It's A Wonderful Life Pt. 2

Hi Everyone!

I thought I would update my posting on seeing "It's A Wonderful Life" on the big screen & meeting Karolyn Grimes "Zuzu" from the movie while I wait 20 more minutes to call Dr. Z. & see if I can get in to have him look at my foot.

The picture above is her now! Wow! She is 66 yrs old! I wish I could look like that then! Now to refresh your memory, ZuZu is the little girl Jimmy Stewart is holding below. In the movie it is "Zuzu's petals" from her rose she won which he places in his pocket. Zuzu is the one who says at the end of the movie "Everytime a Bell Rings an Angel Gets His Wings" :-) I got this picture as my autograph! :-)

I had the time of my life! Well, at first I thought I might not! I got there at 4:10 & the 6:30 show was sold out! I was so lucky, I didn't even get to feel any disappointment because they right away told me they added a 8:30 show! I bought my ticket right away! I then went shopping a bit & came back at their suggested time of 7:50 to get in line. I got to meet Karolyn, get my autograph & I also go the ornament below, which was the first on my tree (I'll post on that later!) and the cookbook below. Well, the cookbook had TONS of pictures & stories of behind the scenes & personal stories so I just had to have that! :-) I took a picture with Karolyn. She was so sweet! After a bit the manager came & told us that we would not be seated until about 9:10! YIPES! Well, apparently Karolyn was taking 20 min before each show to talk with us & tell us info which was sooooo valuable. Everyone seemed to be ok with that when they heard the reason.

We got in the theater, I got a great seat! I was going to order some food but I had eaten dinner at Max & Erma's so I wasn't really hungry. Got the popcorn...ICK! Never order theirs again. The people next to me did too & didn't eat it. I should have asked for a refund but...then later when I wanted something the kitchen was closed? Huh? Well, it was much later than usual so...

Ok, so I took notes...well I'm a prof what do you want! Ha! Plus I know after grading my life away my brain is mush so here you go...

Karolyn was 6 yrs old when she did the movie. She started acting when she was 4 yrs old & had done 4 movies before It's A Wonderful Life. There is a museum for the movie in Penn and she is on the board. She was born in IN & her mom died when she was 14 yrs old of Alzheimers. Then the next year her father died in a car accident. The state awarded her to an aunt & uncle in Iowa where she lived & she really did not do acting after this. Her mom was the one who got her into acting really so her mom didn't have to go to work.

She told us that the movie was Jim Henson's favorite & so yes the characters of Bert & Ernie on Sesame Street do come from the movie! I always that it was quite coincidental!

The movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards but did not receive any. If I recall right a gentleman wrote this as a short story & put it aside for like 5 yrs. Then he pulled it out & read it to guests for a Christmas Party he had. They all loved it & encouraged him to finish it. He did & sent it out with his Christmas Cards. One recipient worked for a movie company & suggested it be a movie. Frank Capra had bought the rights & had several rewrite it for a script but didn't like the scripts so he kept some parts and wrote it himself. I believe it was a play too because I think some of the lines he kept from the play. Frank Capra used for the first time I new type of SnowFlake material. Seh made us watch for scenes with the snow to notice it running. Apparently, before they used Cornflakes painted white & it would always crunch & they had to do the audio over it. Frank Capra made the snow with the foam they use for fire extinquishers and Ivory Soap Flakes thus it would run when it got wet & melted. Down a car is the biggest area you can see it. Another spot is the River Keeper when they jump in the water...you can see onhis shoes.

Everytime the blackbird appeared it meant Potter was coming. And if you look on Potter's Desk you will see a Skull with a chain attached to it. Capra had a lot of symbolization in the movie & this was to symbolize George being chained to Potter & death if he accepted his offer.

Jimmy Stewart was in 6 Capra movies & so was Beulah Bondi (played George's Mom). They shot 35,000 feet of film but only used 11,900. Such a shame they still do not have this now. They also destroyed the props in 1950. Karolyn does have one ornament from the tree.

(Update...I had to leave & I'm now finishing this...BTW soft cast just on my foot for right now, but about 5 "If it gets worse call!" UGH! I think he is trying to tell me something again! I'll keep you posted.)

Jimmy Stewart's favorite part of the movie was when he asks God for help. Karolyn's was on the bridge when he says he wants to live again.

There were 2 mistakes. One is quite obvious, you may have noticed already. When George comes in the Savings & Loan he throws the Christmas Wreath on the desk but then they cut next to him & he has the wreath on his arm. The other was actually when Uncle Billy is drunk after the party for Harry's new wife & he goes the wrong way. This was not planned! A worker placed something on the wrong side. It was funny so they left it in & the worker got a $10 bonus. I'm guessing in that time $10 was a great bonus.

Karolyn also told us that when they are in Martini's you see quickly a woman with a flower in her hair & you hear her singing in the background. She told us this was the woman who was Snow White's voice. Her name was Adriana Caselotti (Check out her pix!) 

Zuzu was only in the movie for 6min! She has a website www.zuzu.net and you can see many pictures, order items ETC.

Karolyn was also in The Bishop's Wife playing Debbie. I love this movie also. Just watched it last week! :-) She said both Jimmy Stewart & Cary Grant were very lovely to her. In It's A Wonderful Life during the scene where George returns & is carrying all the kids down the stairs, she has her arms around his throat, basically choking him to death & they had to do it many times. She said he let her down every so gently each time. She said Jimmy was 6'4" so he towered over the kids so much but they loved him.

Ok, that is all I can read of my notes so far. If I figure out anything else I will let you know. I'll also be reading the cookbook so I'll let you know some tidbits from that as I go along! Enjoy!