109 Fun Facts About It's a Wonderful Life

Which actor plays George Bailey?

James Stewart had just come home from wartime service, and he agreed to play George before Capra had managed to sell him on the story.

What is the name of the guardian angel sent to save George Bailey?

Clarence Odbody saves him by jumping into the river first: he knew George would dive in to rescue a drowning stranger instead of ending his own life.

According to George Bailey's youngest daughter, what happens every time a bell rings?

An angel gets his wings, she says, as a bell on the family Christmas tree rings: the sign that George's guardian angel has finally earned his.

In which fictional New York town is It's a Wonderful Life set?

Bedford Falls is the town George Bailey spends his life trying to leave: college, a world tour and even his honeymoon all fall through when the family firm needs him.

In the world where George Bailey was never born, what is his hometown called?

Pottersville takes its name from the man who now owns everything in it, and its main street has turned to bars, pool halls and pawnshops.

Which actor plays Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life?

Lionel Barrymore could no longer walk unaided by 1946, so the film's villain runs the town from a wheelchair pushed by a silent attendant.

Which actress plays Mary Hatch Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life?

Donna Reed, borrowed from MGM, got the part only after Capra's first choice for Mary proved unavailable.

What is Mr. Gower's job in It's a Wonderful Life?

Pharmacist. Mr. Gower gives young George his after-school job at the soda fountain, and years later picks out a suitcase himself as a present for the trip George never takes.

How much of the Building and Loan's cash does Uncle Billy lose on Christmas Eve?

$8,000 is the sum that vanishes, enough to mean scandal and prison for George; by nightfall the townspeople have filled a basket with more than enough to save him.

How does Uncle Billy lose the Building and Loan's cash?

He wraps it inside Potter's newspaper while gloating over a front-page story about his war-hero nephew; Potter finds the envelope, says nothing and keeps it.

George's brother Harry receives the Medal of Honor for what wartime act?

Stopping a kamikaze attack on a troopship: Navy flier Harry shoots down two planes about to hit a transport full of soldiers, men who all die in the world where George never saved him.

What lasting injury does young George Bailey suffer after pulling his brother from a frozen pond?

Deafness in his left ear, from an infection after the icy rescue; it later gets him classed 4-F, so he sits out the war at home as an air-raid warden.

Which short story by Philip Van Doren Stern is It's a Wonderful Life based on?

The Greatest Gift found no publisher, so Stern printed it himself and mailed it to friends as a Christmas card in 1943; one copy found its way to a Hollywood studio.

On their walk home from the dance, what does George Bailey offer to lasso for Mary?

The moon. Mary later sets out a picture captioned 'George Lassos the Moon' when he comes to call, and it hangs on their bedroom wall once they are married.

RKO first bought the story behind It's a Wonderful Life as a vehicle for which star?

Cary Grant never got to play George: RKO shelved the project after several failed scripts, and he made another Christmas favourite, The Bishop's Wife, instead.

Which book does the angel leave George, inscribed 'Remember, no man is a failure who has friends'?

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the book the angel carries down from Heaven and hangs up to dry after the river rescue; he leaves it on the pile of donated cash.

In the world where George Bailey was never born, what job does Mary have?

Librarian. Without George, Mary never marries; he finds her locking up the town library, and she screams when this stranger insists he is her husband.

Before It's a Wonderful Life, movie snow was usually made from which cereal, too noisy for live sound?

Cornflakes, painted white, crunched so loudly that dialogue had to be dubbed later, so RKO's effects team mixed a quiet foam snow for Capra and won an Academy technical award for it.

Which song does the crowd in the Baileys' living room sing as It's a Wonderful Life ends?

Auld Lang Syne. The townspeople strike it up right after Harry arrives through the snow and raises a toast to his big brother, moments before the bell on the tree rings.

After its copyright lapsed in 1974, what turned It's a Wonderful Life into a Christmas classic?

