16 AMERICAN BLUES THEATER It started out in a Christmas card The film is based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern, a writer and historian who was moved to write after having a dream based on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. He called it “The Greatest Gift”, and the plot follows a very similar path to that of the movie “It's a Wonderful Life”. It took him four years to write 4,000 words, and when he finally finished, in 1943, he struggled to find a publisher. Instead, Stern printed 200 copies himself and sent them to friends as a Christmas card that December. One of them fell into the hands of David Hempstead, a film producer, who showed it to Cary Grant. Grant fancied himself in the lead role, and Hempstead's production company bought the film rights in April 1944. But this overnight success wasn't to last: “The Greatest Gift” proved too troublesome to turn into a successful screenplay, despite the efforts of several writers. In 1945, Capra's company, Liberty Films, snapped up the rights for $10,000, and Capra worked his magic – changing its name to “It's a Wonderful Life” in the process. Capra never thought of it as a Christmas film Main character George Bailey may have decided to end it all on Christmas Eve, but Capra always thought of the film in broader terms than that. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in 1984, the director said: "I didn't even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea." It didn't do well at the box office In fact, it was somewhat of a Christmas turkey. Although some critics were warm in reviews, the film made a loss of $525,000. Although it's interesting to note it did better in the box office charts than “Miracle on 34th Street”. “It's a Wonderful Life” gained better recognition at the Oscars (producers had budged its release date from January 1947 to December 1946 to make it eligible for the race), earning five nominations. But it was snubbed at each turn, missing out to “The Best Years of our Lives” in four of the five categories. But it thrived on television “It's a Wonderful Life” was considered such a flop by the studio that they let its copyright lapse. This meant that, by the 1970s, there was a festive Frank Capra film available for networks to screen for free – as much of a godsend during the Christmas break for television programmers as Clarence Oddbody was for George Bailey. And “It's a Wonderful Life” was duly screened. As film historian Leonard Maltin recalled to Vanity Fair: “I remember one Christmas Eve when it was in the public domain, my wife and I played TV roulette with it. We literally kept changing channels and came upon it in different stage of its progress. And you can’t not watch. You can’t turn it off.” It took ZuZu three decades to see it Karolyn Grimes, otherwise known as ZuZu, the ringletted youngest daughter in the Bailey Family, didn't first watch the film until 1979 – 34 years after she delivered that final, heartstring-pulling line ("every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings"). However, she has now seen it more than 500 times. In fact, the former child star only became aware of her fame when journalists started door-stepping her for interviews once the film started being shown incessantly on television. Since the mid-Nineties she has made a living appearing at film screenings, writing an “It's a Wonderful Life” cookbook and selling memorabilia. Capra burned bridges making the film “It's a Wonderful Life” may have imbued the feeling of goodwill and positivity into the hearts of millions, but Capra didn't instill much in those he was making the film with. First up, screenwriter husband-and-wife duo Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett found out that Capra had asked Jo Swirling, another screenwriter, to re-write their pages without their knowledge – a move that is against the Screen Writers Guild. 12 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT “IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE” A behind-the-scenes photo of Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart rehearsing before filming the dance scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)