November 21, 2023 • 47 mins
A deep dive into the Wonderful Life Festival in western New York's Seneca Falls, a town that makes a powerful case that it is “the real Bedford Falls.” Annually every December, one of the last surviving people associated with the production of It's a Wonderful Life, Karolyn “Zuzu” Grimes, travels there to join thousands of fans. What about this nearly 80 year old movie keeps it so beloved? And what motivates Karolyn? We’ll learn the surprisingly pertinent answers, the story of how a Hollywood child actress turned rural everywoman – who never saw the movie until a fateful knock on her door at age 40 changed the direction of her life – found a second home and forever changed one small town. SaveGeorgeBailey.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
I think I was a kid or young teenager. I
was in a bit of an insomniac. So there was
something in Los Angeles called Movies Till Dawn occasionally It's
a Wonderful Life to come on that it was what
I wanted in this world.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It just really.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Resonated with me.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I thought it was just one of the most special things.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Ever, you know, it just it was sort of this
presence on television growing up around the holidays. I don't
recall ever really sitting down to watch it from start
to finish until the time I was doing the research
for my book, and when I did finally watch it,
it was a better film than I had imagined it
would be. It's more than a perennial classic.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
I watched it with my mom.
Speaker 6 (00:52):
I think we just decided that we had never seen it,
and we're just like, hey, we should watch this movie.
And then it actually became a tradition and we still
watch it. I'd say, for the last twenty years before Christmas,
we'll get together and watch It's Wonderful Life together.
Speaker 7 (01:09):
It just seemed like this kind of magical holiday movie,
you know, about family and a real tale, and just
I just remember as a kid, just having this very
kind of warm feeling about everything about it.
Speaker 8 (01:27):
What I Greg, where I remember because I was so riveted,
was the darkness of the movie. Like that was one
dark movie. And you know, to see a movie where
somebody is slowly beaten down by life and sees all
his dreams crushed, it was kind of a scary thought.
(01:47):
I mean, I'm not sure I intellectualized it quite to
that level as I sat there, but you know, I mean,
on the one hand, it'd be awesome to be married
to Donna Reed, There's no doubt about that. By fourtune
year old self would definitely like that rude. But the
idea of being in a small town, you know, I
wanted to travel. I wanted to do the kind of
(02:08):
things that he did, and it was scary to imagine that.
Oh hmmm, well, with a couple of bad breaks, you know,
I may not get there. This was some dark, dark
stuff going on in this movie.
Speaker 9 (02:20):
Hello Americans, It's Friday and Bedford Falls. Figured I changed
things up a little bit this morning. Good morning, everybody,
Welcome to FLX Morning Here on Fingerlake Snows Radio. Coming
up on seven oho six. Paul Small here with Greg Cotral.
Good morning, and we are not in the office today,
field trip. We're yeah, we're actually in the It's a
(02:43):
wonderful life museum in Bedford Falls. You know, it is
Seneca Falls, but this weekend it turns into Bedford Falls.
It is amazing how this town transforms this one weekend
a year. And I am very very happy now to
welcome to FLX morning, Carolyn Grimes. It is wonderful to
(03:07):
see you.
Speaker 10 (03:07):
How are you well, I'm really good.
Speaker 11 (03:09):
Thank you. I'm glad to be in Bedford Fools and back.
Speaker 9 (03:12):
For the twentieth year as well. That is an amazing accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It's my celebration.
Speaker 12 (03:19):
Do you recognize that voice. You've probably heard it again
and again, but she.
Speaker 13 (03:25):
Was a little younger then real good, I'll kid you,
or returning bar around and then Georgie t run that's right, that's.
Speaker 9 (03:38):
Ry a boy.
Speaker 11 (03:41):
Clarence.
Speaker 9 (03:44):
You must love coming back here every year, otherwise you
wouldn't be doing it for twenty years running.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I feel like this is my family.
Speaker 9 (03:50):
If you really want to know, well, well, yeah, in
a way it is because you're coming into the town
that you know. Frank Capra saw and that was the
inspiration for the movie itself.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Twenty years ago.
Speaker 11 (04:03):
I met at Kimlerman who worked on the Oprah Show,
and we became very good friends.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And then he called me and he said, til this
is the town. What are you talking about.
Speaker 11 (04:17):
We drove into the town that night and it had
started to snow and it was quiet. Sum She said, Cayron,
this is bed Ford Falls, and I just oh, it
was just overwhelmed. There was no doubt in my mind
because it was a feeling.
Speaker 14 (04:34):
It was the place.
Speaker 15 (04:37):
Buffalo Gaild.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 11 (04:39):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 7 (04:41):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 16 (04:43):
Buffalo Gild?
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 13 (04:46):
Out by?
Speaker 17 (04:49):
Oh that joy?
Speaker 9 (05:04):
Yeah, Christmas, you make me.
Speaker 17 (05:17):
George come in.
Speaker 9 (05:25):
Uncle Billy ever.
Speaker 15 (05:27):
Didn't ask me questions, just for George and trouble have.
Speaker 12 (05:29):
Tell me George, Hello, Joseph, here again the angel. It's
Christmas Eve, nineteen forty five. Welcome to the town of
Bedford Falls in New York State, a part of the
multiverse where George Bailey was born, or should I say
(05:53):
welcome back as you No doubt witness is seen before.
Speaker 17 (05:58):
George I get.
Speaker 11 (06:14):
I would not have read ahead if.
Speaker 12 (06:15):
It wasn't George in your universe? Thanks to the popular
movie adaptation of George's life, this moment is considered one
of the great happy endings.
Speaker 11 (06:27):
Quiet, everybody, Quiet, Quiet, I get this.
Speaker 8 (06:30):
It's from London.
Speaker 17 (06:31):
Oh, mister Gower Cables. You need cash.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Stop.
Speaker 11 (06:35):
My office instructed to advance you up to twenty five.
Speaker 9 (06:38):
Thousand dollars dollars.
Speaker 11 (06:39):
Heehaw and Merry Christmas, sam Way Wright.
Speaker 12 (06:47):
Of course, it's been said there's no real ending to anything,
just the place where you choose to stop telling the story.
Speaker 9 (06:55):
A toast to my big brother, George, the richest man
in town.
Speaker 12 (07:03):
Did you ever wonder what became of this place? What
came next for these people? The more the farm tell
you it's another December, not long ago, seventy seven years
(07:23):
after the events you witnessed at the end of Wonderful Life.
We are in western New York State, just over two
hundred and fifty miles away from New York City. We
descend on a spot just off the northern tip of
Cayuga Lake to its east, Seneca Lake to its west.
It's a place of farms, grain, soy, dairy, and cattle farms.
(07:48):
We reach a twenty seven square mile stretch of buildings
and streets divided by a river. Welcome to Seneca Falls.
The older houses are Victorian, like the old Grant House,
and the two story brick buildings on its main street
are reminiscent of the ones you remember George Bailey running along.
Speaker 9 (08:09):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 17 (08:12):
Mary crime brush, my goodness, sure, mar right, Christmas for home,
Mary good musing for you my Christmas, you wonderful, Billy alone.
Speaker 12 (08:29):
Saturday arrives, the biggest day of the festival. The town
is overrun with visitors thousands.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Five minutes, ladies and gentlemen, five minutes. Thanks, You're welcome.
Speaker 11 (08:41):
Should we say something about some turning off all the
new fangled pages?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yes, yep.
Speaker 12 (08:48):
Inside the Presbyterian Church, built in eighteen seventy three, Seth Kennedy,
the director, readies his cast for another performance of a
radio play adapted from One Full Life.
Speaker 16 (09:01):
I'm Maria Coleman and I'm playing Violvic. I've done this
now eight years and kind of heard about it by accident.
I always loved the film, heard that it was going on.
I'm from Auburn, so I'm just outside of Seneca Falls.
Came to auditions, started playing Violet and now here we
are eight years later.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I played Henry F.
Speaker 12 (09:20):
Potter in the early two thousands. Hollywood voted and named
Potter as American Movie's sixth greatest villain of Old Time.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
All my life, I've had a chubby baby face.
Speaker 11 (09:32):
And the thing I like about Potter is.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I finally get to be the bad guy.
Speaker 11 (09:36):
He is the original rat bastard.
Speaker 12 (09:39):
A parade lines their business main Street Fall Street, complete
with high school marching band.
Speaker 18 (09:52):
That's a really big deal too, that the city's name
has changed for the whole month.
Speaker 17 (09:56):
Yeah, I'm fifteen.
Speaker 19 (09:58):
I started with crosscou in the third grade, and I'm
a senior and girl Scout.
Speaker 10 (10:03):
So I started as a junior and I'm a senior.
Speaker 20 (10:05):
I'm gonna hold bug.
Speaker 8 (10:10):
The con capsule.
Speaker 12 (10:12):
A man dressed as Clark Griswold and another as the
Grinch seemed to challenge the supremacy of the George Bailey impressionist.
Speaker 11 (10:21):
My name, I'm the Grinch.
Speaker 12 (10:24):
A visitor to town starts a friendly argument, what the
heck are you.
Speaker 20 (10:28):
Guys doing here? This is supposed to be a George
Bailey's moment.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Thank you for coming to This is our eighth annual
Giants cinnamin bun eating contest.
Speaker 10 (10:42):
Jim one last year.
Speaker 12 (10:44):
And three years at the town's only coffee shop, Cafe
nineteen Casey leads the cinnamon role eating contest.
Speaker 18 (10:53):
So they have twelve minutes, two and a half pounds
of cinnamon bund and a half pound of frosting.
Speaker 16 (10:57):
They can't use silverwareds and.
Speaker 8 (11:02):
Everybody here the name.
Speaker 14 (11:09):
I think the very idea that small town is real America.
It's a literary invention. If you go to the census,
there's no such thing as a small town. There's cities,
the rural areas, but there's no designation as a small town.
You get this small town Norman Rockwell imagery, right. So
that invitation to come to Bedford Falls is a type
of escape from an urbanizing modernity, also an escape from
(11:30):
the horrors of World War II.
Speaker 12 (11:32):
When the Smithsonian partners with Arizona State University, they bring
in experts in many fields to try to answer the
question what does it mean to be American? As a
subset of that search, they ask why do Americans still love?
It's a wonderful life. Ryan Pohl is chosen to participate,
(11:54):
and his contribution is to call into question the small
town itself.
Speaker 14 (12:00):
What makes a place legible as a small town is
not just being independent, but economically healthy that somehow it
can weather all recessions, all depressions, it could just magically
reproduce itself. So it's this capitalist fantasy that has to
be projected. A lot of it's sort of been forgotten.
But Mark Twain's part of it of making the small
(12:22):
town or the village of this sort of American ideal,
this utopia whiteness, is that if we're going to be
a we're going to embrace modernism, it be sort of
mature in our culture and politics. Seneca Falls must fictionalize
itself to present itself with better balls. And how it
tries to project itself as a small town again to
lure tourists, and again the tragic irony is the only
(12:45):
reason of community we need to sell itself as a
small town on their websites, on brochures, is because they're
economically struggling. Those the industries which has sustained it have fled.
Their economies are collapsing, first agriculturally and then industries collapsing
being deindustrialized. So how do you market yourself for a
(13:06):
service economy? Of tourist economies. So you have real spaces
like Seneca Falls, which I think the census peer would
say is a small city trying to fictionalize itself as
a small town through investing in you know, it becomes
an aesthetics project, Right, how do we invest in our
main street to look like fictional main street? So you'd
(13:26):
have two story buildings, something that sort of nostalgically evokes
in Norman Rockwell, like maybe an ice cream shop. But
this concerted effort that we want to look like a
small town to attract tourists, to have this sort of quiet, calm,
save harmonious space that all the ills and violences of
(13:47):
the city are kept outdoors. So you have a lot
of real small towns starting to look like Walt Disney's
Main Street USA.
Speaker 12 (13:57):
This is Mike Ferrara, the supervisor of Seneca Falls, Uh,
kind of like a mayor. You'll be getting to know
him better in a future episode.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
When I was growing up, it really was not that uh,
you know, that emphasis of connection of Bedford Follows and
the wonderful life type of thing, you know what I'm saying.
So I think, uh, I think Frank Carcilla to be
honest with you had a great deal to do with uh,
you know, making this. Uh you know Seneca follows the
(14:32):
Bedford Falls, and you know obviously there's uh you know,
it's a great opportunity for the town.
Speaker 15 (14:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
You know, it's a very busy time so forth. But
and I think from there, you know, it's a festival,
and it's a you know, it's a four day event,
and it's good for business obviously. Uh, it became obviously
a tourist attraction. But once we once you start peeling
the onion back, Uh, there's a you know a great
deal of connections there type of thing.
Speaker 12 (15:06):
That's the sound of my good friend Clarence jumping off
the bridge in Bedford Falls and George Bailey jumping into
the water after him, thus preventing George from his planned suicide.
A nifty little trick on Clarence's part.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
And you if I were drawning you try to save me,
you say you did, and that's how I saved you.
Speaker 11 (15:28):
Very funny.
Speaker 21 (15:30):
The scene in the film where George jumps from the
bridge to save another. That whole thing is something that
did not enter the screenplay until after Capper's visit to
Seneca Falls.
Speaker 12 (15:45):
This is friend Carcillo, once the village planner of Seneca,
falls walking across a similar bridge that has become so
pivotal for his community.
Speaker 21 (15:56):
And we believe that whole scene was inspired by the
story that goes with the plaque on the bridge. Antonio
Vera Colli was a young Italian immigrant. On the morning
of April twelfth, nineteen seventeen, Antonio witnessed Ruth Dunham jumped
from the bridge. He hesitated only long enough to take
his coat off and went.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
In after her.
Speaker 21 (16:18):
He reached her, but the water in April is like
ice and there's a treacherous current. Antonio managed to get
her close enough to shore, where another gentleman with a
rope tied around his waist and reached them. He lifted
Ruth from Antonio's arms, saving Ruth, but sadly, Antonio, exhausted
and cold, went under. And it says here April twelfth,
(16:42):
nineteen seventeen, Antonio Veric Colli gave his life to save another.
He honored the community. The community honors him. If you
look at the bridge in its wonderful life, Capri chose
a pratt trust bridge. We think specifically because of the bridge.
Speaker 12 (17:01):
It's true that it was only weeks after director Frank
Capra's visit to New York that screenwriters Francis Goodrich and
Albert Hackett, who you'll come to know better in a
future episode, did first add Clarence jumping from the bridge
so that he would be saved by good hearted George,
much like good hearted Antonio Vercali saved Ruth. Of course,
(17:26):
it was always clear where Bedford Falls was located in
New York. Harry's new father in law owned a glass factory.
Speaker 16 (17:34):
What about this job?
Speaker 21 (17:36):
Oh well, my father owned a glass factory in Buffalo.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
Who wants to get Harry started.
Speaker 14 (17:39):
In the research business?
Speaker 18 (17:41):
Or is it a good job?
Speaker 14 (17:42):
Oh yes, very not much money, but good future, you know.
Speaker 12 (17:46):
While Sam originally considered locating his own plastics factory in Rochester.
Speaker 19 (17:52):
Rochester, Well, why Rochester?
Speaker 12 (17:55):
I happen to know that in his younger days, the
university Sam attended, eventually joined by George's kid brother Harry,
where he became a football star was Cornell in Ithaca.
Speaker 21 (18:08):
Harry, you're the law I want to see. The coach
has heard all about you, you know, Yeah, he's followed
every game, and his mouth's warring he wants me to
find out.
Speaker 12 (18:14):
If you're going to come along with it, And of
course the bank examiner was impatient to get back to
his family for that night's Christmas Eve dinner in Elmira.
Speaker 14 (18:24):
Now, if you'll cooperate, I'd like to finish with you
by the night.
Speaker 11 (18:27):
I want to spend Christmas in Elmira with my family.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I don't blame it ALLMT to Carda to step right
in here.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
We'll forture.
Speaker 12 (18:33):
For Frank Capra, it was rumored to be Auburn, where
he had family one town over from Seneca Falls, driving
up to visit in November nineteen forty five after trying
to do some casting for Wonderful Life in New York City.
Could he have made an important stop along the way?
I know the answer, but I don't want to ruin
(18:56):
the fun.
Speaker 21 (18:57):
Frank Capra, we know in New York State. In early
November of nineteen forty five, he had already acquired the
film rights, He already had his writing team assembled, and
they were working on a screenplay. He comes up gets
his haircut here in November of nineteen forty five, and
(19:18):
not too long after that, the screenplay includes the bridge scene.
My wife and I watched the movie every year. From
the very first time we watched it together, we started saying, well,
that's just like the Bridge and Seneca Falls. A lot
of the architecture downtown Seneca Falls looks similar to the
original look in the film, so we had this feeling
(19:40):
that it could be Seneca Falls. It was just a
matter of watching the movie every year, and every year
we would see a different link historically, or a certain name,
a certain place. I used to be the planner for
Seneca Falls, and one day in nineteen nine, twenty four,
(20:02):
my office was hosting an event for fourth graders. A reporter,
Craig Fox for the regional newspaper. He was covering the
event and after the kids left, he approached me and
he said, I mind if I ask you a strange question.
He said, you know the movie It's Wonderful Life. Did
you ever think that Seneca Falls? And I said, yeah,
(20:23):
we're Bedford Falls. I said, go out and talk to
other people in the community, see if they feel the
same way. And I didn't know whether they did or not.
He interviewed quite a number of people and in I
think it was the first week in December that year,
Front Page Finger Lakes Times article about Seneca Falls possibly
being an inspiration for Bedford Falls.
Speaker 12 (20:45):
The key for friend to cement his case became Seneca
Falls barber Tom Bellissima, who had long been telling friends
a story about cutting Frank Capra's hair and Capra's interest
in the story of Antonio verdical. But Tom refused for
years to speak about it to media, only finally caving
(21:06):
when Fran helped introduce him to an Italian news outlet.
It was winter nineteen forty five, the war was just over.
I opened my barbershop, put on my gown and sat down.
The first customer of the afternoon came in, carrying a
gust of cold from outside. He was a foreigner. I
(21:29):
never seen him before in these parts. He asked for
a shave, and we talked.
Speaker 22 (21:34):
As I shaved him. He expressed himself different. He said,
I'm Italian. I came and had you shaved me because
of your name.
Speaker 12 (21:45):
It's really beautiful.
Speaker 22 (21:47):
Literally, he said, because Bellissima mean beautiful. What's your name?
I asked him, Capra, Frank Capra, I remember, he says,
and I remember I told him, Bah, Frankly, I can't
say the same to you because you know his name
means god. We both laughed. We also talked about cinema,
(22:10):
but he was most interested in Seneca Falls. I told
him three quarters of the inhabitants were Italian. The first
to arrive was Charles fournosea Calabrian. He rode back to
Italy and said, I have found a corner of paradise
where you can be bred for everyone. It often snows,
(22:30):
but it is very nice here, and they come in drows.
And I told him among them was one whom all
the area honored, and he took interest in this. So
I told him the story of Antonio Varracali and how
the suicidal girl he saved below the bridge felt she
owed Antonio everything and always placed the flowers at his
(22:54):
grave and said to it, you were an angel.