Repeated TV broadcasts. Stations took the film to be free to show, and so many ran it each December that a box-office disappointment became a holiday fixture.

Which film beat It's a Wonderful Life to the top prize at the 1947 Oscars?

The Best Years of Our Lives swept the night, and its director, William Wyler, was a co-founder of the company that made Capra's film: Capra lost to his own business partner.

Which US network bought exclusive TV rights in 1994 and airs the film every Christmas Eve?

For a while in the late 1990s the network also ran it on Thanksgiving, but ratings were poor and the National Dog Show took the slot.

Which upstate New York town says it inspired the film's setting and holds an It's a Wonderful Life festival?

Seneca Falls fills every December with events built on the claim, yet the town seen on screen was a four-acre set with a 300-yard main street, built in California.

A 1947 FBI memo called It's a Wonderful Life a possible Communist trick for trying to discredit which group?

Bankers. The memo complained that Mr. Potter had been written as the most hated man in the picture, and that making the rich look mean was a common Communist trick.

Which actor plays George Bailey's guardian angel?

Henry Travers. Heaven's own verdict on his character is that he has 'the I.Q. of a rabbit' but 'the faith of a child', and on the strength of the second he is sent to save George.

What becomes of Mr. Potter by the end of It's a Wonderful Life?

He gets away with it. Potter is last seen snarling 'Happy New Year to you, in jail!' as George runs past his window, and the film ends with his own crime never found out.

Which drink does George Bailey's guardian angel order in a bar, 'heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves'?

Mulled wine. The bartender snaps that he serves hard drinks for men who want to get drunk fast, and throws the pair out when the angel gives his age as 293.

In the nightmare world without George Bailey, what has become of Mr. Gower?

He was jailed for manslaughter: with no young George to catch the fatal mistake he made in his grief over his son's death, he served twenty years and came out a drunk.

Which 1844 song do George and Mary sing together on their walk home from the school dance?

Buffalo Gals becomes the couple's theme: Mary puts the record on when George comes calling years later, then smashes it when the visit turns sour.

Which legendary director played Mr. Potter in It Happened One Christmas, the 1977 TV remake of It's a Wonderful Life?

Orson Welles. The remake flipped the story's sexes: Marlo Thomas's Mary is the one who wishes she had never been born, and her guardian angel is a woman, played by Cloris Leachman.

Which famous children's duo share their names, purely by coincidence, with the cop and cab driver in It's a Wonderful Life?

Bert and Ernie. Sesame Street writer Jerry Juhl said the film had nothing to do with it: the puppets got their names because one looked like an Ernie and the other like a Bert.

Which Capra heroine, the star of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, was first offered the part of Mary Bailey?

Jean Arthur was Capra's first choice but proved unavailable, and several more actresses were weighed up before he borrowed his Mary from MGM.

The actor who plays Mr. Potter was famous on radio at the time for voicing which literary character?

Ebenezer Scrooge. His yearly radio performance as the miser of A Christmas Carol was a Christmas fixture, so casting him as the film's own miser came naturally.

H. B. Warner, who plays Mr. Gower, was famous in silent films for playing which figure for Cecil B. DeMille?

Jesus Christ, in 1927's The King of Kings. Two decades on, the same actor plays a grieving drunk who has to be saved from himself by a twelve-year-old boy.

Uncle Billy keeps which unusual pet at the Building and Loan?

A raven. Jimmy was a trained Hollywood bird, and Capra had cast him in every one of his films since You Can't Take It with You in 1938.

In the world where George Bailey was never born, what has become of Uncle Billy?

He is in an asylum. George's mother says he has been there ever since he lost his business: with no George to keep it going, the Building and Loan went under.

Which catchphrase does George Bailey's old friend Sam Wainwright use as a greeting?

Hee-haw! Sam says it while waggling his hands at his ears like a donkey, and he even signs off with it in the telegram from London that pledges the money to rescue George.

