For my husband, part of October and much of November were filled with rehearsals for a radio play version of It’s A Wonderful Life with the local community theater group.
The play is like a play within a play. The characters are all supposed to be radio stars from the days when radio was big who are performing a play for their listeners. This helps the local actors because they can read from the script instead of memorizing lines (which is more time consuming for people who are also working full time) and it also is fun because the viewer gets to imagine what it was like to record radio specials back in the day.
Last summer The Husband (my blog nickname for my husband, who has a real name that most people in my area know since he is the editor of the local newspaper), performed in The War of the Worlds, another radio play, and had a lot of fun.
That play was his first time really acting and he had a smaller part. This time around he had to do voices for 13 different characters with the main ones being – the angel Joseph, Uncle Billy, and Mr. Potter. At one point he even had to talk to himself, changing voices back and forth.
He knocked every character he played out of the park, and I am not just saying that because I am his wife. He really did an amazing job and I’m so happy because I know how hard he worked trying to figure out how he would perform each voice. I’m also proud of him because he isn’t someone who usually puts himself out there in a creative way. For the most part he is like me – an introvert except when working for the paper when it is like we are playing the part of an extrovert.
The play had a cast of eight people all doing a few characters each, except for the woman who was performing the sound effects.
My parents, the kids and I went to the Sunday afternoon showing, and really enjoyed it.
I got teary-eyed more than once. The young man playing George Bailey’s character was fantastic and even sounded like Jimmy Stewart.
I’m sure almost everyone reading this post is familiar with the story of It’s A Wonderful Life. A quick summary: George Bailey always does everything right and for everyone else but every time he thinks he’s going to be able to pursue his own goals in life, something knocks him back – whether it be the sudden death of his father or a run on the building and loan company he ends up running after his father dies.
Before long all the hard luck really beats him down and he contemplates suicide. That plan is stopped by an angel named Clarence who then leads George down a path of seeing what the lives of everyone around him would be like if he wasn’t there anymore.
The movie is based on a short story written in 1939 by Philip Van Doren Stern, a well-respected author from the 1930s, 40s and 50s who was best known for books he wrote about The Civil War. According to the site Unremembered History, Stern tried to sell the short story but no one would pick it up so he printed up 200 Christmas card books and mailed them to friends and family.
“The card book and story somehow caught the attention of RKO Pictures producer David Hempstead who showed it to actor Cary Grant’s agent,” the site states. “In April 1944, RKO bought the rights but failed to create a satisfactory script. Grant went on to make another Christmas movie “The Bishop’s Wife.’ However, another acclaimed Hollywood heavyweight, Frank Capra, who already had three Best Directing Oscars to his name, liked the idea. RKO was happy to unload the rights.
“The story itself is slight, in the sense, it’s short,” Capri said referring to Stern’s book. “But not slight in content.”
A lot was added to the movie to flesh it out, of course, but the basis for it all was the story.
It turns out that Stern was born in Wyalusing, Pa., which is the town I went to high school in and where my husband works at the paper.
The Husband’s boss, the publisher of the newspaper, published a column this past week about that connection.
According to him, it isn’t clear when Stern’s family moved from Wyalusing but it was confirmed through his daughter a few years ago when the paper contacted her, that he was born in the tiny town along the banks of the Susquehanna. So, it’s possible his connection to the small town may have given him some inspiration for the short story, which was called The Greatest Gift.
Stern’s father was a traveling salesman who came from Virgina to Wyalusing with his family. How he ended up in Wyalusing, since his wife was from New Jersey and there was no known connection to any other families in the town, is unknown.
According to local writer and actor Wes Skillings, Stern was born in Wyalusing because his family was renting a house there after his mother worked as a nurse for many years in Philadelphia. Skillings suggests in the information that was printed in the play program that Stern’s mother may have cared for patients who were originally from Wyalusing and formed a bond with the area. Wanting her son to be born somewhere safe and among people she knew, they moved to Wyalusing while she was pregnant.
Sometime after Stern was born, though, the family moved to New Jersey.
Wyalusing is a very small town with a population of 610 people.
If you blink driving through town, you will completely miss the business district. The town’s main attraction is an overlook just outside its border, which provides an amazing view of the Susquehanna River and a place known locally as French Azilum.
The site was meant to be the new home for French Queen Marie Antoinette. She was killed before she could arrive there, but her servants and other noblemen fleeing the guillotine helped settle the area by founding a village of about 250 people. Many returned to France 10 years later after Napoleon Bonaparte granted repatriation rights to those who had fled to escape persecution. Some stayed and settled the area.
There is no evidence that Bedford Falls, the name of the town in The Greatest Gift and It’s A Wonderful Life is based on Wyalusing. The movie version of Bedford Falls is actually modeled after Seneca Falls, N.Y. which is in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. Director Frank Capra drove through Seneca Falls on his way back from New York City while coping out shooting locations for the movie.
But, as Skillings wrote, “Bedford Falls may not be Wyalusing, but without Wyalusing there would be no Bedford Falls.”
I wasn’t a fan of It’s A Wonderful Life when I was younger. I had seen several parodies of the movie and figured it was cliché, sappy, and silly. Several years ago, I watched it all the way through and realized it was much more than a simple Christmas movie. There are so many brilliant, emotional, profound scenes in it.
There are the fun scenes – George and Mary so involved in dancing that they don’t notice the gym floor has opened and they are about to fall into the swimming pool. The scene where Mary tries to run away from George, who is about to kiss her, and finds out he’s standing on her robe and now she has to hide in a prickly rose bush with no clothes on.
Then there is the scene where George tells Mary he doesn’t want to stay in Bedford Falls. He’s going to leave and there is nothing she can do about it. In the next few seconds, though, he’s kissing her and they are crying and we all know George isn’t going anywhere.
That scene was made even more emotional by the fact this was Jimmy Stewart’s first movie since returning from World War II and his emotions were raw, right at the surface. His emotional state is on display again when he’s sitting in the bar late in the move after a number of setbacks and he breaks down, asking God for help.
Jimmy wasn’t supposed to break down that way, but he did so organically – still shattered by all he’d seen during the war.
There are many messages in this story written so long ago. First there is a message about facing life’s disappointments with a healthy dose of gratitude mixed in. Life won’t always go the way we want it to. We need to be grateful for what is right in our life.
Another lesson is that tragedy and heartache will strike but what ultimately matters is the people we surround ourselves with. We may not have all the material items, wealth, or prestige we want, but what we do have — the love of our family and friends — is much more important.
At its core, though, is another, poignant message in the movie about our worth, value, and importance to the people around us.
We may feel small and insignificant, like a failure, or invisible, but the lack of our presence can create a monumental, life-changing ripple effect for those we love, beyond what we can imagine.
There are circumstances beyond our control that could remove us from the lives of our loved ones, but if the situation is in our control the best thing we can do is recognize that our worth is not dependent on our success or the opinion of others but on the love others have for us. The love that God has for us.
No matter what circumstance or location inspired The Greatest Gift, Stern’s message lives on through our choice to embrace the belief that he had – that each life is worthy, that serving others is what makes life rich, and that how much love we have will always mean more than how much money we have.
*This post is also part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas Link Up for 2024. If you have a Christmas/holiday post you would like to share you can find the link HERE or at the top of the page here on my blog.