Speaker 12 (22:58):
You revealed it to me, the meaning of existence.
Speaker 22 (23:02):
I started to continue. Since that day, I say to him,
but I notice he's no longer listening. He's closed his eyes.
I think he already seeing cinema. The next year, when
I saw the movie posters and the name Capra on them,
I said to everyone, I shaved him, but no one
(23:24):
believed me.
Speaker 18 (23:25):
Not back then, Hello, everybody, welcome my name is Monica
Capra Hodges, and I am thank you, well, I'll still
say it. I'm Frank Capra's granddaughter, and welcome tonight to
this preview dinner. This is a reenactment of the preview
(23:49):
dinner that my grandfather put on seventy six years ago.
Tonight actually December ninth, So yeah, pretty impressive, and I
just want to welcome you. And you know, as a
member of the Capra family, it's really lovely to see
all these people here and celebrating the message and the
(24:09):
joy that It's Wonderful Life brings to everybody every year.
Speaker 12 (24:12):
So Monica is Frank Capra's granddaughter. She's here for her
seventh Wonderful Life Festival, bringing with her for the first time,
her daughter Hannah. It will turn out to be a
special trip for them. Hannah's boyfriends soon proposes to her
during their next stop at Rockefeller Center.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
This is our the greatest trip ever.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
This is just the best trip.
Speaker 10 (24:34):
And so we were habab a really good time at
the Best Goal and hanging out with everyone and yeah,
just learning about the movie and its impact and enjoying
the Christmas spirit. And then yeah, then we got engaged,
so real chair around talk Carolyn Grimes Zuzu. She used
to live in Washington State and she was selling her
(24:55):
It's Wonderful Life signing ornaments at a thing down at
our fair grounds here in mal Vernan. It was like
this giant garage sale at the fairgrounds and she was
there and we walked by and I booked my husband
and I was like, well, so should I go say
hi to her and just like introduce myself because you
know she knew my grandpa. That's kind of cool. And
(25:17):
so he's like, yeah, you should go introduce yourself. So
I introduced myself and she did not believe me at all.
She was like no, I'm like yeah, She's like, well,
who's your dad? And she maybe go through like oh,
like who's your dad? And who's your grandpa? Where'd you
grow up and all stuff. I was like and she's like,
oh okay. And then when she finally believed me, she's like,
(25:38):
you know, there's this festival you should really come. The
first year we went, you know, they flew us there,
they put us up. I did a spiel and a
little presentation and that was it. But you know, we
went back because it's a wonderful Life Museum. It just
means the world to them to have this museum and
to have the bridge and have it, you know, maybe
have this story that Grandpa was maybe there, and they
(26:00):
really really really wanted me to verify that he had
an aunt in wherever and that he was really there,
and I couldn't because you know, we don't know it was,
you know, nineteen forty five, forty six, and we've gone
back because the people are really great. The town just
celebrates the movie and the spirit of it just so nicely,
(26:24):
and just I think that they have such good intentions
to remember the maybe and keep it going, keep the
meaning of it going, and I really appreciate that. And
so a little bit of me is like, it doesn't
really matter whether Grippa was there or not. They believed
(26:44):
that that was the bridge. It looks like the bridge
in the movie. It's obviously set in that part of
New York, so it's possible he traveled all around and
just put a whole bunch of things together and created
a fictional town.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
So let's just say why not.
Speaker 10 (26:59):
The first festival was such a I don't know, going
to it and seeing all these people that were still
talking about it's a wonderful life was pretty pretty amazing.
The first morning we were there to get up in
the morning to go have breakfast in the Little Gould Hotel,
and Carolyn's there, and Carolyn's like, come come over meet
this couple. Year they were going to get married on
(27:20):
the bridge later that day. They asked Carolyn to like
be their witness at the wedding, and she had other obligations,
so she agreed at breakfast with them. So we met them,
and then later in the day we're eating lunch and
we look out on the bridge and there they are
getting married, and we were so happy for them. Administrate
(27:42):
we saw them later then we got to know them
and they're actually are really good friends.
Speaker 12 (27:46):
Now we are back at that Truss Bridge where Monica
made new friends. There stands a line of thousands of
marathon runners dressed to the hilt in the Christmas ware.
At the starting line. Carolyn Grimes walks to the mic,
escorted by a local former police chief, and to use
(28:08):
a Zuzu Bailey's famous line to give them their goal.
Speaker 11 (28:12):
Every time of every and all get her.
Speaker 12 (28:20):
How and why Carolyn Grimes came to connect with this
town is a story with several layers where to start.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
My mom, she just had big dreams for me. When
I went to interview for Its Wonderful Life, when I
went in to see Frank.
Speaker 11 (28:37):
Capper, because he hired us personally, he hired everyone in
the film personally. He said, well, I'll show me what
what you feel like. How so would you look if
you just lost your dog that you loved so very
much when he died? How would you look when you
(28:58):
saw it? Those will my little ginger snap out of you?
Speaker 15 (29:03):
For you?
Speaker 17 (29:05):
Not a switch of hell?
Speaker 11 (29:08):
You know, because I remember when Jimmy Stewart runs up
the stairs and I come out my door and I.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Say, Daddy, Daddy.
Speaker 11 (29:16):
Capri got down on his knees and you look at
me eye level, and he said, I want you to
show me how you would feel if if your daddy left.
How would you sail when you saw him come back?
You'd be so happy. I want to see how you
do that. My dad was a manager of a Safeway store.
(29:39):
My mom she made all my clothes, She even made
my coats.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
She devoted her life more or less to me. She
started getting sick when I was eight, or after I
did the Bishop's Wife with carry Grant already young. It
ended up that she died when I was fourteen. My
dad was a George Bailey. He was absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 11 (30:04):
My dad came to me one day and he said, okay, Carolyn,
we've never a decision to make. And I said, well,
what is it, daddy, And he said, well, I've done
enough money that I can either.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Pay the house off or buy a new car.
Speaker 8 (30:24):
And so.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
My dad had a Frasier. It was the ugliest car
that ever was on the face of the earth. And
I was in high school.
Speaker 11 (30:32):
I was so embarrassed to drive up to school and
he'd let me out out of that awful, ugly thing.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
It was hideous. So you know what I'm going to
say to him, I'm going to say.
Speaker 14 (30:43):
Oh, can we have a new car?
Speaker 17 (30:46):
Isn't good enough for you?
Speaker 19 (30:48):
And so I think he wanted me to say that anyway,
because I think he wanted a new car. And in
those days, you know, you didn't buy things on credit
and pay cash. And at least he and so we
got a new car and it was a fifty six
Beauty and it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And one day he took it on a trip.
Speaker 11 (31:12):
To Palm Springs with some of his friends and it
wreched and he died in my car. So I'll never
forget that because it was my decision to get the car.
So there's a lot of things that you carry with
(31:33):
you from childhood that kind of don't go away. My
dad didn't leave a will, so the court decided to
send me to live with my mean aunt and uncle
in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
And that's how it all ended from Hollywood. My dad's
death was extremely traumatic. I had totally lost my whole lot.
Speaker 11 (31:53):
I had to start over in a town that had
nine hundred people in it, so it was like a
whole different world that I'd been hit too. I ended
up with my father's brother and his wife, and she
was a very mean person and the whole town dude,
so everybody just kind of rallied around me. It took
(32:14):
about a year for me to realize that I never
wanted to go back to Hollywood again, because these were
real people and they cared, They really cared, and they
made a big difference in my life. It's not like
that in Hollywood. It's people are shallow and it's kind
of dog eat dog, and you have to be a
(32:37):
child in the movie industry to really see that. I
think it was divine order that I'm supposed to be
involved in all this because my eighteen year old son
took his own arm and he was a senior and
he was getting ready to graduate, and he I think
(32:59):
he just scared of life. I think, you know, in reflection,
I could have done a better job and will always
feel that way. Things could have been done differently, but
I have to live with the fact that they weren't
done differently, and.
Speaker 12 (33:17):
I just.
Speaker 11 (33:19):
I feel like that's another place that I have to
offer help advias with whatever needs to be. You can
survive from a family member taking your own lives. It's
with you forever, but.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
There are ways that you can cope with it, and
one of the ways is by helping others.
Speaker 10 (33:47):
And that's one of the.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Big things that I've tried to do over the years,
is is to help others who are going through the
same situation. And people write to me all the time
and tell me their situations. When a family member or
someone they love takes their own life, then they they
(34:12):
need to have somebody to talk to, and so.
Speaker 11 (34:17):
We incorporate that in the museum because it's it's a
huge situation now.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
It's growing every year, and especially for young people, and
we just we need to try to make a difference
in that require and help these kids and anybody that's
on the bridge, because there's a lot of people that
I get letters from where they're on the bridge.
Speaker 11 (34:52):
Me mister Goward, George Bailey, Hello, George.
Speaker 9 (34:59):
Hello man so violence.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Two says worth of shoelaces. She was here first. I'm
still thinking shoelaces please, Jogy.
Speaker 11 (35:11):
I like it, you like every boy?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
What's who I'm with that.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
So one of the things is to recreate some sets
from the film.
Speaker 15 (35:19):
So when you come in to the expanded museum, you'll
be in Gower's drug store, and our gift shop will
be the display cases of Gower's drug store. So we
have things here that are just like what we're in
Gower's drug Store.
Speaker 12 (35:32):
Onnway, Law moved with her spouse Henry, from Hawaii to
Seneca Falls twenty years ago, hoping to make an impact
in human rights. The town was a catalyst for the
women's equality movement. More about that in a future episode.