In It's a Wonderful Life's opening, the angels talking in the sky appear as what?

A cluster of five galaxies: it is Stephan's Quintet, which NASA says is best known for this film role, and the Webb telescope's first images in 2022 included it.

Which composer scored It's a Wonderful Life, then accused Capra of doing a 'scissors job' on his music?

Dimitri Tiomkin was so stung when Capra cut, reshuffled and patched his score after it was recorded that, by his own account, he never watched the finished film.

George Bailey's friend Sam Wainwright makes his fortune in which business?

Plastics. George himself gave Sam the idea, making them from soybeans, and was offered the chance to get in on the ground floor, but turned it down flat.

In the world without George Bailey, what kind of business does his mother run?

A boarding house. The sign by the door reads 'Ma Bailey's Boarding House', and the hard-faced woman who answers does not know him and shuts him out.

Before the bank run wipes out their savings, where were George and Mary planning to honeymoon?

New York City and Bermuda, a week in each; instead George hands the honeymoon money across the counter to panicking depositors and ends the day with two dollars left.

In the nightmare world, what does George find on the land where Bailey Park should stand?

A cemetery. With no George there was nobody to build the houses, and among the graves he finds his brother Harry's, the boy he was never there to pull from the ice.

New York Times critic Bosley Crowther's main complaint about It's a Wonderful Life in 1946 was its what?

Sentimentality. Crowther liked the actors but wrote that Capra's nice people and easy answers resembled 'theatrical attitudes rather than average realities'.

In It's a Wonderful Life, what keeps coming off in George Bailey's hand at home?

The banister knob. On his worst night he nearly hurls it across the room, but when George gets his life back he kisses the loose knob before running up to his children.

What do George and Mary throw at the old Granville house to make their wishes?

Rocks. Break a window and the wish comes true: George wishes aloud to see the world, while Mary's secret wish, revealed on their wedding night, was to live in that house with him.

What is George Bailey's only collateral when he begs Mr. Potter for a loan?

A life insurance policy, with little paid into it: Potter sneers that George is worth more dead than alive, and George repeats the taunt bitterly later that night.

Which actress plays Violet Bick, the flirt who ends up a taxi-dancer in the nightmare version of town?

Gloria Grahame. In the real town George quietly gives Violet money for a fresh start in New York, and in the finale she hands it back, having decided to stay.

The gym floor that opens over a pool in It's a Wonderful Life was filmed at which real school?

Beverly Hills High School. Its 'Swim Gym' floor really does roll back over a pool, and Capra shot the dance there after hearing about it.

It's a Wonderful Life sits at No. 1 on which American Film Institute list?

Most Inspirational Films. Sixty years after it disappointed at the box office and lost all five of its Oscar races, a 2006 AFI jury put it first, ahead of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Karolyn Grimes, who delivers the famous line about the bell, played which of the Bailey children?

Zuzu. The petals from her flower, tucked into George's pocket, are his proof that he is back in the real world: 'Zuzu's petals!' he shouts on finding them again.

Which institution put It's a Wonderful Life on its 1995 list of 45 important films, under the heading 'Values'?

The Vatican. Marking cinema's centenary, it sorted its picks into Religion, Values and Art, and filed this story of a guardian angel under Values, not Religion.

What rank does George Bailey's guardian angel hold when he is sent to save him?

Angel, Second Class. A clockmaker in life, he has been passed over for more than two hundred years, 'and people are beginning to talk', he pleads when the job comes up.

In It's a Wonderful Life, what does Nick the bartender call George and his angel as he orders them out?

Pixies. Nick is played by Sheldon Leonard, later a leading television producer, and The Big Bang Theory's creators, both fans, named Sheldon and Leonard after him.

It's a Wonderful Life was the first release from which new company set up by Frank Capra and his partners?

Liberty Films, founded by Capra and fellow directors just home from the war, made only two pictures: this one's losses left it short of cash, and it was sold to Paramount in 1947.

