Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
John Mounts filling in for JT. And this time of year,
I'm in the mood for a great Christmas movie. I
know everyone's all about die Hard and being whether or
not that's a Christmas movie, And the original Chris movie
I go back to is not die Hard. It's a
wonderful life. It is a great movie. It is a
tale I like to watch every single year. I don't
care that it's in black and white, by the way,
(00:20):
I don't I don't like the colorized version. I don't
care that it's in black and white. It's still such
a wonderful story and we're able to be joined by
and it happened such a long time ago. A lot
of the actors who were in the movie they're not
with us anymore. But we do have one who was
in the movie. We're talking with Jimmy Hawkins. Jimmy played
Tommy Bailey. He was the son of Jimmy Stewart and
(00:42):
Donna Reed in the movie. Jimmy, welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much.
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Merry Christmas to you two. And for all these years,
you've done a lot more and I don't want to
say you're defined by that role as a child, but
it definitely, I guess set your career on a trajectory
to do so much more. What was it like, I
don't know, you were pretty young. Do you remember being
around Jimmy Stewart vividly?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And that's something I've thought a great deal about, because
I remember getting up real early in the morning and
taking a bus and street cars out to Culver City
to do the movie, and I remember Frank Capra squatting
(01:30):
down talking to me and I telling me what he
wanted me to do in these different scenes that I
was in the movie. And I thought that's kind of funny,
because when I got to be seven and eight, I
did pictures out of Republic Westerns and what have you,
and I see him on television. I don't even remember
doing the film, but I so well remember doing It's
(01:52):
a Wonderful Life and talking to Frank Capra and him
explaining me sitting on Jimmy Stuart's lap and putting tints
on his head, and then he pulls me into him
and I had just so many things. Donna Reed touching
my cheek when the Jimmy Stewart's going ballistic in the
(02:13):
living room, all these different things. And in fact, then
in my new book It's Wonderful Life, the heart of it,
It's a Wonderful Life, I write about a scene that
nobody ever knew about how they did it. They just
expected Frank Capper always there. But they brought us in
one Saturday morning and we had worked on the scene
(02:35):
during the week where our daddy is yelling and going
berserk and tearing up the house. And then we got
there on a Saturday morning and the scene for they
set up, lighted and everything, and then they brought me
in and there was a different director and he took
(02:58):
the three of us kids, the boy pd that asking
how do you spell this? And then Janey Carol Coomb's
playing the piano. They went in for close ups. They
didn't do any close ups on the set. They just
did the wide angle stuff. And now they were popping
(03:18):
into the close ups and this director wasn't front. Kapra
was telling me what was happening in the scene, and
they just rolled the camera. Everything was real quiet on
the set and they just rolled the camera for ten minutes.
He would just talk to me, telling me what was happening,
and building me up for emotionals, and he did the
(03:41):
same to the other two kids. And then when we
saw the film, we saw, oh there is where that
man directed us to tell us what Jimmy Stewart was doing.
So there's a lot of things in the book that
trivia kind of thing, but the main message is that
we're all important, we all can make a difference, and
(04:04):
we all have dreams. Frank Kapepra had a dream to
come out of World War two and produce a great
movie and win Academy Awards again and show the young
filmmakers he still had it and he got to do
all that, but the film was a flop and lost
five hundred thousand dollars and he had to give up
his independent company and go back into the system, the
(04:28):
studio system, to direct and produce his movies. And he
didn't understand he was up for five oscars, didn't win any,
but that was his plan. He did the movie his way,
and he got his way and a great movie, as
everybody knows. But God had a different plan, apparently, and
(04:52):
he had to wait till certain things were in position
for God's plan to work, because in forty six there
wasn't television, and television is what made It's Wonderful Life
a hit. And somebody dropped the copyright thirty years later
and made that movie available to all those TV stations,
thousands of TV stations across the United States, and they
(05:14):
could show it for free, and they took advantage of
that and people got the opportunity to see the movie.
