How a small town in Rhode Island is connected to 'It's a Wonderful Life'

Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

William Brangham: Watching the classic Christmas movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” is a beloved tradition for millions. Its director, Frank Capra, always said his film was in part about the beauty of life in small-town America.

One little town in Rhode Island believes it was the inspiration for this holiday favorite.

Pamela Watts of Ocean State Media has that story. It’s part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Jimmy Stewart, Actor: Yes! Hello, Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas!

Pamela Watts: The Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart, was filmed on a Hollywood set. Seneca Falls, New York, boasts it’s the model for the beloved movie small town.

Actor: Hey, George, don’t take any plugged nickels.

Pamela Watts: But whole the popcorn. Could Little Compton have also played a big role?

Town historian and native Marjory O’toole says clues of the connection are sprinkled throughout the film.

Is it kind of a given that people in Little Compton do believe that they are really a part of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” the movie?

Marjory O’toole, Little Compton Historical Society: Oh, we’re 100 percent in on that.

Pamela Watts: That certainty began here. Hollywood husband and wife scriptwriting team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, who created the screenplay, often vacationed at the Goodrich family cottage.

Marjory O’toole: Frances and Albert summered on Bailey’s Ledge in Little Compton, on the Bailey family farm. And so I think the fact that they named their incredibly sympathetic main character George Bailey is an absolute tie to this summer home, summer community that they loved.

Pamela Watts: Need more proof? In the church cemetery on Little Compton’s town common, here lies George Bailey and nearby Mary Bailey.

Jimmy Stewart: Hey, Mary.

(Singing)

Pamela Watts: Goodrich and Hackett borrowed other area names too.

Marjory O’toole: The folks in Seneca Falls may argue this, but Little Compton sits in between two cities, New Bedford and Fall River. And so I think the fact that the town in the movie is called Bedford Falls is a direct combination of the names of those two cities.

Pamela Watts: That may all seem a coincidence until this scene in the movie.

Actor: You had me worried, one of the oldest trees in Pottersville.

Jimmy Stewart: Pottersville?

Pamela Watts: There’s actually a Pottersville neighborhood in Little Compton.

Marjory O’toole: Today, it’s a perfectly beautiful little neighborhood in Little Compton. But 100 years ago, Pottersville was one of the poorer neighborhoods in Little Compton, where working-class people would have lived and worked.

Pamela Watts: Senior digital producer Dan Medeiros of The Herald News in South Coast, Massachusetts, has traced another local tie to the movie.

Dan Medeiros, Herald News: I found that someone from “It’s A Wonderful Life” was born in Fall River. And I thought, well, who could that be? I know I have seen the movie a million times.

Pamela Watts: Don’t blink. The photo of the pharmacist’s deceased son is the headshot of Actor Glen Vernon. Medeiros discovered Vernon wasn’t even credited in the movie, but he got paid.

Dan Medeiros: That Actor from Fall River was a part of it, a very, very small part, but he is a part nonetheless.

Pamela Watts: At first, Vernon didn’t mention he was in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” which flopped at the box office, winning only one Oscar for special effects.

All the snow in the movie was made of soap flakes, sugar, water, and fire extinguisher foam.

As for Vernon, was he ever like, I’m the guy from “It’s A Wonderful Life”?

Dan Medeiros: Well, kind of, yes. He would add that to his credit. He would become like a background Actor or just like bit parts. He was in “Lassie.” He was in an episode of “Columbo.” He’s in the movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Pamela Watts: Meantime, Goodrich and Hackett would go on to write other screenplays, including the “Thin Man” detective movies, the characters Nick and Nora based on their own witty and close marriage. Eventually, the couple won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for their stage play “The Diary of Anne Frank.”

And back in Little Compton…

Actress: Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.

Pamela Watts: Even if you’re skeptical about Little Compton being this prototype for the story, is it a wonderful life in Little Compton?

Marjory O’toole: Oh, it’s always a wonderful life in Little Compton.

Actor: To my big brother George, the richest man in town.

(Cheering)

Marjory O’toole: Every time I watch the movie, I keep my eyes open for additional connections.

(Singing)

Pamela Watts: For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Pamela Watts in Little Compton, Rhode Island.