December 8, 2023 – Theme Week Day 5

We’re closing out our Christmas Movies theme week with a beloved classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, directed and produced by Frank Capra, and released in 1946. The movie is based on a short story, The Greatest Gift, self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern. Several publishers had rejected the story, so Van Doren Stern printed it as a 24-page pamphlet and sent 200 copies to friends and family as his Christmas card in December 1943. One of the pamphlets came to the attention of a producer at RKO Pictures, who bought the rights to it for $10,000.  After a few screenwriters worked on adaptations, RKO sold the story to Capra’s production company in 1945. He adapted it into It’s a Wonderful Life, and recruited Jimmy Steward to play the lead role of George Bailey. The movie also starred Donna Reed as George’s wife Mary, and Henry Travers as George’s guardian angel, Clarence.
In 1945, Capra visited Seneca Falls to look for inspiration for  Bedford Falls. The real town and the fictional one share several similarities: both are mill towns, had a grassy median down the main street, had Victorian architecture, and similar toll bridges. The name Bedford Falls is a combination of Seneca Falls and a town in Westchester County, Bedford Hills. In December 2010, the “It’s a Wonderful Life” Museum opened in Seneca Falls. Every year the town hosts an “It’s a Wonderful Life” Festival, which just happens to be this weekend!
It’s a Wonderful Life was shot at RKO studios in California during a heatwave in the summer of 1946. The head of special effects for RKO created a new type of artificial snow for the movie, using water, soap flakes, foamite (the stuff found in fire extinguishers), and sugar. Before that, untoasted cornflakes were used for fake snow, but they were so loud when stepped on that dialogue often had to be redubbed afterward. The movie won just one Academy Award, in the Technical Achievement category for developing this new artificial snow.
The movie was a complete bomb when it was released. In fact, it put Capra $525,000 in the hole and caused some studios to wonder if he’d lost his ability to produce popular, financially successful movies. It didn’t become a Christmas classic until 3 decades later after its copyright lapsed, which put it into the public domain and allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees.
You may have heard that Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street were named after Bert the police officer and Ernie the cab driver in It’s a Wonderful Life. However, in a 1999 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, a writer for Sesame Street confirmed that the shared names were purely a coincidence.
Today, It’s a Wonderful Life is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. Capra revealed that it was his favorite movie he directed and that his family watched it every Christmas season. It was also one of Stewart’s favorite movies. Learn more here.