Anway's move coincided with the year the town first managed
(35:53):
to get Carolyn Grimes to attend the festival. The two
connected and Carolyn eventually convinced and others to create this museum.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Why do you go on journeys in life? How do
you know? You never know what that journey's going to be.
Speaker 15 (36:09):
My husband worked with a National Park Service for over
twenty years, and we met in Hawaii, and we lived
in Hawaii a long time. Two thousand and two we
just came here, and that was the first year Carolyn
came here. I think this is a great, great movie
because it's a great message, and it's a really powerful
tool for getting people to talk about things that they
(36:33):
don't always talk about, and it brings people together. We
have people who come in here of completely different political persuasions,
but they unite because they love this movie.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
I sometimes think they.
Speaker 15 (36:44):
Had to just play it in Congress and remind them
everybody's important, every opinion is important. I think Frank kaeper
is absolutely amazing, and I think we need him.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Today and we need his words today.
Speaker 15 (36:58):
That's one reason this is here, because we need these
words and this philosophy of Frank Capra.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
So there are some movie museums.
Speaker 15 (37:06):
There's only two for a black and white film. Ones
in Vienna, the other ones here for Third Man, and
then there's movie museums in the United States, Christmas Story, Wizard.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
Of Oz Gone with the wind Obi Wan Kenobi Ranch.
Speaker 15 (37:22):
When we started the museum, we started with quotes from
Frank Capra that are about the inherent dignity and value
of each person, and so we started with that and
the story of Antonio Vercolli, the young man who lost
his life saving a woman who had jumped from the bridge,
and one display case from the Historical Society, and then
(37:44):
some things from Carolyn Grimes collection. That's how we started,
and it's just grown tremendously because everybody wants to be involved.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
This is a collective effort.
Speaker 15 (37:57):
So many people you'll see as we go around, different
people send us things. They just do that because it's
they know they're important here. It's important for people to
see and they want to be part of this.
Speaker 12 (38:07):
The Wonderful Life Museum is housed for the moment on
Fall Street, you know, the old building that looks much
like the Bailey Brothers building and loan.
Speaker 15 (38:18):
All of it's about preserving and promoting the message of
this film. Because this movie is about suicide. We're looking
at the prevention of suicide, and so we're working to
have thoughtful discussions about that.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
It's all about it's about human rights.
Speaker 15 (38:33):
I mean, this is and I think the thing you
realize with Seneca Falls is this is the perfect place
for this museum because the message of this town is
the value of each person.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
That's what women's rights is, That's what human rights is.
Speaker 15 (38:47):
Right. This is a powerful tool to help people talk
about things and to understand things and to understand you know.
I think Frank kaeper talked about how he wanted this
film to make people believe in themselves and believe in
each other again, right, And I think.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
That we need that in our country, in our world.
You know, we have to believe in ourselves. First.
Speaker 15 (39:12):
You have to be believe in yourself, which is hard
a lot of times, you know, depression, all kinds of things.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Always question yourself.
Speaker 15 (39:19):
And that's why I think people George Bailey resonates with
people because even though you talk about, oh, I've got
self confidence, there's that part of you inside that doubts yourself.
And that's where your community comes along and helps you
not doubt yourself anymore because you see what you've done.
(39:40):
People need this more now.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Than ever. That's what we see.
Speaker 15 (39:43):
I mean, that's why I think it's evolved far great
more than what we thought, you know, because people need
this movie. You know, this message of everyone having value
in this world where there's a lot of bullying and
people contemplating taking their lives and hopelessness and discouragement.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
That's what this movie helps with.
Speaker 15 (40:05):
And in twenty ten, Carolyn had been coming here for
eight years, and we felt that she needed to have
a permanent presence in Seneca Falls, and so we talked
about creating this museum, and she said, if you create
a museum about this movie, it will always be relevant
because the message will always be relevant.
Speaker 11 (40:30):
In nineteen eighty, I hadn't seen the movie, and somebody
knocked on my door and it was.
Speaker 12 (40:36):
A reporter Missouri, a middle class home December nineteen eighty.
Ronald Reagan has just won the presidential election. Opening the
door cautiously is forty year old Carolyn Grimes, who has
never seen her own movie Wonderful Life, looking at the
(40:56):
face of a stranger. She doesn't know that his knock
on the door or will begin to set her at
middle age, on a new course that will dominate the
rest of her life and save the lives of so
many others because of her.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
And he said, did you.
Speaker 11 (41:12):
Play the part of Zuzu in the movie It's a
Wonderful Life? And I said, well yes, and he said,
can I have an interview? So I said, okay, I
had an interview, and it happened again. When then it
happened again, and then I started being than bare, and
I thought, holy, what's.
Speaker 17 (41:30):
This all about?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
And I thought, well, I guess I'd better sit down
and watch this movie.
Speaker 11 (41:37):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
I realized how wonderful it was.
Speaker 11 (41:41):
And I feel bad that I didn't make it a
tradition with my kids to sit and watch that movie
every year.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
I just didn't know they were pretty well grown for
the lost part. After I noticed a movie and so
anyway I am. That's when it all started. Jimmy Stewart's
secretary got a hold of me and said, you know,
he's kind of been looking for you because some of
(42:12):
his fans were asking about it.
Speaker 11 (42:14):
Then the Target Company in nineteen ninety three decided to reunite.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
The ballet kids for Christmas, and that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 17 (42:28):
That kind.
Speaker 9 (42:43):
They get.
Speaker 12 (42:46):
To show you who care, share your.
Speaker 11 (42:52):
Love and so they had all of us in together
and had a wonderful tour. I mean, I have a
family because of this film. It was like whammo, and
that was something whoa. I mean, I'm gett slapped in
the face with this thing. So I figured, oh, there's
(43:15):
a reason for it. And I also realized that this
message after I saw the movie was immense, and this
movie seemed to have touched so many lives and made
a huge positive difference that I felt like at that time,
you know, I needed to pick up the crusade and
(43:37):
keep going with it.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I thought it was important.
Speaker 20 (43:48):
George Bailey was never born. Visit Savegeorge Bailey dot com
to join the mission. There you'll find links to works
by this episode's participants. Learn more about how to celebrate
George Bailey Day on Saturday, December ninth, and annually the
second Saturday of December hereafter by hosting your own Wonderful
Life viewing party. Tell your friends to listen to this show, subscribe, like, comment,
(44:11):
and post about it on social media hashtags Save George Bailey.
Subscribe to our Patreon to hear uncut interviews and bonus content.
Podcasts also available on YouTube iHeartMedia presents a double asterisk
iHeartMedia co production in association with True Stories created written
and directed by Joseph kurt Angfer and Rainno Vashewski. Kurt Angfer,
(44:34):
producer and supervising editor, Reno Vashlski, producer and journalist, Elizabeth Marcus, Editor,
Roy Sillings narrator, George Bailey. Theme song by Carolyn sills By,
Your Albums soundtrack composed by Zachary Walter By his Albums
and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever you
get your music. Malory Kenoi, co producer, writer's assistant, archival
(44:58):
producer and fact checker. John Autry sound engineer, additional editing,
sound design and mix. Executive producers Dave Cassidy, kurt Angfer,
Lindsay Hoffman and Bethann Mcaluso for iHeartMedia, John Duffy for
Double Asterisk, Ruth Vaka for True Stories, Reyno Voshewsky for
Double Asterisk and True Stories, Elizabeth Hankosch Associate producer, Brandon
(45:22):
Lavoy and Ryan Pennington. Consulting producers Keith Sklar, Contract Legal,
Peter Yazi Copyright and Fair Use Legal, Mattie Acres Archival
specialist ron Kaddition and Benji Michaels. Publicists Kavyasantanam and Marley Weaver.
Marketing and promotions, art and web design by Aaron Kim.
(45:43):
Interns were Kyra Gray, Emma Ramirez, Eva Stewart and Tia Wilson.
Podcast license for Philip Van Doren Stearns The Greatest Gift
provided by the Greatest Gift Corporation. Their attorney is Kevin Koloff.
Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
episode featured, in chronological order, Paul Small, Greg Catterill, Carolyn Grimes,
(46:07):
Ryan Pohl, Mike Ferrara, Fran Carcillo, Monica Capra Hodges, Hannah Ermey,
and Onway Law, with appearances by Matt Asner, John Spartalatti,
Seth Kennedy, Maria Coleman, Casey Galloway, j Max Robbins, Twila Keeler,
Wendell Jamison, the people of Seneca Falls, and the cast
(46:27):
of Wonderful Life. Actor Brian Rowan does the George Bailey
impression you hear at the Seneca Falls Festival. Greg Cotterill
offered use of their Finger Lakes Morning News segment listen
to that show on FLX local media radio and online.
The voice of Barbara tom Bellissimo was played by Martin Legrand,
paraphrased from words he said to journalist Gabrielle Romanuel, as
(46:49):
reported for Lestampa. Seneca Fall's lodging for crew provided by
Twila Keeler. If you're in Seneca Falls, visit the Wonderful
Life Museum, the Presbyterian Church Cafe nineteen, the Current Barbershop,
and the businesses on Fall Street. Go to Double Asteriskmedia
dot com to hear are other limited run podcasts, Who
(47:09):
is rich Blee After the Uprising with a Bold new
season in Saint Louis coming summer twenty twenty four and
Origins Birth of a Pandemic. And subscribe to True Stories
New Weekly. Everybody Has a podcast with Ruth and Ray.
