20 things you might not know about ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
The holiday classic has upstate connections, real-world reflections
From a critical failure and commercial flop in 1946 to one of the most beloved and acclaimed films of all time and a perennial holiday favorite — that is the singular journey of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Director and co-screenwriter Frank Capra never considered it a Christmas movie at all, let alone the Christmas classic., but that’s what it became, largely by accident. After losing $525,000 (more than $8 million today) for its studio, RKO, in its initial release, its ownership changed hands a few times and it settled into a life of occasional TV airings.
Then, in 1974, a clerical error at its then-syndicator, National Telefilm Associates, stopped the copyright from being renewed and the movie entered into public domain. Television stations around the country seized on the lucky-for-them lapse and “It’s a Wonderful Life” began airing continuously each holiday season, hitting heights throughout the 1980s.
So strong is the movie’s lasting influence, resonance and adoration that multiple communities across the United States have tried to stake their claim on being the model for Bedford Falls, the idyllic small town in an unnamed state that serves as the setting for “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Seneca Falls in Seneca County, east of Geneva, might make the best case, though. Capra is documented as having visited months before filming began. He saw the bridge that’s an eerie mirror of the one where George Bailey makes a fateful decision.
So, it comes as no surprise that Seneca Falls is the home of the It’s a Wonderful Life Museum, opened in 2010 and temporarily housed in an old bank building while the original structure undergoes renovations. It displays hundreds of items connected to the movie and
the town, memorabilia, artifacts, props and more, much of it donated by cast members or those involved with the production.
It’s the second weekend of every December when the town and the museum truly shine, throwing an It’s a Wonderful Life Festival. The town’s population swells as tourists and devotees of the movie come to witness recreations, plays, talks, screenings, games, tours, family events and actors strolling the streets as “IAWL” characters.
There’s so much more to know and learn about “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Some of us who claim it as our favorite film of all time could go on so long you would be wilting like Zuzu’s petals. Instead, enjoy these 20 surprising facts about the movie masterpiece.
1. “It’s a Wonderful Life” was the first film for both Jimmy Stewart and director Frank Capra following their careerpausing stints in the U.S. Army during World War II, with Stewart in particular seeing up-close combat. Neither man thought they had anything left to give to the movies following their war service; Stewart thought it was all frivolous and didn’t think he was an actor anymore. His on-screen nemesis, Lionel Barrymore, was the one who convinced him he could do it and to take the part.
2. In later years, Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and Frank Capra all stated that “It’s a Wonderful Life” was their favorite film of those they had made.
3. Three of the actors who played the Bailey children are still alive: Carol Coombs ( Janie), 88; Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu), 83; and Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy), 82. Larry Simms (Pete) died in 2009 at the age of
74.
4. “It’s a Wonderful Life” was nominated for five Academy Awards — best picture, best director for Frank Capra, best actor in a leading role for Jimmy Stewart, best sound recording and best editing — but won none.
5. Future blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and future witness for the House Committee on Un-american Activities Clifford Odets had both tried their hands at earlier attempts at the script.
6. The actor playing Mary’s jilted dance partner at the high school dance who opens the gym floor to reveal a swimming pool below was played by Carl Switzer, all grown up from his days playing Alfalfa in “The Little Rascal/our Gang” shorts. Side note: The sequence was shot at Beverly Hills High School. It still exists, and so does the pool.
7. Prior to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” filmmakers often painted cornflakes white to simulate snow on the ground. Frank Capra, trying to avoid the crunching sound when actors
stepped on it, instead used a mixture of Ivory soap flakes, chipped ice, sugar and a substance known as foamite, similar to what is in fire extinguishers today.
8. Donna Reed’s high school baseball playing days came in handy during filming. She truly smashed a window at the Old Granville house with a thrown rock on her first try, putting out of work the stuntman who was hired to perform the feat.