What first stops George Bailey from leaving on his long-planned world tour?

His father's death. Peter Bailey has a stroke just as George is about to set off, and the board will keep the Building and Loan open only if George stays to run it.

Which organisation does young George Bailey boast that he has been nominated to join?

National Geographic Society. The boy who brags of coconuts, harems and far-off islands grows up to be the one man in town who never manages to leave it.

What was done to It's a Wonderful Life in the 1980s that led Capra to say 'They ruined it'?

It was colourised. 'They splashed it all over with Easter-egg colors,' Capra complained, although he had first signed up to back the tinting himself before the company cut him out.

Which dance are George and Mary doing when the gym floor opens beneath them?

The Charleston. It is a contest for a loving cup, and the pair are so busy dancing that they take the crowd's screams for cheers until they topple into the pool.

Why does the actor playing Mr. Potter perform the whole of It's a Wonderful Life in a wheelchair?

He needed one himself: a hip injury and severe arthritis had put the veteran actor in a wheelchair, so Potter is pushed through every scene by a silent attendant.

Adriana Caselotti, who sings in a bar scene of It's a Wonderful Life, first voiced which Disney heroine?

Snow White made Adriana Caselotti a Disney Legend, yet she went uncredited for the song she performs while a desperate George Bailey prays at the bar.

Which keepsake from his daughter does George Bailey find back in his pocket, proving he is alive again?

Flower petals from his sick daughter's bloom, which he only pretended to paste back on, vanish in the nightmare world and return when his life is restored.

Which Simpsons character has a voice modelled partly on the actor who plays Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life?

Mr. Burns got his voice from Harry Shearer, who blended that actor's delivery with Ronald Reagan's to create Springfield's own grasping tycoon.

How did It's a Wonderful Life perform at the box office when it first reached cinemas?

It lost money, about $525,000 for RKO, and within months Capra and his partners had sold their new production company to Paramount.

How does George Bailey's guardian angel stop him from leaping off the bridge on Christmas Eve?

He jumps in first and pretends to be in trouble, knowing George will dive to the rescue. Both men end up drying off in the bridge keeper's shack.

How did Philip Van Doren Stern first share the tale behind It's a Wonderful Life after publishers turned it down?

As a Christmas card: he had 200 copies of the little booklet printed and mailed to friends in December 1943, and one found its way to a Hollywood studio.

Which dancing partner of Fred Astaire turned down the part of Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life as too bland?

Ginger Rogers thought the role dull, and in her memoir she later asked readers whether they found the decision foolish.

Which sitcom named its two lead characters after the actor who plays Nick the bartender in It's a Wonderful Life?

The Big Bang Theory's Sheldon and Leonard salute Sheldon Leonard, who went from playing screen tough guys to producing The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

After George and Mary Bailey spend their honeymoon cash in the bank run, how much remains at closing time?

$2 is all they have when the doors close at six, and a jubilant George leads his staff in a toast to the two surviving bills.

Harry Bailey steps off the train from college with which surprise that ends George's hopes of leaving town?

A new bride, Ruth Dakin, arrives on Harry's arm, and because her father has offered him a good job, George stays behind the desk he had hoped to hand over.

What does a drunk and desperate George Bailey crash his car into before walking on to the bridge?

A tree stops the car, and its owner complains that his great-grandfather planted it, a small comic beat just before the story's darkest moment.

George and Mary Bailey's first kiss comes moments after they are pressed together sharing which object?

A telephone earpiece forces them cheek to cheek while Sam Wainwright talks business down the line, and Hollywood's censors thought the embrace that follows too intense.

What does Mary Hatch lose on the walk home from the dance, leaving her hiding in a hydrangea bush?

Her bathrobe was borrowed after the plunge into the school pool, and George teases her from the pavement until Uncle Billy drives up with bad news.

In a 2002 TV homage to It's a Wonderful Life, which character wishes he had never been born?