If you are feeling like you're on the bridge, please
call the AFSP's Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing nine
(47:30):
eight eight into your phone, or contact the crisis text
line by texting seven four to one dash seven four
to one. Consider donating to our volunteering with AFSP or
your local Habitat for Humanity and make George Bailey proud
we're not affiliated with them though. Copyright twenty twenty three
Double asteriskkink
I think I was a kid or young teenager. I
was in a bit of an insomniac. So there was
something in Los Angeles called Movies Till Dawn occasionally It's
a Wonderful Life to come on that it was what
I wanted in this world.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It just really.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Resonated with me.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I thought it was just one of the most special things.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Ever, you know, it just it was sort of this
presence on television growing up around the holidays. I don't
recall ever really sitting down to watch it from start
to finish until the time I was doing the research
for my book, and when I did finally watch it,
it was a better film than I had imagined it
would be. It's more than a perennial classic.
Speaker 5 (00:50):
I watched it with my mom.
Speaker 6 (00:52):
I think we just decided that we had never seen it,
and we're just like, hey, we should watch this movie.
And then it actually became a tradition and we still
watch it. I'd say, for the last twenty years before Christmas,
we'll get together and watch It's Wonderful Life together.
Speaker 7 (01:09):
It just seemed like this kind of magical holiday movie,
you know, about family and a real tale, and just
I just remember as a kid, just having this very
kind of warm feeling about everything about it.
Speaker 8 (01:27):
What I Greg, where I remember because I was so riveted,
was the darkness of the movie. Like that was one
dark movie. And you know, to see a movie where
somebody is slowly beaten down by life and sees all
his dreams crushed, it was kind of a scary thought.
(01:47):
I mean, I'm not sure I intellectualized it quite to
that level as I sat there, but you know, I mean,
on the one hand, it'd be awesome to be married
to Donna Reed, There's no doubt about that. By fourtune
year old self would definitely like that rude. But the
idea of being in a small town, you know, I
wanted to travel. I wanted to do the kind of
(02:08):
things that he did, and it was scary to imagine that.
Oh hmmm, well, with a couple of bad breaks, you know,
I may not get there. This was some dark, dark
stuff going on in this movie.
Speaker 9 (02:20):
Hello Americans, It's Friday and Bedford Falls. Figured I changed
things up a little bit this morning. Good morning, everybody,
Welcome to FLX Morning Here on Fingerlake Snows Radio. Coming
up on seven oho six. Paul Small here with Greg Cotral.
Good morning, and we are not in the office today,
field trip. We're yeah, we're actually in the It's a
(02:43):
wonderful life museum in Bedford Falls. You know, it is
Seneca Falls, but this weekend it turns into Bedford Falls.
It is amazing how this town transforms this one weekend
a year. And I am very very happy now to
welcome to FLX morning, Carolyn Grimes. It is wonderful to
(03:07):
see you.
Speaker 10 (03:07):
How are you well, I'm really good.
Speaker 11 (03:09):
Thank you. I'm glad to be in Bedford Fools and back.
Speaker 9 (03:12):
For the twentieth year as well. That is an amazing accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It's my celebration.
Speaker 12 (03:19):
Do you recognize that voice. You've probably heard it again
and again, but she.
Speaker 13 (03:25):
Was a little younger then real good, I'll kid you,
or returning bar around and then Georgie t run that's right, that's.
Speaker 9 (03:38):
Ry a boy.
Speaker 11 (03:41):
Clarence.
Speaker 9 (03:44):
You must love coming back here every year, otherwise you
wouldn't be doing it for twenty years running.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I feel like this is my family.
Speaker 9 (03:50):
If you really want to know, well, well, yeah, in
a way it is because you're coming into the town
that you know. Frank Capra saw and that was the
inspiration for the movie itself.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Twenty years ago.
Speaker 11 (04:03):
I met at Kimlerman who worked on the Oprah Show,
and we became very good friends.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And then he called me and he said, til this
is the town. What are you talking about.
Speaker 11 (04:17):
We drove into the town that night and it had
started to snow and it was quiet. Sum She said, Cayron,
this is bed Ford Falls, and I just oh, it
was just overwhelmed. There was no doubt in my mind
because it was a feeling.
Speaker 14 (04:34):
It was the place.
Speaker 15 (04:37):
Buffalo Gaild.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 11 (04:39):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 7 (04:41):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 16 (04:43):
Buffalo Gild?
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 13 (04:46):
Out by?
Speaker 17 (04:49):
Oh that joy?
Speaker 9 (05:04):
Yeah, Christmas, you make me.
Speaker 17 (05:17):
George come in.
Speaker 9 (05:25):
Uncle Billy ever.
Speaker 15 (05:27):
Didn't ask me questions, just for George and trouble have.
Speaker 12 (05:29):
Tell me George, Hello, Joseph, here again the angel. It's
Christmas Eve, nineteen forty five. Welcome to the town of
Bedford Falls in New York State, a part of the
multiverse where George Bailey was born, or should I say
(05:53):
welcome back as you No doubt witness is seen before.
Speaker 17 (05:58):
George I get.
Speaker 11 (06:14):
I would not have read ahead if.
Speaker 12 (06:15):
It wasn't George in your universe? Thanks to the popular
movie adaptation of George's life, this moment is considered one
of the great happy endings.
Speaker 11 (06:27):
Quiet, everybody, Quiet, Quiet, I get this.
Speaker 8 (06:30):
It's from London.
Speaker 17 (06:31):
Oh, mister Gower Cables. You need cash.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Stop.
Speaker 11 (06:35):
My office instructed to advance you up to twenty five.
Speaker 9 (06:38):
Thousand dollars dollars.
Speaker 11 (06:39):
Heehaw and Merry Christmas, sam Way Wright.
Speaker 12 (06:47):
Of course, it's been said there's no real ending to anything,
just the place where you choose to stop telling the story.
Speaker 9 (06:55):
A toast to my big brother, George, the richest man
in town.
Speaker 12 (07:03):
Did you ever wonder what became of this place? What
came next for these people? The more the farm tell
you it's another December, not long ago, seventy seven years
(07:23):
after the events you witnessed at the end of Wonderful Life.
We are in western New York State, just over two
hundred and fifty miles away from New York City. We
descend on a spot just off the northern tip of
Cayuga Lake to its east, Seneca Lake to its west.
It's a place of farms, grain, soy, dairy, and cattle farms.
(07:48):
We reach a twenty seven square mile stretch of buildings
and streets divided by a river. Welcome to Seneca Falls.
The older houses are Victorian, like the old Grant House,
and the two story brick buildings on its main street
are reminiscent of the ones you remember George Bailey running along.
Speaker 9 (08:09):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 17 (08:12):
Mary crime brush, my goodness, sure, mar right, Christmas for home,
Mary good musing for you my Christmas, you wonderful, Billy alone.
Speaker 12 (08:29):
Saturday arrives, the biggest day of the festival. The town
is overrun with visitors thousands.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Five minutes, ladies and gentlemen, five minutes. Thanks, You're welcome.
Speaker 11 (08:41):
Should we say something about some turning off all the
new fangled pages?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yes, yep.
Speaker 12 (08:48):
Inside the Presbyterian Church, built in eighteen seventy three, Seth Kennedy,
the director, readies his cast for another performance of a
radio play adapted from One Full Life.
Speaker 16 (09:01):
I'm Maria Coleman and I'm playing Violvic. I've done this
now eight years and kind of heard about it by accident.
I always loved the film, heard that it was going on.
I'm from Auburn, so I'm just outside of Seneca Falls.
Came to auditions, started playing Violet and now here we
are eight years later.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I played Henry F.
Speaker 12 (09:20):
Potter in the early two thousands. Hollywood voted and named
Potter as American Movie's sixth greatest villain of Old Time.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
All my life, I've had a chubby baby face.
Speaker 11 (09:32):
And the thing I like about Potter is.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I finally get to be the bad guy.
Speaker 11 (09:36):
He is the original rat bastard.
Speaker 12 (09:39):
A parade lines their business main Street Fall Street, complete
with high school marching band.
Speaker 18 (09:52):
That's a really big deal too, that the city's name
has changed for the whole month.
Speaker 17 (09:56):
Yeah, I'm fifteen.
Speaker 19 (09:58):
I started with crosscou in the third grade, and I'm
a senior and girl Scout.
Speaker 10 (10:03):
So I started as a junior and I'm a senior.
Speaker 20 (10:05):
I'm gonna hold bug.
Speaker 8 (10:10):
The con capsule.
Speaker 12 (10:12):
A man dressed as Clark Griswold and another as the
Grinch seemed to challenge the supremacy of the George Bailey impressionist.
Speaker 11 (10:21):
My name, I'm the Grinch.
Speaker 12 (10:24):
A visitor to town starts a friendly argument, what the
heck are you.
Speaker 20 (10:28):
Guys doing here? This is supposed to be a George
Bailey's moment.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Thank you for coming to This is our eighth annual
Giants cinnamin bun eating contest.
Speaker 10 (10:42):
Jim one last year.
Speaker 12 (10:44):
And three years at the town's only coffee shop, Cafe
nineteen Casey leads the cinnamon role eating contest.
Speaker 18 (10:53):
So they have twelve minutes, two and a half pounds
of cinnamon bund and a half pound of frosting.
Speaker 16 (10:57):
They can't use silverwareds and.
Speaker 8 (11:02):
Everybody here the name.
Speaker 14 (11:09):
I think the very idea that small town is real America.
It's a literary invention. If you go to the census,
there's no such thing as a small town. There's cities,
the rural areas, but there's no designation as a small town.
You get this small town Norman Rockwell imagery, right. So
that invitation to come to Bedford Falls is a type
of escape from an urbanizing modernity, also an escape from
(11:30):
the horrors of World War II.