You know, a lot of people after World War Two
didn't have the problems they had back in seventy six
when the picture went to public domain and they got
to see that this common man and they felt they
(05:34):
were the common man too. Just go to work, come home,
and what I'm not making a difference, nobody. I'm not
doing anything, but the shows this movie showed them they
are important, they can make a difference, and they do
make a difference. And that made them feel better about
themselves that even when they didn't know they were doing something.
Just like George Bailey, he didn't think he was doing
(05:56):
anything until he got to see what life would have
been like without him. And he's in Pottersville and all
this stuff is happening and greed and he saw that
he was important, that suicide wasn't the answer, and that's
what the people saw finally that they are important. They
(06:16):
make a difference each and every day. And I took
the film to Attica Prison and those guys shared the
same kinds of stories. When I brought up, I said,
you know George Bailey, do you see that he got
a second chance And it's a wonderful life like you
guys are getting a second chance being here. And boy
hands started coming up and people started. These inmates started
(06:37):
telling us stories that and they they know that they
are important now because they remember they did something for
their grandmother, their aunt. And I did help people, I
know I did. And I'm getting a second chance here
and I'm not going to make this these mistakes ever again.
So that movie has touched so many different lives, many
(07:00):
different people's has shared stories with us, and it's wonderful
to be around, to be able to carry on Frank
Kapper's message. And he's got this Bailey kids, it's Suzu
and I or the only ones left. Janie's around, but
she has health issues. She's was there with us for
over thirty years doing personal appearances and for Target and Walgreens.
(07:23):
And we went to the Stock Exchange and I rang
the bell there and just a lot of wonderful things
from all walks of life, and people from all over.
These big wheeler dealers on Wall Street came up to us.
Oh lot he it's wonderful if oh zuzuo, Oh my god,
I mean they've been they just for great all walks
(07:44):
of life. Love. It's a wonderful life. And because it
shows everybody they are important. They can make a difference
if they want to.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Jimmy Hawkins, thank you so much for joining us this
morning on Alabama's Morning News. I will think about this
and I will look forward to reading the book about
your time making that movie and more of what's gonna
happened since then. It's a wonderful life.
John Mounts filling in for JT. And this time of year,
I'm in the mood for a great Christmas movie. I
know everyone's all about die Hard and being whether or
not that's a Christmas movie, And the original Chris movie
I go back to is not die Hard. It's a
wonderful life. It is a great movie. It is a
tale I like to watch every single year. I don't
care that it's in black and white, by the way,
(00:20):
I don't I don't like the colorized version. I don't
care that it's in black and white. It's still such
a wonderful story and we're able to be joined by
and it happened such a long time ago. A lot
of the actors who were in the movie they're not
with us anymore. But we do have one who was
in the movie. We're talking with Jimmy Hawkins. Jimmy played
Tommy Bailey. He was the son of Jimmy Stewart and
(00:42):
Donna Reed in the movie. Jimmy, welcome to our show.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate it very much.
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Merry Christmas to you two. And for all these years,
you've done a lot more and I don't want to
say you're defined by that role as a child, but
it definitely, I guess set your career on a trajectory
to do so much more. What was it like, I
don't know, you were pretty young. Do you remember being
around Jimmy Stewart vividly?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And that's something I've thought a great deal about, because
I remember getting up real early in the morning and
taking a bus and street cars out to Culver City
to do the movie, and I remember Frank Capra squatting
(01:30):
down talking to me and I telling me what he
wanted me to do in these different scenes that I
was in the movie. And I thought that's kind of funny,
because when I got to be seven and eight, I
did pictures out of Republic Westerns and what have you,
and I see him on television. I don't even remember
doing the film, but I so well remember doing It's
(01:52):
a Wonderful Life and talking to Frank Capra and him
explaining me sitting on Jimmy Stuart's lap and putting tints
on his head, and then he pulls me into him
and I had just so many things. Donna Reed touching
my cheek when the Jimmy Stewart's going ballistic in the
(02:13):
living room, all these different things. And in fact, then
in my new book It's Wonderful Life, the heart of it,
It's a Wonderful Life, I write about a scene that
nobody ever knew about how they did it. They just
expected Frank Capper always there. But they brought us in
one Saturday morning and we had worked on the scene
(02:35):
during the week where our daddy is yelling and going
berserk and tearing up the house. And then we got
there on a Saturday morning and the scene for they
set up, lighted and everything, and then they brought me
in and there was a different director and he took
(02:58):
the three of us kids, the boy pd that asking
how do you spell this? And then Janey Carol Coomb's
playing the piano. They went in for close ups. They
didn't do any close ups on the set. They just
did the wide angle stuff. And now they were popping
(03:18):
into the close ups and this director wasn't front. Kapra
was telling me what was happening in the scene, and
they just rolled the camera. Everything was real quiet on
the set and they just rolled the camera for ten minutes.
