Movie Musings: Disney and More

70 Interesting Facts about It’s a Wonderful Life: Part 2

This blog continues our tribute to the 70th anniversary of the release of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Frank Capra’s beloved holiday classic. Comment and let me know you’re favorite thing about the movie.

• The film originally started out as an short story entitled The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern.
• When RKO Radio Pictures reserved the movie rights for the story they originally wanted Cary Grant to play the role of George Bailey. When Frank Capra came on to write the script, he rewrote it especially for Jimmy Stewart.
• The film’s distributing company, RKO Radio pictures also distributed a number of Disney films from 1936 to 1954, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940). (Dickie Jones who voiced Pinocchio in Pinocchio worked with Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith,” and Destry Rides Again (1939)).
• H.B. Warner, who played Mr. Gower the druggist in “Wonderful Life,” also appeared in “Lost Horizon,” “Mr. Smith,” and several other Frank Capra films. (He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination for “Lost Horizon.”)
• Thomas Mitchell/“Uncle Billy” was a close friend of “Wonderful Life,” co-star Lionel Barrymore’s brother, John Barrymore. Both were in a Hollywood entourage of drinkers and raconteurs that included Errol Flynn, W.C. Fields, Charles MacArthur, Roland Young, and Anthony Quinn.
• Both Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed are Academy Award Winners. While Stewart was already a winner (Best Actor in “Philadelphia Story,”) by the time of “Wonderful Life,” Reed won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for From Here to Eternity (1953).
• Thomas Mitchell and Lionel Barrymore also won their Oscars prior to “Wonderful Life.”: Mitchell for “Stagecoach,” and Barrymore in the category of Best Actor for A Free Soul (1931).
• There have been two different musical adaptations of “Wonderful Life.” The first,“A Wonderful Life,” was adapted in 1987 and was performed at the University of Michigan. The second, titled “It’s a Wonderful Life: The Musical,” premiered at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, Texas in 1998 and remained the theater’s annual Christmas show for 5 years. (I had the good fortune of seeing the musical in ’02.)
• The fictional town of Bedford Falls, New York in the film was inspired by the town of Seneca Falls, New York. Seneca Falls is currently home to an “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Museum.
• When Karolyn Grimes/“Zuzu Bailey” made “Wonderful Life,” in 1946, she also filmed Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies (1946) with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby that same year. (Holiday Inn (1942), and “Blue Skies,” both featured the song “White Christmas,” before Bing Crosby made White Christmas (1954)). 
• Grimes also appeared in another beloved Holiday film the following year, The Bishop’s Wife (1947) with Cary Grant. 
• Robert J. Anderson, Karolyn Grimes’s co-star in “The Bishop’s Wife,” portrayed Little George in “Wonderful Life.”
• Before Frank Capra came on as the film’s main screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, Marc Connelly and Clifford Odets all did uncredited work on the script.
• Both Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed went on to have their own television shows, The Jimmy Stewart Show (1971-1972) and The Donna Reed Show (1958-1966). 
• Jimmy Stewart’s final acting job before permanently retiring was lending his voice to the character of Wylie Burp, the dog-sheriff in Universal’s An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), the sequel to An American Tail (1986).
• 6 years prior to “Wonderful Life,” Jimmy Stewart made The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with Margaret Sullavan. This film was remade in 1998 with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan: You’ve Got Mail.
• In the Graduation Party Scene at the beginning of the movie, the swimming pool that opens up beneath the gym floor is actually a real pool that was located at Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles.
• Jimmy Stewart was intimidated by the phone kiss scene in the film because it would be his first kiss scene since his return to Hollywood from the war. The scene was successfully shot in one unrehearsed take.
• Frank Capra predicted that “Wonderful Life,” could be filmed in a total of 90 days. He was correct and the whole cast and crew threw a party at the end of the shoot.
• A photograph of of Jimmy Stewart at the age of 6 months was donated by his parents especially for the movie. It was used in the Bailey home set.
• The set for “Wonderful Life,” was built in two months. It covered four acres of RKO’s Encino Ranch making it one of the longest sets ever for an American film.
• Mr. Potter’s wheelchair in the film is Lionel Barrymore’s real-life wheelchair. Barrymore acted from a wheelchair from 1938 throughout the rest of his career due to the effects of arthritis and a hip injury.
• In 1946, the year of release of “Wonderful Life,”’s release, RKO also released Disney’s Make Mine Music (1946).
• The husband and wife team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett co-wrote the screenplay for “Wonderful Life,” with Frank Capra. Goodrich and Hackett also wrote The Thin Man (1934), Easter Parade (1948), Father of the Bride (1950) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). In 1956, Goodrich and Hackett also won two Tony Awards as Best Authors of a Play for their script for the play The Diary of Anne Frank. They re-wrote their script for the film version of the play in 1959.
• H.B. Warner signed on to play Mr. Gower on April 4th, 1946, and Samuel S. Hinds signed on to play Peter Bailey the very next day.