Speaker 12 (11:32):
When the Smithsonian partners with Arizona State University, they bring
in experts in many fields to try to answer the
question what does it mean to be American? As a
subset of that search, they ask why do Americans still love?
It's a wonderful life. Ryan Pohl is chosen to participate,
(11:54):
and his contribution is to call into question the small
town itself.
Speaker 14 (12:00):
What makes a place legible as a small town is
not just being independent, but economically healthy that somehow it
can weather all recessions, all depressions, it could just magically
reproduce itself. So it's this capitalist fantasy that has to
be projected. A lot of it's sort of been forgotten.
But Mark Twain's part of it of making the small
(12:22):
town or the village of this sort of American ideal,
this utopia whiteness, is that if we're going to be
a we're going to embrace modernism, it be sort of
mature in our culture and politics. Seneca Falls must fictionalize
itself to present itself with better balls. And how it
tries to project itself as a small town again to
lure tourists, and again the tragic irony is the only
(12:45):
reason of community we need to sell itself as a
small town on their websites, on brochures, is because they're
economically struggling. Those the industries which has sustained it have fled.
Their economies are collapsing, first agriculturally and then industries collapsing
being deindustrialized. So how do you market yourself for a
(13:06):
service economy? Of tourist economies. So you have real spaces
like Seneca Falls, which I think the census peer would
say is a small city trying to fictionalize itself as
a small town through investing in you know, it becomes
an aesthetics project, Right, how do we invest in our
main street to look like fictional main street? So you'd
(13:26):
have two story buildings, something that sort of nostalgically evokes
in Norman Rockwell, like maybe an ice cream shop. But
this concerted effort that we want to look like a
small town to attract tourists, to have this sort of quiet, calm,
save harmonious space that all the ills and violences of
(13:47):
the city are kept outdoors. So you have a lot
of real small towns starting to look like Walt Disney's
Main Street USA.
Speaker 12 (13:57):
This is Mike Ferrara, the supervisor of Seneca Falls, Uh,
kind of like a mayor. You'll be getting to know
him better in a future episode.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
When I was growing up, it really was not that uh,
you know, that emphasis of connection of Bedford Follows and
the wonderful life type of thing, you know what I'm saying.
So I think, uh, I think Frank Carcilla to be
honest with you had a great deal to do with uh,
you know, making this. Uh you know Seneca follows the
(14:32):
Bedford Falls, and you know obviously there's uh you know,
it's a great opportunity for the town.
Speaker 15 (14:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
You know, it's a very busy time so forth. But
and I think from there, you know, it's a festival,
and it's a you know, it's a four day event,
and it's good for business obviously. Uh, it became obviously
a tourist attraction. But once we once you start peeling
the onion back, Uh, there's a you know a great
deal of connections there type of thing.
Speaker 12 (15:06):
That's the sound of my good friend Clarence jumping off
the bridge in Bedford Falls and George Bailey jumping into
the water after him, thus preventing George from his planned suicide.
A nifty little trick on Clarence's part.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
And you if I were drawning you try to save me,
you say you did, and that's how I saved you.
Speaker 11 (15:28):
Very funny.
Speaker 21 (15:30):
The scene in the film where George jumps from the
bridge to save another. That whole thing is something that
did not enter the screenplay until after Capper's visit to
Seneca Falls.
Speaker 12 (15:45):
This is friend Carcillo, once the village planner of Seneca,
falls walking across a similar bridge that has become so
pivotal for his community.
Speaker 21 (15:56):
And we believe that whole scene was inspired by the
story that goes with the plaque on the bridge. Antonio
Vera Colli was a young Italian immigrant. On the morning
of April twelfth, nineteen seventeen, Antonio witnessed Ruth Dunham jumped
from the bridge. He hesitated only long enough to take
his coat off and went.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
In after her.
Speaker 21 (16:18):
He reached her, but the water in April is like
ice and there's a treacherous current. Antonio managed to get
her close enough to shore, where another gentleman with a
rope tied around his waist and reached them. He lifted
Ruth from Antonio's arms, saving Ruth, but sadly, Antonio, exhausted
and cold, went under. And it says here April twelfth,
(16:42):
nineteen seventeen, Antonio Veric Colli gave his life to save another.
He honored the community. The community honors him. If you
look at the bridge in its wonderful life, Capri chose
a pratt trust bridge. We think specifically because of the bridge.
Speaker 12 (17:01):
It's true that it was only weeks after director Frank
Capra's visit to New York that screenwriters Francis Goodrich and
Albert Hackett, who you'll come to know better in a
future episode, did first add Clarence jumping from the bridge
so that he would be saved by good hearted George,
much like good hearted Antonio Vercali saved Ruth. Of course,
(17:26):
it was always clear where Bedford Falls was located in
New York. Harry's new father in law owned a glass factory.
Speaker 16 (17:34):
What about this job?
Speaker 21 (17:36):
Oh well, my father owned a glass factory in Buffalo.
Speaker 8 (17:38):
Who wants to get Harry started.
Speaker 14 (17:39):
In the research business?
Speaker 18 (17:41):
Or is it a good job?
Speaker 14 (17:42):
Oh yes, very not much money, but good future, you know.
Speaker 12 (17:46):
While Sam originally considered locating his own plastics factory in Rochester.
Speaker 19 (17:52):
Rochester, Well, why Rochester?
Speaker 12 (17:55):
I happen to know that in his younger days, the
university Sam attended, eventually joined by George's kid brother Harry,
where he became a football star was Cornell in Ithaca.
Speaker 21 (18:08):
Harry, you're the law I want to see. The coach
has heard all about you, you know, Yeah, he's followed
every game, and his mouth's warring he wants me to
find out.
Speaker 12 (18:14):
If you're going to come along with it, And of
course the bank examiner was impatient to get back to
his family for that night's Christmas Eve dinner in Elmira.
Speaker 14 (18:24):
Now, if you'll cooperate, I'd like to finish with you
by the night.
Speaker 11 (18:27):
I want to spend Christmas in Elmira with my family.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I don't blame it ALLMT to Carda to step right
in here.
Speaker 9 (18:32):
We'll forture.
Speaker 12 (18:33):
For Frank Capra, it was rumored to be Auburn, where
he had family one town over from Seneca Falls, driving
up to visit in November nineteen forty five after trying
to do some casting for Wonderful Life in New York City.
Could he have made an important stop along the way?
I know the answer, but I don't want to ruin
(18:56):
the fun.
Speaker 21 (18:57):
Frank Capra, we know in New York State. In early
November of nineteen forty five, he had already acquired the
film rights, He already had his writing team assembled, and
they were working on a screenplay. He comes up gets
his haircut here in November of nineteen forty five, and
(19:18):
not too long after that, the screenplay includes the bridge scene.
My wife and I watched the movie every year. From
the very first time we watched it together, we started saying, well,
that's just like the Bridge and Seneca Falls. A lot
of the architecture downtown Seneca Falls looks similar to the
original look in the film, so we had this feeling
(19:40):
that it could be Seneca Falls. It was just a
matter of watching the movie every year, and every year
we would see a different link historically, or a certain name,
a certain place. I used to be the planner for
Seneca Falls, and one day in nineteen nine, twenty four,
(20:02):
my office was hosting an event for fourth graders. A reporter,
Craig Fox for the regional newspaper. He was covering the
event and after the kids left, he approached me and
he said, I mind if I ask you a strange question.
He said, you know the movie It's Wonderful Life. Did
you ever think that Seneca Falls? And I said, yeah,
(20:23):
we're Bedford Falls. I said, go out and talk to
other people in the community, see if they feel the
same way. And I didn't know whether they did or not.
He interviewed quite a number of people and in I
think it was the first week in December that year,
Front Page Finger Lakes Times article about Seneca Falls possibly
being an inspiration for Bedford Falls.
Speaker 12 (20:45):
The key for friend to cement his case became Seneca
Falls barber Tom Bellissima, who had long been telling friends
a story about cutting Frank Capra's hair and Capra's interest
in the story of Antonio verdical. But Tom refused for
years to speak about it to media, only finally caving
(21:06):
when Fran helped introduce him to an Italian news outlet.
It was winter nineteen forty five, the war was just over.
I opened my barbershop, put on my gown and sat down.
The first customer of the afternoon came in, carrying a
gust of cold from outside. He was a foreigner. I
(21:29):
never seen him before in these parts. He asked for
a shave, and we talked.
Speaker 22 (21:34):
As I shaved him. He expressed himself different. He said,
I'm Italian. I came and had you shaved me because
of your name.
Speaker 12 (21:45):
It's really beautiful.
Speaker 22 (21:47):
Literally, he said, because Bellissima mean beautiful. What's your name?
I asked him, Capra, Frank Capra, I remember, he says,
and I remember I told him, Bah, Frankly, I can't
say the same to you because you know his name
means god. We both laughed. We also talked about cinema,
(22:10):
but he was most interested in Seneca Falls. I told
him three quarters of the inhabitants were Italian. The first
to arrive was Charles fournosea Calabrian. He rode back to
Italy and said, I have found a corner of paradise
where you can be bred for everyone. It often snows,
(22:30):
but it is very nice here, and they come in drows.
And I told him among them was one whom all
the area honored, and he took interest in this. So
I told him the story of Antonio Varracali and how
the suicidal girl he saved below the bridge felt she
owed Antonio everything and always placed the flowers at his
(22:54):
grave and said to it, you were an angel.
Speaker 12 (22:58):
You revealed it to me, the meaning of existence.
Speaker 22 (23:02):
I started to continue. Since that day, I say to him,
but I notice he's no longer listening. He's closed his eyes.
