10 Things You May Not Have Known About Its A Wonderful Life

Almost everyone can relate to George Bailey, Frank Capra’s everyman hero in what is arguably the greatest Christmas movie of all time… It’s A Wonderful Life. Part of my family’s holiday tradition is to watch this movie every year, so recently I watched this movie again – twice – just marveled about how timeless the message of this movie is. George doesn’t see the value of all he’s done though his life touches and affects practically everyone in the town. And while Clarence’s magic doesn’t erase George’s problems or regrets, it does remind him that he’s had a wonderful life. When there’s life, there’s hope. It’s a pretty good message for the holidays. Heck, it’s a pretty good message any time of the year.

So…with apologies to David Letterman,

Here are the top ten things you may not have not known about It’s A Wonderful Life.

1. Unlike poor George Bailey, whose deaf ear made him 4F, Jimmy Stewart served honorably in World War II, enlisting in the Army in 1941 and training in the United States Army Air Corps. By this time he had already appeared in 28 films and had won an Oscar for his performance in The Philadelphia Story. Before the war ended, Mr. Stewart had risen from the rank of private to colonel in only four years and he twice received the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre and received the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters. After the war, he continued to be active in the United States Air Force Reserve, eventually achieving the rank of Brigadier General in 1959, and finally retired after 27 years of service in 1968.

2. It’s A Wonderful Life was Stewart’s first movie upon his return from the war, and he had his doubts. He actually had to be convinced by Lionel Barrymore, the actor who played Mr. Potter. In an interview with Jimmy Hawkins (who played Tommy Bailey, the one who tugs on George’s jacket saying “S’cuse me!”) he says:

“I wasn’t sure if doing movies and acting were important enough, coming out of the war and all. Maybe Barrymore sensed something. He really helped lift my spirits…. I asked him if acting was decent. Barrymore brought me to reality when he said, ‘Is it more decent to drop a bomb on people or bring a ray of sunshine to them through your acting?’ He was right!”

3. Speaking of Lionel Barrymore, he was a veteran actor who appeared in more than 250 films and even had a Best Actor Oscar to his credit for 1930’s A Free Soul. His severe arthritis made acting possible only if he were on crutches or sitting down. Thus Mr. Potter’s character used a wheelchair. Mr. Barrymore was the uncle to John Drew Barrymore and the great uncle to actress Drew Barrymore.

4. The actor Henry Travers, who played Clarence Oddbody, AS2 (Angel second class) was also considered by director Frank Capra for other roles in It’s A Wonderful Life, including Peter Bailey (George’s father), Uncle Billy, and Old Man Gower, the pharmacist. The movie that appears on the Bedford Falls marquee, The Bells of St. Mary’s, was in reality a film released in December 1945 that won many Academy Awards and is also considered a classic Christmas movie. Henry Travers – old Clarence himself – starred in that movie too.

5. Freddie Othello, the young man talking to Mary Hatch at the high school dance when George spots her, later gets his revenge on George by opening the gymnasium floor underneath George and Mary. This small part in the movie was played by actor Carl Switzer, best known as Alfalfa from The Little Rascals.

6. That gym floor was pretty high-tech for 1946, the year Wonderful Life was released, but it was real. Called a “swim gym” it was located at Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles and is still in use today.

7. Beulah Bondi, who played Ma Bailey, portrayed Jimmy Stewart’s mother five times in her career. Besides Wonderful Life, the others are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts, Vivacious Lady and once on his television series, “The Jimmy Stewart Show.”

8. This was the first and last movie that Frank Capra produced, directed, co-wrote and financed. Costing $3.7 million dollars to make, it was considered a box-office failure, earning only $3.3 million dollars. In 1947 Capra sold Liberty Films, the production company behind Wonderful Life, to Paramount Pictures for nearly one million dollars. In signing this contract, Capra gave up any financial stake in the movie forever. The film was re-released to theaters in the 1950’s and eventually acquired by another distribution company, but television made this movie a classic. In the 1970’s its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain. All of a sudden, TV stations could air it for free, thus reintroducing the movie to a whole new generation with nearly constant rotation during the Christmas season. Republic Pictures restored its copyright claim to the movie in 1993, with Paramount Pictures acquiring the distribution rights. Thus, when it airs on TV nowadays, it can only be shown on the NBC network.

9. For Donna Reed, who played Mary Hatch, this was her first starring role. Although only 25 at the time, in the movie she has to age from 18 to 40. In the scene where Mary throws a rock at the window of the old Granville House, a marksman was hired to shoot out the window for Reed on cue. However, it is rumored that Reed, an Iowa farm girl, broke the window without assistance. You be the judge next time you watch it. One story that is definitely true is that during filming, Lionel Barrymore bet her $50 that she couldn’t milk a cow. Capra ordered a cow onto the soundstage and sure enough, Reed milked it, saying it was “the easiest 50 bucks I ever made.”

10. The picture earned five major Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jimmy Stewart), Best Director (Capra), Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing, but came up short in each category. (It was eclipsed by William Wyler’s award-winning The Best Years of our Lives). However, it did earn one Oscar… for it’s pioneering breakthroughs in artificial snow.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

-Dr. Steve

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