‘It’s a Wonderful Life’: The amazing UNTOLD story of the classic Christmas movie
“It’s a Wonderful Life” wasn’t always a beloved classic — in fact, it was a complete failure that nearly destroyed the careers of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart.
“It was actually born out of failure, it was born out of exhaustion, and it was born out of people who felt just like its lead character, George Bailey,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says.
“The movie was made by Frank Capra, and it was right after World War II. Frank Capra had just come back. He didn’t come home triumphant. He came home a changed man. He had spent the war making film for the United States government, the war department, about why the West is worth saving,” he explains.
Capra came back and started his own studio, betting “absolutely everything on it.”
“‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was supposed to be the movie that proved Frank Capra is still Frank Capra. And it nearly ruined him,” Glenn explains.
“The movie lost money. Critics really didn’t like it. They mocked how schmaltzy it was. Audiences stayed home. Jimmy Stewart, this was his first movie that he made when he came back home from the war. And this was his start,” he continues, pointing out that not even Stewart could save it.
“The most beloved man in America gave a really raw, shaken, almost too real performance for people at the time. He wasn’t the cheerful hero that is coming out of war as a victory. This was a man that was cracking under the weight of responsibility, a man who did everything right, but he still felt like he was a failure,” Glenn says.
The movie was what Glenn calls “a noble misfire,” before everyone forgot about it.
“And so, the rights lapsed. There was no grand relaunch. There was no marketing genius. Just a legal oversight that let the rights lapse,” Glenn says.
That’s where Ted Turner and Superstation TBS come in.
“They needed some holiday programming, and they needed it cheap. And when I say cheap, what Ted really meant was free. ‘We need a bunch of free programming that we can run all Christmas. … No rights, no royalties,’” Glenn explains.
“The vaults open up, and lo and behold, they find ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’” he says.
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