Kermit the Frog despairs of saving the Muppet Theatre from a ruthless creditor, until an angel named Daniel shows him the world without him.

Which rock legend was announced in 2019 as writing a stage musical of It's a Wonderful Life, his first?

Paul McCartney shared the lyric writing with playwright Lee Hall, in what was billed as the former Beatle's musical theatre debut.

It's a Wonderful Life was the first film its leading man made after spending the war flying which aircraft?

Bombers were his war: he flew B-24 Liberators over Europe, rose from private to colonel in four years, and later said Capra's offer gave him a new beginning.

Which American body chose It's a Wonderful Life in 1990 as one of 25 films to preserve in a national registry?

Library of Congress selections for the National Film Registry number up to 25 a year, each judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

Whose husband punches George Bailey in the mouth in a bar on Christmas Eve?

His daughter's teacher, Mrs. Welch, had wept for an hour after George blamed her for the girl's cold and berated her when she rang the house.

Which profession does George Bailey hope to study at college before duty keeps him at the Building and Loan?

Architecture is the dream he gives up, and the model bridges and buildings he still keeps at home are what he smashes in despair on Christmas Eve.

With the real trip cancelled, what does Mary Bailey put up around the leaky old house for a makeshift honeymoon?

Travel posters of Florida, Hawaii and the South Seas cover the windows, while a chicken roasts on a spit turned by the gramophone.

In It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Gower learns his son has died of which illness just before his near-fatal mistake?

Influenza took his son in the 1919 pandemic, and the grieving, drunken Mr. Gower put poison in a child's capsules until young George spotted the error.

Unfit for military service, which home-front job does George Bailey take on during the Second World War?

Air raid warden duty has him patrolling his hometown with a whistle while his brother and friends win medals overseas.

Mary Hatch's jilted date at the school dance is played by the grown-up actor behind which Our Gang character?

Alfalfa's actor, Carl Switzer, went uncredited as the rival suitor who sends George and Mary tumbling into the swimming pool hidden under the dance floor.

Which close friend of the star of It's a Wonderful Life was also considered for the part of George Bailey?

Henry Fonda had come home from the war without work, like his best friend, but John Ford cast him in My Darling Clementine just as Capra began shooting.

It's a Wonderful Life missed out on the best director Oscar, but which award did Capra win for directing it?

A Golden Globe for best director went to Capra in February 1947, at only the fourth of those ceremonies ever held.

Which hard-drinking comedy star did Capra consider for forgetful Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life?

W. C. Fields, the screen's best-known tippler, died on Christmas Day 1946, less than a week after the film's premiere.

Which sundae topping does young Mary Hatch turn down at the soda fountain in It's a Wonderful Life?

Coconut sets the boy behind the counter boasting that it comes from Tahiti and the Fiji Islands, the first sign of the wanderlust that drives the story.

Which carol is Janie Bailey practising at the piano when her frantic father snaps at her on Christmas Eve?

Hark the Herald Angels Sing is the tune she keeps repeating until he shouts at her to stop, the outburst that tells the family something is badly wrong.

Which family do George and Mary Bailey welcome to a new home in Bailey Park with bread, salt and wine?

The Martinis swap a rented slum for a house of their own, and Mr. Martini later repays the kindness by throwing out a customer who hits George.

George Bailey's guardian angel has been waiting roughly how long for promotion when he is sent to Earth?

200 years and more is how long he tells his superiors he has waited for his wings, and in Nick's bar he gives his age as nearly 293.

Which Oscar winner, Scarlett O'Hara's father in Gone with the Wind, plays Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life?

Thomas Mitchell won his Oscar for Stagecoach and later became the first man to complete acting's Triple Crown by adding an Emmy and a Tony.

Which future horror star was on Capra's long list of actors considered for the villainous Mr. Potter?

Vincent Price shared the list with Raymond Massey, Edward Arnold and Louis Calhern, years before House of Wax established him in horror.

