‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ Original Cast Members Celebrate the Classic’s 75th Anniversary
Members of Frank Capra’s Bailey Family speak with FilmSpeak about the staying power of the Holiday perennial, and working with icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The original cast including Grimes (center, in Jimmy Stewart’s arms) and Hawkins (looking bored, bottom center)
This Holiday season is a bit more of a return to normalcy with families gathering more than in the last couple of previous Christmases. That means that more families will be gathered around the TV after a crazy day, Pyjamas on, sugary treats in front of them, curled up to watch a Holiday classic.
One classic has blessed audiences for three-quarters of a century, and chances are, it’s one you and your family have caught time and time again on television every year. Like overeating during the Holidays, catching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is an inevitability, but Frank Capra’s feel good film almost didn’t make it. It was only the original copyright holder forgetting to renew their claim, and the film being shown on television in the mid 70s that made a newer audience appreciate it for the beautiful heartfelt story it is. So to now celebrate its 75th anniversary, and for audiences to still want to watch it year after year is a cinematic accomplishment that is rarely matched. Families still want to curl up and watch the Bailey family play, laugh, sing and cry every single year…. and that’s not lost on the Bailey family, either.
Jimmy Hawkins, who at 4-years-old played the youngest Bailey child, Tommy and Karolyn Grimes, who at 6 played the most memorably-named ‘Zuzu’ Bailey are still filled by so much love for the film, and appreciate the opportunity to speak about it as often as they can. “People… they just love that family.” Hawkins reports. Grimes quietly in the background can be heard whispering “Yes the do” agreeing with her on-screen baby-brother. Hawkins adds “That Bailey family means so much to people, Karolyn and I talk about that. And that’s because that Bailey family is America”.
“He was very kind and gentle. He took time with me. If I messed up a line, he helped me through that. He was just a good person”
Zuzu (Grimes) and her Father, George (Stewart) try to put the petals back on her flower.
Hawkins gives credit where credit is due, to co-writer and director Frank Capra. While 75 year-old memories may be fuzzy, Hawkins can remember fairly vividly how kind Capra was working with he and his on-screen siblings. “He was very patient with us kids. He squatted down to me, eye-to-eye and said ‘here’s what I want you to do’ and in each [scene] he’d squat down and say ‘remember right here is where you say [your line]’”. Hawkins also recalls how brilliantly they created the real life chaos of a young family with children playing piano, worried about homework, or in his case pulling on the coat tails of Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey. The appreciation Hawkins has for the film now has grown exponentially each year, which is no small feat. Hawkin’s filmography, already before the age of 5, had him working with icons such as Kathryn Hepburn, Spencer Tracey and Lana Turner, so for It’s A Wonderful Life to be the most recognizable and vivid part of his life is remarkable. He’s still astonished how Capra and his assistant Directors “…got a performance out of each one of [the kids]” and that realism, coupled with Stewart’s great performance is what makes so many people connect with the film year after year.
Speaking of the eternally avuncular Jimmy Stewart, Grimes was seemingly much more of a ‘Daddy’s Girl’ - as her memories predominantly focus on that paradigm of gentlemanly heart and humor. “I was all about [Stewart]. He was very kind and gentle. He took time with me. If I messed up a line, he helped me through that. He was just a good person”. Her nostalgia over one of America’s greatest actors is as heart-warming as the film itself, to know that Stewart was as kind a man off screen as he was remembered for his roles on screen. But the memories Grimes keeps from those days are also in the form of a physical piece of history. In what is probably one of the best known quotes in cinema, as Zuzu tells her father that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings”, Grimes hints that a small bobble from the set that day might have walked away. “[Growing up] we had a little tiny Christmas tree on a table. I was pretty infatuated with that giant Christmas tree on the stage. It was beautiful, and the ornaments were gorgeous… so… there might be one missing”. This may be a 75 year mystery that never gets solved, but to know it allegedly is kept safe by someone who lived that moment brings some holiday joy into the world.
What isn’t a mystery, three-quarters of a century later, is why It’s A Wonderful Life remains so pivotal to so many families during the Holidays. Grimes knows exactly what the film pinpoints, and why we need it during this time; “What’s important [is] faith, and family and friends, it’s so meaningful.”
The 75th Anniversary of It’s A Wonderful Life is Dec 2021, and on November 16, 2021, Paramount Home Entertainment released a collectible, limited-edition two-disc Blu-ray set of the film with a beautifully colorized version in high definition as well as the original, digitally remastered black-and-white movie in high definition, and access to a digital copy. Perfect for gift-giving, the set also includes 10 collectible recipe cards from Insight Editions’ It’s a Wonderful Life: The Official Bailey Family Cookbook with cuisine inspired by the film. Additionally, the set includes over 45 minutes of previously released bonus content exploring the meticulous process of preserving and revitalizing this iconic masterpiece, a look at the movie’s extraordinary sound, music, cinematography and visual effects, and vintage footage from the film’s wrap party. So before you curl up with the family to watch It’s A Wonderful Life again, please check out the full video of this wonderful and meaningful interview we had with Jimmy Hawkins and Karolyn Grimes, and become a closer part of the Bailey family
Full Interview below:
