HISTORY's Moment in Media History: When "It's A Wonderful Life" Premiered in NYC

The premiere of the film had been moved up from January 1947 to take advantage of the fact that its story occurs on Christmas Eveamp160 Yet Capra insisted that the film wasn39t really about Christmas at allamp160 Instead during interviews at the time he described its theme as being about quotthe individual39s belief in himselfquotDespite eventually earning five Academy Award nominations including one for Best Picture the film received only mixed reviews and died at the box officeamp160 RKO Pictures had to write off a substantial loss and many at the time mused that Capra had lost his popular touch and was out of sync with postwar AmericaThe film was almost consigned to the dust heap of oblivion but then television came to the rescueIn early 1974 almost 30 years after its theatrical release the film39s copyright expired because of a clerical erroramp160 For television networks this meant a great financial opportunity was at handamp160 Where many critics had complained about a movie that was dark or simply too pat in its view of smalltown life the networks saw a Christmasthemed movie with low royalty paymentsThe conventional wisdom is that the film failed at the box office in 1946 because audiences were exhausted by war and were turned off by the movie39s bleak themes which included the rapacious nature of bankers and of course George Bailey39s attempted suicideThe networks overlooked those inconvenient facts and instead hyped the film39s heartwarming endingamp160 They positioned it as a movie to help celebrate a season of family sharing and giving and encouraged viewers to watch as a groupamp160 It turns out many families bought into this vision and started to tune in each year as part of their holiday routineamp160 And lo and behold a small Christmas miracle began to occurA new generation of viewers was quietly falling in love with the filmamp160 An early sign of the change in the public39s estimation of the film came in 1990 when the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in their National Film Registry because it met the standard of quotculturally historicallyamp160or aesthetically significantquotamp160 Then when the American Film Institute AFI released its America39s 100 Greatest Movies list in 1998 It39s a Wonderful Life was No 11amp160 The film even placed first on the AFI39s list of most inspirational films of all timeHaving directed numerous classic and popular films including It Happened One Night 1934 You Can39t Take It with You 1938 and Mr Smith Goes to Washington 1939 and having won Best Director three times Capra would later say It39s a Wonderful Life was nonetheless always his favorite and that he always screened it for his family every Christmas seasonamp160 And heamp160expressed wonder at the film39s stunning public resurrection in a 1984 interview with The Wall Street Journal quotThe film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with itamp160 I39m like a parent whose kid grows up to be presidentamp160 I39m proud but it39s the kid who did the workquotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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HISTORY's Moment in Media History: When "It's A Wonderful Life" Premiered in NYC

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HISTORY's Moment in Media History: When "It's A Wonderful Life" Premiered in NYC

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