I think he already seeing cinema. The next year, when
I saw the movie posters and the name Capra on them,
I said to everyone, I shaved him, but no one
(23:24):
believed me.
Speaker 18 (23:25):
Not back then, Hello, everybody, welcome my name is Monica
Capra Hodges, and I am thank you, well, I'll still
say it. I'm Frank Capra's granddaughter, and welcome tonight to
this preview dinner. This is a reenactment of the preview
(23:49):
dinner that my grandfather put on seventy six years ago.
Tonight actually December ninth, So yeah, pretty impressive, and I
just want to welcome you. And you know, as a
member of the Capra family, it's really lovely to see
all these people here and celebrating the message and the
(24:09):
joy that It's Wonderful Life brings to everybody every year.
Speaker 12 (24:12):
So Monica is Frank Capra's granddaughter. She's here for her
seventh Wonderful Life Festival, bringing with her for the first time,
her daughter Hannah. It will turn out to be a
special trip for them. Hannah's boyfriends soon proposes to her
during their next stop at Rockefeller Center.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
This is our the greatest trip ever.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
This is just the best trip.
Speaker 10 (24:34):
And so we were habab a really good time at
the Best Goal and hanging out with everyone and yeah,
just learning about the movie and its impact and enjoying
the Christmas spirit. And then yeah, then we got engaged,
so real chair around talk Carolyn Grimes Zuzu. She used
to live in Washington State and she was selling her
(24:55):
It's Wonderful Life signing ornaments at a thing down at
our fair grounds here in mal Vernan. It was like
this giant garage sale at the fairgrounds and she was
there and we walked by and I booked my husband
and I was like, well, so should I go say
hi to her and just like introduce myself because you
know she knew my grandpa. That's kind of cool. And
(25:17):
so he's like, yeah, you should go introduce yourself. So
I introduced myself and she did not believe me at all.
She was like no, I'm like yeah, She's like, well,
who's your dad? And she maybe go through like oh,
like who's your dad? And who's your grandpa? Where'd you
grow up and all stuff. I was like and she's like,
oh okay. And then when she finally believed me, she's like,
(25:38):
you know, there's this festival you should really come. The
first year we went, you know, they flew us there,
they put us up. I did a spiel and a
little presentation and that was it. But you know, we
went back because it's a wonderful Life Museum. It just
means the world to them to have this museum and
to have the bridge and have it, you know, maybe
have this story that Grandpa was maybe there, and they
(26:00):
really really really wanted me to verify that he had
an aunt in wherever and that he was really there,
and I couldn't because you know, we don't know it was,
you know, nineteen forty five, forty six, and we've gone
back because the people are really great. The town just
celebrates the movie and the spirit of it just so nicely,
(26:24):
and just I think that they have such good intentions
to remember the maybe and keep it going, keep the
meaning of it going, and I really appreciate that. And
so a little bit of me is like, it doesn't
really matter whether Grippa was there or not. They believed
(26:44):
that that was the bridge. It looks like the bridge
in the movie. It's obviously set in that part of
New York, so it's possible he traveled all around and
just put a whole bunch of things together and created
a fictional town.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
So let's just say why not.
Speaker 10 (26:59):
The first festival was such a I don't know, going
to it and seeing all these people that were still
talking about it's a wonderful life was pretty pretty amazing.
The first morning we were there to get up in
the morning to go have breakfast in the Little Gould Hotel,
and Carolyn's there, and Carolyn's like, come come over meet
this couple. Year they were going to get married on
(27:20):
the bridge later that day. They asked Carolyn to like
be their witness at the wedding, and she had other obligations,
so she agreed at breakfast with them. So we met them,
and then later in the day we're eating lunch and
we look out on the bridge and there they are
getting married, and we were so happy for them. Administrate
(27:42):
we saw them later then we got to know them
and they're actually are really good friends.
Speaker 12 (27:46):
Now we are back at that Truss Bridge where Monica
made new friends. There stands a line of thousands of
marathon runners dressed to the hilt in the Christmas ware.
At the starting line. Carolyn Grimes walks to the mic,
escorted by a local former police chief, and to use
(28:08):
a Zuzu Bailey's famous line to give them their goal.
Speaker 11 (28:12):
Every time of every and all get her.
Speaker 12 (28:20):
How and why Carolyn Grimes came to connect with this
town is a story with several layers where to start.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
My mom, she just had big dreams for me. When
I went to interview for Its Wonderful Life, when I
went in to see Frank.
Speaker 11 (28:37):
Capper, because he hired us personally, he hired everyone in
the film personally. He said, well, I'll show me what
what you feel like. How so would you look if
you just lost your dog that you loved so very
much when he died? How would you look when you
(28:58):
saw it? Those will my little ginger snap out of you?
Speaker 15 (29:03):
For you?
Speaker 17 (29:05):
Not a switch of hell?
Speaker 11 (29:08):
You know, because I remember when Jimmy Stewart runs up
the stairs and I come out my door and I.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Say, Daddy, Daddy.
Speaker 11 (29:16):
Capri got down on his knees and you look at
me eye level, and he said, I want you to
show me how you would feel if if your daddy left.
How would you sail when you saw him come back?
You'd be so happy. I want to see how you
do that. My dad was a manager of a Safeway store.
(29:39):
My mom she made all my clothes, She even made
my coats.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
She devoted her life more or less to me. She
started getting sick when I was eight, or after I
did the Bishop's Wife with carry Grant already young. It
ended up that she died when I was fourteen. My
dad was a George Bailey. He was absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 11 (30:04):
My dad came to me one day and he said, okay, Carolyn,
we've never a decision to make. And I said, well,
what is it, daddy, And he said, well, I've done
enough money that I can either.
Speaker 5 (30:19):
Pay the house off or buy a new car.
Speaker 8 (30:24):
And so.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
My dad had a Frasier. It was the ugliest car
that ever was on the face of the earth. And
I was in high school.
Speaker 11 (30:32):
I was so embarrassed to drive up to school and
he'd let me out out of that awful, ugly thing.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
It was hideous. So you know what I'm going to
say to him, I'm going to say.
Speaker 14 (30:43):
Oh, can we have a new car?
Speaker 17 (30:46):
Isn't good enough for you?
Speaker 19 (30:48):
And so I think he wanted me to say that anyway,
because I think he wanted a new car. And in
those days, you know, you didn't buy things on credit
and pay cash. And at least he and so we
got a new car and it was a fifty six
Beauty and it was beautiful.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And one day he took it on a trip.
Speaker 11 (31:12):
To Palm Springs with some of his friends and it
wreched and he died in my car. So I'll never
forget that because it was my decision to get the car.
So there's a lot of things that you carry with
(31:33):
you from childhood that kind of don't go away. My
dad didn't leave a will, so the court decided to
send me to live with my mean aunt and uncle
in Missouri.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
And that's how it all ended from Hollywood. My dad's
death was extremely traumatic. I had totally lost my whole lot.
Speaker 11 (31:53):
I had to start over in a town that had
nine hundred people in it, so it was like a
whole different world that I'd been hit too. I ended
up with my father's brother and his wife, and she
was a very mean person and the whole town dude,
so everybody just kind of rallied around me. It took
(32:14):
about a year for me to realize that I never
wanted to go back to Hollywood again, because these were
real people and they cared, They really cared, and they
made a big difference in my life. It's not like
that in Hollywood. It's people are shallow and it's kind
of dog eat dog, and you have to be a
(32:37):
child in the movie industry to really see that. I
think it was divine order that I'm supposed to be
involved in all this because my eighteen year old son
took his own arm and he was a senior and
he was getting ready to graduate, and he I think
(32:59):
he just scared of life. I think, you know, in reflection,
I could have done a better job and will always
feel that way. Things could have been done differently, but
I have to live with the fact that they weren't
done differently, and.
Speaker 12 (33:17):
I just.
Speaker 11 (33:19):
I feel like that's another place that I have to
offer help advias with whatever needs to be. You can
survive from a family member taking your own lives. It's
with you forever, but.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
There are ways that you can cope with it, and
one of the ways is by helping others.
Speaker 10 (33:47):
And that's one of the.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Big things that I've tried to do over the years,
is is to help others who are going through the
same situation. And people write to me all the time
and tell me their situations. When a family member or
someone they love takes their own life, then they they
(34:12):
need to have somebody to talk to, and so.
Speaker 11 (34:17):
We incorporate that in the museum because it's it's a
huge situation now.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
It's growing every year, and especially for young people, and
we just we need to try to make a difference
in that require and help these kids and anybody that's
on the bridge, because there's a lot of people that
I get letters from where they're on the bridge.
Speaker 11 (34:52):
Me mister Goward, George Bailey, Hello, George.
Speaker 9 (34:59):
Hello man so violence.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Two says worth of shoelaces. She was here first. I'm
still thinking shoelaces please, Jogy.
Speaker 11 (35:11):
I like it, you like every boy?
Speaker 2 (35:13):
What's who I'm with that.
Speaker 5 (35:15):
So one of the things is to recreate some sets
from the film.
Speaker 15 (35:19):
So when you come in to the expanded museum, you'll
be in Gower's drug store, and our gift shop will
be the display cases of Gower's drug store. So we
have things here that are just like what we're in
Gower's drug Store.
Speaker 12 (35:32):
Onnway, Law moved with her spouse Henry, from Hawaii to
Seneca Falls twenty years ago, hoping to make an impact
in human rights. The town was a catalyst for the
women's equality movement. More about that in a future episode.
Anway's move coincided with the year the town first managed
(35:53):
to get Carolyn Grimes to attend the festival. The two
connected and Carolyn eventually convinced and others to create this museum.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Why do you go on journeys in life? How do
you know? You never know what that journey's going to be.
