Movie Monday: It's a Wonderful Life

Movie Monday: It’s a Wonderful Life

I would hazard a guess that even folks who don’t tend to watch “old movies,” films from the 1930s and 1940s, have seen Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It generally airs at Christmastime, but I watch it all year and cry every time the bell rings, even after all these years. The movie is based on a short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern who couldn’t find a publishers, so sent printed copies to his friends as a Christmas card in 1943.

Here are some fun facts you may not know:

When RKO had the rights to the movie, and before Capra came on board, studio executives saw It’s A Wonderful Life wanted superstar Cary Grant for the role of George Bailey. Henry Fonda was also considered, but Capra always wanted Jimmy Stewart. I’m with Capra!

Donna Reed plays Mary Hatch-Bailey, George’s wife. For the scene where George and Mary each throw a stone through the windows of an abandoned house, Capra had an ace marksman lined up to shoot out the window on cue. But Donna Reed who had played baseball in high school, nailed it the first time.

Beulah Bondi, who plays George’s mother, played Jimmy Stewart’s mother five times on screen. Jimmy used to call her, “Mom” right up until her death in 1981.

During the scene where Uncle Billy leaves the Bailey home and goes off camera, it sounds like he

stumbles into some trash cans. What actually happened was accidental: a crew member dropped a tray of props. Actor Thomas Mitchell, who played Billy ad libs by shouting, “I’m alright! I’m aaaaaalright!” Capra used this take in the final cut and gave the crew member who dropped the props a $10 bonus for improving the sound. And Jimmy Stewart, who’s still on-screen looking off-camera, smiles when Mitchell improvises the line.

The name of George’s daughter is Zuzu, and she’s played by Karolyn Grimes. Zuzu is named after a brand of biscuits that were popular in the US in the 40s, which is why George says, “Zuzu! My little ginger snap,” when he sees her.

Before It’s a Wonderful Life was made, snow on film was made with painted cornflakes. Because of the noise created by the flakes, dialogue had to be dubbed in later. Capra wanted to record the sound live so, instead, the RKO effects team came up with a new effect using soap, water, and foamite (the substance you find in fire extinguishers) and won a special Oscar for their innovation.

The high school dance sequence was filmed at Beverly Hills High School and it’s still there, and used by students, to this day. And the retractable floor was also used in a rom-com called Whatever It Takes in 2000, in a very similar scene.

The FBI flagged the film as "communist" in 1947 in a memo: “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.”

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

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A Lesson in Love (Strength of His Heart Anthology):

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Purchase link: https://amzn.to/4iaKzBc

Seneca Falls: Women’s Suffrage Meets It’s a Wonderful Life

Seneca Falls: 

Women's Suffrage Meets It's a Wonderful Life

Pixabay/Tommy

Located approximately an hour’s drive from Buffalo, the town of Seneca Falls, New York is in the northern part of the Finger Lakes Region. Lake Ontario is a forty-five-minute drive north. First populated by the Cayuga tribe, the Native American villages were decimated during the Revolutionary War. Upon the conclusion of the conflict, the region became part of a tract reserved for veterans. By 1818, a canal was completed that allowed transport between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake. Ten years later, the canal would be connected to the Erie Canal.

The Bayard Land Company held all the real estate on both sides of the Seneca River, but did minimal development, concerned that multiple mills couldn’t be supported (despite reports that the force of the falls could handle approximately one hundred and fifty millstones.) By 1825, the company was in financial straits, so the tract was divided and sold. The now-accessible water power was snapped up, and mills and factories sprang up. Within six years, five sawmills, five flour mills, two textile factories, and three tin and sheet-iron plants dotted the landscape.

In 1831, Seneca Falls was incorporated as a village with Ansel Bascom elected as the first mayor. Bascom would eventually become a congressman for the district with anti-slavery measures being his focus. With the completion of the Rochester-Auburn railroad system in 1841, the town could now reach world markets for its locally produced goods. The trains also brought an influx of settlers, many of whom were proponents of women’s rights and the abolition of slavery, with the town becoming a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Thus, it is unsurprising that in July of 1848 the town became the site of the first meeting to be held for

the strict purpose of discussing “social, civil, and religious conditions and the rights of women.” Considered by most scholars to be the birthplace of the fight for women’s rights, the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention was attended by over three hundred people. Speakers included such luminaries in the cause as Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Frederick Douglass, and “A Declaration of Sentiments” was adopted. Seneca Falls is now home to the National Women’s Hall of Fame built in 1969.

Today, more than one hundred years later, Seneca Falls celebrates its claim to be the inspiration for Frank Capra’s film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” An annual festival is held the second week in December, with dozens of activities each day. This year’s guests included actress Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu Bailey), Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy Bailey), Donald and Ronald Collins (Young Pete), and Michael Chapin (Young George’s Friend). Also on hand were Donna Reed’s daughter Mary Owens and Frank Capra’s granddaughter Monica Capra Hodges.

Courtesy IAWL Museum

Open year-round, Seneca Falls It’s a Wonderful Life Museum opened December 10, 2010 with one display case and a wall of quotes from Frank Capra. Since then, a wide range of items have been added such as call sheets, an original program from the film’s premiere at New York’s Globe Theater, and earrings owned and worn by Gloria Graham as Violet Bick. Handprints of Jimmy Stewart, Karolyn Grimes, Carol Coombs, Jimmy Hawkins, and Jeanine Roose are also on display, along with many pieces from the personal collections of some of the actors. Funds are now being raised to expand the museum. (https://www.wonderfullifemuseum.com/) 

A visit to this intriguing town is now on my bucket list. Have you heard of this tiny hamlet?

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Maeve’s Pledge – available soon for preorder

Pledges can’t be broken, can they?

Finally out from under her father’s tyrannical thumb, Maeve Wycliffe can live life on her terms. So what if everyone sees her as a spinster to be pitied. She’ll funnel her energies into what matters most: helping the less fortunate and getting women the right to vote. When she’s forced to team up with the local newspaper editor to further the cause, will her pledge to remain single get cropped?

Widower Gus Deighton sees no reason to tempt fate that he can find happiness a second time around. Well past his prime, who would want him anyway? He’ll continue to run his newspaper and cover Philadelphia’s upcoming centennial celebration. But when the local women’s suffrage group agrees that the wealthy, attractive, and very single Maeve act as their liaison, he finds it difficult to remain objective.