" in portraying the banker as a man who was protecting funds put in his care by private individuals and adhering to the rules governing the loan of that money rather than portraying the part as it was shown. In summary, [redacted] stated that it was not necessary to make the banker such a mean character and "I would never have done it that way."Despite the FBI suspicions, Frank Capra and the film’s screenwriters (interesting enough, the gleefully unsentimental Dorothy Parker worked, uncredited, on the script) were not among those blacklisted in 1947 by Hollywood as a result of cinema-centric activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).