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18 unusual facts about It's a Wonderful Life


A Wonderful Life

A Wonderful Life (musical), a 2005 musical based on the 1946 James Stewart film It's a Wonderful Life

Bank run

In addition to the plot of It's a Wonderful Life (1946), other fictional depictions of bank runs include those in American Madness (1932), Mary Poppins (1964) and Noble House (1988)

Bernice Summerfield

In Ghost Devices, we meet Clarence (named after the angel in It's a Wonderful Life).

Christmas With the Joker

As they enter the Batmobile, Robin makes a deal with Batman that if they search the city and find no sign of crime, then they will watch It's a Wonderful Life.

Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life

The title refers to the name of the writer Franz Kafka and the film It's a Wonderful Life directed by Frank Capra, and the plot takes the concept of the two to absurd depths.

Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo

At one part of the film, footage from Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, with some scenes in the film claiming to take place in Bedford Falls, much like the Christmas classic.

Ghost Devices

Ghost Devices introduces Clarence (named after the angel in It's a Wonderful Life).

John V. Kelly

As president of Nutley Savings Bank, Kelly was known for going out of his way to find a justification to fund a mortgage for a prospective customer and was likened to Jimmy Stewart's character George Bailey in the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life.

Kinesoft

In addition to games development, Kinesoft also released WinCD, a software CD player, and the film It's a Wonderful Life on CD-ROM for Windows 3.1.

Miracle on Evergreen Terrace

The title is a play on Miracle on 34th Street while the scene where everyone rallies around to support the Simpsons is reminiscent of the last scene of the classic holiday movie It's a Wonderful Life.

Newel

A loose ball cap finial on the newel post at the base of the stairway is a plot device in the 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life." The same is used in jest in the 1989 film "Christmas Vacation."

Politico-media complex

The ending of John Doe was unsuccessful amongst audiences and critics, discouraging any more political films for Capra and no films of merit after It's a Wonderful Life.

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

Lister starts living in a replica of Bedford Falls from It's a Wonderful Life with a descendant of Kochanski who looks and acts exactly like her and is even called Kristine, Rimmer marries a supermodel and becomes a successful businessman (with his company developing a solidgram body for Rimmer and a time machine to allow him to socialise with the greatest figures in history) and the Cat lives in Denmark in a palace surrounded by a moat of milk.

Savings and loan association

The savings and loan associations of this era were famously portrayed in the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.

The Bishop's Wife

Karolyn Grimes also played the (later) famous daughter-role 'Zuzu' in It's a Wonderful Life, released a year earlier.

The Duck Who Never Was

The plot is inspired by the 1946 movie classic It's a Wonderful Life, a title that is repeatedly alluded to in the dialogue.

The Irony of Fate

The film is traditionally broadcast in Russia and the former Soviet republics every New Year's Eve, and is widely regarded as a classic piece of Russian popular culture: Andrew Horton‏ and Michael Brashinsky likened its status to that held by Frank Capra's 1946 It's a Wonderful Life in the United States as a holiday staple.

Todd Karns

Todd Karns (January 14, 1921 – February 5, 2000) was an American actor perhaps best remembered for playing Harry Bailey, the younger brother of George Bailey (James Stewart) in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life.


Bedford Falls Productions

In honor of It's a Wonderful Life, the Bedford Falls Company was named after the fictional town, and an overhead view of a facsimile of the Bailey household appears in the production logo, which also features a man and a woman singing the last line of "Buffalo Gals" (a song featured in the movie), "..and dance by the light of the moon."

Frank Hagney

Because of his tall and strong appearance, Hagney often played officers or henchmans, such as Mr. Potters wordless wheelchair pusher in It's a Wonderful Life.

I Love You Truly

The song was also sung by Bert (Ward Bond) and Ernie (Frank Faylen) as they serenaded George (James Stewart) and Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) on their wedding night in the leaky "old Granville place" (house) in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.

Nate Dogg: It's A Wonderful Life

Seven Arts Music and United Media & Music Group announced that previously unreleased material will compiled in a Nate Dogg's posthumous solo album called Nate Dogg: It's A Wonderful Life, which also will be his last.

Say Zuzu

The band originally chose the name Zuzu's Petals, after a scene from the movie It's a Wonderful Life; however, after discovering that several other bands out there had already chosen that name, they decided on "Say Zuzu," which references an old 1930s Nabisco ad.

The Hotel Clarence

The Hotel Clarence's has strong ties to the Hollywood hit It's a Wonderful Life,and the residents claim that when Frank Capra visited this small Upstate New York town in 1945, he was inspired to model the movie's Bedford Falls after it.