He would just talk to me, telling me what was happening,
and building me up for emotionals, and he did the
(03:41):
same to the other two kids. And then when we
saw the film, we saw, oh there is where that
man directed us to tell us what Jimmy Stewart was doing.
So there's a lot of things in the book that
trivia kind of thing, but the main message is that
we're all important, we all can make a difference, and
(04:04):
we all have dreams. Frank Kapepra had a dream to
come out of World War two and produce a great
movie and win Academy Awards again and show the young
filmmakers he still had it and he got to do
all that, but the film was a flop and lost
five hundred thousand dollars and he had to give up
his independent company and go back into the system, the
(04:28):
studio system, to direct and produce his movies. And he
didn't understand he was up for five oscars, didn't win any,
but that was his plan. He did the movie his way,
and he got his way and a great movie, as
everybody knows. But God had a different plan, apparently, and
(04:52):
he had to wait till certain things were in position
for God's plan to work, because in forty six there
wasn't television, and television is what made It's Wonderful Life
a hit. And somebody dropped the copyright thirty years later
and made that movie available to all those TV stations,
thousands of TV stations across the United States, and they
(05:14):
could show it for free, and they took advantage of
that and people got the opportunity to see the movie.
You know, a lot of people after World War Two
didn't have the problems they had back in seventy six
when the picture went to public domain and they got
to see that this common man and they felt they
(05:34):
were the common man too. Just go to work, come home,
and what I'm not making a difference, nobody. I'm not
doing anything, but the shows this movie showed them they
are important, they can make a difference, and they do
make a difference. And that made them feel better about
themselves that even when they didn't know they were doing something.
Just like George Bailey, he didn't think he was doing
(05:56):
anything until he got to see what life would have
been like without him. And he's in Pottersville and all
this stuff is happening and greed and he saw that
he was important, that suicide wasn't the answer, and that's
what the people saw finally that they are important. They
(06:16):
make a difference each and every day. And I took
the film to Attica Prison and those guys shared the
same kinds of stories. When I brought up, I said,
you know George Bailey, do you see that he got
a second chance And it's a wonderful life like you
guys are getting a second chance being here. And boy
hands started coming up and people started. These inmates started
(06:37):
telling us stories that and they they know that they
are important now because they remember they did something for
their grandmother, their aunt. And I did help people, I
know I did. And I'm getting a second chance here
and I'm not going to make this these mistakes ever again.
So that movie has touched so many different lives, many
(07:00):
different people's has shared stories with us, and it's wonderful
to be around, to be able to carry on Frank
Kapper's message. And he's got this Bailey kids, it's Suzu
and I or the only ones left. Janie's around, but
she has health issues. She's was there with us for
over thirty years doing personal appearances and for Target and Walgreens.
(07:23):
And we went to the Stock Exchange and I rang
the bell there and just a lot of wonderful things
from all walks of life, and people from all over.
These big wheeler dealers on Wall Street came up to us.
Oh lot he it's wonderful if oh zuzuo, Oh my god,
I mean they've been they just for great all walks
(07:44):
of life. Love. It's a wonderful life. And because it
shows everybody they are important. They can make a difference
if they want to.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Jimmy Hawkins, thank you so much for joining us this
morning on Alabama's Morning News. I will think about this
and I will look forward to reading the book about
your time making that movie and more of what's gonna
happened since then. It's a wonderful life.
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