9. Someone counted the bells. There are 42 rings heard throughout the movie, meaning 42 angels received their wings.
10. The $17.50 wanted by Mrs. Davis (played by character actress Ellen Corby, who years later was Grandma Walton on the TV drama “The Waltons”) during the bank run at the credit union would amount to approximately $298.52 today when adjusted for inflation.
11. Contrary to persistent rumors, the “Sesame Street” characters of Bert and Ernie were not named after Bert the cop and Ernie the cabdriver in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” It was merely a coincidence.
12. Despite being quite different movies released 21 years apart, there is a connection between “It’s a Wonderful Life” and 1967’s “The Graduate”: plastics. In “IAWL,” George’s lifelong friend Sam Wainwright makes his fortune manufacturing it. And two decades later in “The Graduate,” one of the friends of Benjamin Braddock’s (Dustin Hoffman) father tells him the substance is the future, in one of the most famous movie lines of all time.
13. In 1977, a TV movie remake of “It’s a Wonderful Life” called “It Happened One Christmas” starred Marlo
Thomas as Mary Bailey Hatch, Wayne Rogers as George Hatch and Cloris Leachman as angel Clara Goodbody, all three roles gender-switched from the original. In addition, Mr. Potter was played by Orson Welles.
14. A very different “It’s a Wonderful Life” could have happened if original choices Cary Grant and Jean Arthur had played George and Mary Bailey. The pair had already co-starred in “Only Angels Have Wings” and “The Talk of the Town.”
15. In 1986, Hal Roach Studios infamously released a colorized version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” to much critical scorn but some popularity among black-and-white-phobic folks. Jimmy Stewart, then 78, was not a fan of this latest version and repeatedly denounced it in print and television and even testified before Congress on the subject, testifying, “I tried to look at the colorized version, but I had to
switch it off — it made me feel sick.”
16. Among the memorabilia and artifacts on display at the It’s a Wonderful Life Museum in Seneca Falls is a copy of the 1919 issue of National Geographic magazine that younger George holds when telling Mary Bailey and Violet Bick of his future travel plans. Bobbie Anderson, the actor who played young George, signed it with one of his quotes from the scene: “Say, Brainless, don’t you know where coconuts come from?”
17. “It’s a Wonderful Life” marked the fourth and final time that Beulah Bondi (Mrs. Bailey) played Jimmy Stewart’s mother on the big screen, after “Of Human Hearts,” “Vivacious Lady” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” She became the go-to actress for playing mothers despite never marrying or having children herself.
18. Seneca Falls’ claim to being the inspiration for Bedford Falls takes on added weight thanks to a 1917 tragedy in the town. In April of that year, 17-year-old Barge Canal worker Antonio Varacalli saw a young woman struggling in the water after she had jumped from the Bridge Street Bridge in a suicide attempt. He dove into the canal, even though he couldn’t swim, and saved her, getting her safely to the canal bank before he sank below the surface and drowned. In 1921, a fund was started to provide a memorial plaque for Varacalli. The plaque is now attached to the Bridge Street Bridge in Antonio’s honor, right near those commemorating the bridge’s place in “IAWL” folklore.
19. When you watch the movie and get to the part where George Bailey prays to God in the bar, you might notice the film quality is grainy compared to the rest of the film. That’s because Jimmy Stewart had been so emotional during the scene he began sobbing. Frank Capra asked him to do it again so he could shoot it in close-up to better capture his face, but Stewart refused, knowing he could not duplicate what he experienced. So Capra simply reframed the existing footage and blew it up.
20. According to legend, the scene when a drunken Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) staggers off from Harry Bailey’s graduation party and, offscreen, crashes into what sounds like metal garbage cans, was the product of a mistake. The sound was apparently from a crew member dropping some props nearby, leading to Jimmy Stewart’s genuine laughter and Mitchell’s immediate ad-lib, “I’m all right! I’m OK!” Frank Capra loved the result and left it in the film.