Speaker 15 (36:09):
My husband worked with a National Park Service for over
twenty years, and we met in Hawaii, and we lived
in Hawaii a long time. Two thousand and two we
just came here, and that was the first year Carolyn
came here. I think this is a great, great movie
because it's a great message, and it's a really powerful
tool for getting people to talk about things that they
(36:33):
don't always talk about, and it brings people together. We
have people who come in here of completely different political persuasions,
but they unite because they love this movie.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
I sometimes think they.
Speaker 15 (36:44):
Had to just play it in Congress and remind them
everybody's important, every opinion is important. I think Frank kaeper
is absolutely amazing, and I think we need him.
Speaker 5 (36:56):
Today and we need his words today.
Speaker 15 (36:58):
That's one reason this is here, because we need these
words and this philosophy of Frank Capra.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
So there are some movie museums.
Speaker 15 (37:06):
There's only two for a black and white film. Ones
in Vienna, the other ones here for Third Man, and
then there's movie museums in the United States, Christmas Story, Wizard.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
Of Oz Gone with the wind Obi Wan Kenobi Ranch.
Speaker 15 (37:22):
When we started the museum, we started with quotes from
Frank Capra that are about the inherent dignity and value
of each person, and so we started with that and
the story of Antonio Vercolli, the young man who lost
his life saving a woman who had jumped from the bridge,
and one display case from the Historical Society, and then
(37:44):
some things from Carolyn Grimes collection. That's how we started,
and it's just grown tremendously because everybody wants to be involved.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
This is a collective effort.
Speaker 15 (37:57):
So many people you'll see as we go around, different
people send us things. They just do that because it's
they know they're important here. It's important for people to
see and they want to be part of this.
Speaker 12 (38:07):
The Wonderful Life Museum is housed for the moment on
Fall Street, you know, the old building that looks much
like the Bailey Brothers building and loan.
Speaker 15 (38:18):
All of it's about preserving and promoting the message of
this film. Because this movie is about suicide. We're looking
at the prevention of suicide, and so we're working to
have thoughtful discussions about that.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
It's all about it's about human rights.
Speaker 15 (38:33):
I mean, this is and I think the thing you
realize with Seneca Falls is this is the perfect place
for this museum because the message of this town is
the value of each person.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
That's what women's rights is, That's what human rights is.
Speaker 15 (38:47):
Right. This is a powerful tool to help people talk
about things and to understand things and to understand you know.
I think Frank kaeper talked about how he wanted this
film to make people believe in themselves and believe in
each other again, right, And I think.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
That we need that in our country, in our world.
You know, we have to believe in ourselves. First.
Speaker 15 (39:12):
You have to be believe in yourself, which is hard
a lot of times, you know, depression, all kinds of things.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Always question yourself.
Speaker 15 (39:19):
And that's why I think people George Bailey resonates with
people because even though you talk about, oh, I've got
self confidence, there's that part of you inside that doubts yourself.
And that's where your community comes along and helps you
not doubt yourself anymore because you see what you've done.
(39:40):
People need this more now.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Than ever. That's what we see.
Speaker 15 (39:43):
I mean, that's why I think it's evolved far great
more than what we thought, you know, because people need
this movie. You know, this message of everyone having value
in this world where there's a lot of bullying and
people contemplating taking their lives and hopelessness and discouragement.
Speaker 5 (40:03):
That's what this movie helps with.
Speaker 15 (40:05):
And in twenty ten, Carolyn had been coming here for
eight years, and we felt that she needed to have
a permanent presence in Seneca Falls, and so we talked
about creating this museum, and she said, if you create
a museum about this movie, it will always be relevant
because the message will always be relevant.
Speaker 11 (40:30):
In nineteen eighty, I hadn't seen the movie, and somebody
knocked on my door and it was.
Speaker 12 (40:36):
A reporter Missouri, a middle class home December nineteen eighty.
Ronald Reagan has just won the presidential election. Opening the
door cautiously is forty year old Carolyn Grimes, who has
never seen her own movie Wonderful Life, looking at the
(40:56):
face of a stranger. She doesn't know that his knock
on the door or will begin to set her at
middle age, on a new course that will dominate the
rest of her life and save the lives of so
many others because of her.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
And he said, did you.
Speaker 11 (41:12):
Play the part of Zuzu in the movie It's a
Wonderful Life? And I said, well yes, and he said,
can I have an interview? So I said, okay, I
had an interview, and it happened again. When then it
happened again, and then I started being than bare, and
I thought, holy, what's.
Speaker 17 (41:30):
This all about?
Speaker 2 (41:32):
And I thought, well, I guess I'd better sit down
and watch this movie.
Speaker 11 (41:37):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
I realized how wonderful it was.
Speaker 11 (41:41):
And I feel bad that I didn't make it a
tradition with my kids to sit and watch that movie
every year.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
I just didn't know they were pretty well grown for
the lost part. After I noticed a movie and so
anyway I am. That's when it all started. Jimmy Stewart's
secretary got a hold of me and said, you know,
he's kind of been looking for you because some of
(42:12):
his fans were asking about it.
Speaker 11 (42:14):
Then the Target Company in nineteen ninety three decided to reunite.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
The ballet kids for Christmas, and that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 17 (42:28):
That kind.
Speaker 9 (42:43):
They get.
Speaker 12 (42:46):
To show you who care, share your.
Speaker 11 (42:52):
Love and so they had all of us in together
and had a wonderful tour. I mean, I have a
family because of this film. It was like whammo, and
that was something whoa. I mean, I'm gett slapped in
the face with this thing. So I figured, oh, there's
(43:15):
a reason for it. And I also realized that this
message after I saw the movie was immense, and this
movie seemed to have touched so many lives and made
a huge positive difference that I felt like at that time,
you know, I needed to pick up the crusade and
(43:37):
keep going with it.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I thought it was important.
Speaker 20 (43:48):
George Bailey was never born. Visit Savegeorge Bailey dot com
to join the mission. There you'll find links to works
by this episode's participants. Learn more about how to celebrate
George Bailey Day on Saturday, December ninth, and annually the
second Saturday of December hereafter by hosting your own Wonderful
Life viewing party. Tell your friends to listen to this show, subscribe, like, comment,
(44:11):
and post about it on social media hashtags Save George Bailey.
Subscribe to our Patreon to hear uncut interviews and bonus content.
Podcasts also available on YouTube iHeartMedia presents a double asterisk
iHeartMedia co production in association with True Stories created written
and directed by Joseph kurt Angfer and Rainno Vashewski. Kurt Angfer,
(44:34):
producer and supervising editor, Reno Vashlski, producer and journalist, Elizabeth Marcus, Editor,
Roy Sillings narrator, George Bailey. Theme song by Carolyn sills By,
Your Albums soundtrack composed by Zachary Walter By his Albums
and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever you
get your music. Malory Kenoi, co producer, writer's assistant, archival
(44:58):
producer and fact checker. John Autry sound engineer, additional editing,
sound design and mix. Executive producers Dave Cassidy, kurt Angfer,
Lindsay Hoffman and Bethann Mcaluso for iHeartMedia, John Duffy for
Double Asterisk, Ruth Vaka for True Stories, Reyno Voshewsky for
Double Asterisk and True Stories, Elizabeth Hankosch Associate producer, Brandon
(45:22):
Lavoy and Ryan Pennington. Consulting producers Keith Sklar, Contract Legal,
Peter Yazi Copyright and Fair Use Legal, Mattie Acres Archival
specialist ron Kaddition and Benji Michaels. Publicists Kavyasantanam and Marley Weaver.
Marketing and promotions, art and web design by Aaron Kim.
(45:43):
Interns were Kyra Gray, Emma Ramirez, Eva Stewart and Tia Wilson.
Podcast license for Philip Van Doren Stearns The Greatest Gift
provided by the Greatest Gift Corporation. Their attorney is Kevin Koloff.
Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
episode featured, in chronological order, Paul Small, Greg Catterill, Carolyn Grimes,
(46:07):
Ryan Pohl, Mike Ferrara, Fran Carcillo, Monica Capra Hodges, Hannah Ermey,
and Onway Law, with appearances by Matt Asner, John Spartalatti,
Seth Kennedy, Maria Coleman, Casey Galloway, j Max Robbins, Twila Keeler,
Wendell Jamison, the people of Seneca Falls, and the cast
(46:27):
of Wonderful Life. Actor Brian Rowan does the George Bailey
impression you hear at the Seneca Falls Festival. Greg Cotterill
offered use of their Finger Lakes Morning News segment listen
to that show on FLX local media radio and online.
The voice of Barbara tom Bellissimo was played by Martin Legrand,
paraphrased from words he said to journalist Gabrielle Romanuel, as
(46:49):
reported for Lestampa. Seneca Fall's lodging for crew provided by
Twila Keeler. If you're in Seneca Falls, visit the Wonderful
Life Museum, the Presbyterian Church Cafe nineteen, the Current Barbershop,
and the businesses on Fall Street. Go to Double Asteriskmedia
dot com to hear are other limited run podcasts, Who
(47:09):
is rich Blee After the Uprising with a Bold new
season in Saint Louis coming summer twenty twenty four and
Origins Birth of a Pandemic. And subscribe to True Stories
New Weekly. Everybody Has a podcast with Ruth and Ray.
If you are feeling like you're on the bridge, please
call the AFSP's Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing nine
(47:30):
eight eight into your phone, or contact the crisis text
line by texting seven four to one dash seven four
to one. Consider donating to our volunteering with AFSP or
your local Habitat for Humanity and make George Bailey proud
we're not affiliated with them though. Copyright twenty twenty three
Double asteriskkink
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