Which Algonquin Round Table wit was brought in, uncredited, to polish the script of It's a Wonderful Life?

Dorothy Parker joined a crowd of writers that also included Clifford Odets and Marc Connelly, and the final credits had to be settled by arbitration.

Joe Landry's stage version of It's a Wonderful Life, a favourite of school drama clubs, is presented as what?

A live radio play, staged as a 1940s studio performance, ranked as the third most produced full-length play in US high schools in 2020–21.

What did H. B. Warner do to child actor Bobbie Anderson during the drugstore scene of It's a Wonderful Life?

Slapped him for real, Anderson recalled: his ear bled and he burst into tears, and the veteran actor hugged him once the scene was done.

For which audience did former president George H. W. Bush record a 2002 narration of It's a Wonderful Life?

Blind viewers and others with impaired sight could follow his description of the action on a secondary audio channel during two network airings that December.

Which business partner of Capra directed the drama that swept the Oscars ahead of It's a Wonderful Life?

William Wyler held a quarter of the company, as did George Stevens, so one partner's drama about returning servicemen beat the other's fantasy in four Oscar categories.

It's a Wonderful Life was Capra's first feature after he spent the war making which documentary series?

Why We Fight was a seven-film series made for the US Army, and Capra picked the story of George Bailey for his return to civilian filmmaking.

Mr. Gower of It's a Wonderful Life is named after the street address of which studio, Capra's old employer?

Columbia stood on Gower Street, where Capra made his 1930s hits, and a drugstore on the same street was a favourite haunt of the studio's staff.

Which future Spartacus writer drafted an early script that made George Bailey a failed politician?

Dalton Trumbo had George try to end his life after losing an election, and his angel showed him the town as it would be had he gone into business instead.

Which That Girl star took the George Bailey role in a gender-swapped 1977 TV remake of It's a Wonderful Life?

Marlo Thomas played Mary Bailey Hatch, who runs the family firm and is saved by a female angel named Clara, in a remake Capra denounced as plagiarism.

Karolyn Grimes followed It's a Wonderful Life with a part in which 1947 Christmas film about an angel?

The Bishop's Wife cast her as the daughter of David Niven and Loretta Young, the best known of six pictures she appeared in that year.

What did Capra let roam the huge town set of It's a Wonderful Life to make it feel lived in?

Pigeons, cats and dogs wandered a set covering four acres, with 75 shops and buildings along a main street three city blocks long.

Which married screenwriting team behind The Thin Man share script credit with Capra on It's a Wonderful Life?

The Hacketts, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, so disliked working for Capra that they rushed out the last scene and never saw him again.

Republic Pictures reclaimed It's a Wonderful Life in 1993 by citing a court ruling about which Hitchcock thriller?

Rear Window, which has the same leading man, was the film in a 1990 Supreme Court case over who controls a movie adapted from a short story that remains under copyright.

The town set of It's a Wonderful Life was adapted from sets built for which Oscar-winning 1931 western?

Cimarron's Oklahoma boomtown had been built on RKO's ranch in Encino, and Capra added a central parkway and a working bank to turn it into small-town America.

Frank Albertson, Sam Wainwright in It's a Wonderful Life, plays the client robbed of $40,000 in which Hitchcock film?

Psycho cast him as Tom Cassidy, the leering customer whose cash Marion Crane drives away with, fourteen years after he played George Bailey's breezy rival.

The offscreen crash heard as tipsy Uncle Billy staggers away in It's a Wonderful Life was really caused by what?

A clumsy technician knocked over some equipment, the actor improvised a reassuring shout, and Capra kept the take and tipped the man $10 for improving the sound.

What going-away present does Mr. Gower buy for George Bailey before his planned trip abroad?

A suitcase with his name lettered on it is waiting at the luggage shop, picked out by his old boss in person, and George is told there is nothing to pay.