The It's a Wonderful Life Book by Jeanine Basinger

Basinger notes the great thing about “It’s a Wonderful Life” is that everyone feels it’s their hometown. It’s also possible Bedford Falls was meant to be an ideal, not a place. But Evelyne Ryan, executive director of the Bedford Historical Society, said that the place is not similar to Bedford Falls and that a case has never been seriously made. It’s also possible that Capra might have known of Bedford Hills, a hamlet in the moneyed bedroom community of Bedford (think Sam Wainwright) north of New York City. I wish I could say: ‘Eureka! And here it is!’ But the fact is there is absolutely no evidence to confirm this,” Basinger said. “There just is no evidence to support it, but God bless them,” said Jeanine Basinger, curator of the Frank Capra Archive at Wesleyan University and author of “The It’s a Wonderful Life Book.”īasinger said Capra was a meticulous record keeper, yet she has never come across the link in Capra’s records, his diary entries or script notes - not to mention the many conversations she had with Capra over years. Maybe fitting for a Christmas story, the contention that Seneca Falls is the real Bedford Falls comes down to belief. The story is that Capra had been on his way to visit an aunt nearby. Bellissima, who died in 2011, didn’t initially know the customer he chatted with was famous, but the surname Capra stuck in his head because it means “goat” in Italian. Local barber Tommy Bellissima claimed he cut Capra’s hair in 1945. The word “genesee” is from the local Iroquois and is closely associated with the Finger Lakes region that includes Seneca Falls.Īnd while there’s no slam-dunk proof that Capra ever set foot in Seneca Falls, there is the haircut story. George’s wealthy friend Sam Wainwright talks of building a factory outside of Rochester, and his brother is offered a job in Buffalo. The bank examiner wants to get back to his family in Elmira for Christmas. The film also is loaded with references to nearby upstate cities. Karolyn Grimes, who played George’s daughter Zuzu in the movie and is a festival regular, said Seneca Falls’ similarities are so striking she blurted out “It’s Bedford Falls!” during her first visit.

Seneca Falls has a nice broad main street like Bedford Falls’, and there’s a bridge with a plaque dedicated to a man who jumped from the span to save a suicidal woman in 1917 - an act echoed in the film. But many in this town of 9,000 say they have a strong circumstantial case. If Bedford Falls (the nice one, not the naughty one) really was modeled after Seneca Falls, Capra never let on, and died in 1991.

The homey town falls into the clutches of the greedy slumlord Potter, and his Pottersville becomes a city of sin, brimming with sleazy nightclubs, burlesque halls, pawn shops and neon lights.

The It's a Wonderful Life Book by Jeanine Basinger