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Fans revel in 'Wonderful Life' in Seneca Falls

Jeff DiVeronica
@RocDevo
Julie Greenberg of Hammond, Indiana, takes pictures at the bridge that inspired Frank Capra's bridge scene in the Christmas classic "It's A Wonderful Life" in Seneca Falls.

SENECA FALLS — Married Oct. 29, Brianna and Justin Broitzman are on their honeymoon this weekend. But they're not in Hawaii, Europe or someplace warm and tropical. The young couple from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, which is about 75 miles northwest of Milwaukee, is in Seneca Falls.

“It was a no-brainer,” Justin said. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything different.”

That’s because Seneca Falls, the small town in upstate New York between Rochester and Syracuse, is believed to be what inspired Frank Capra to write It’s a Wonderful Life, the 1946 holiday classic, and the newlyweds are huge fans of the movie. This weekend is the 21st annual festival, a three-day event in honor of the popular film.

But the legend of Seneca Falls being the real Bedford Falls isn’t just because of the way the town looks. Sure, they change the signs into the town to say "Bedford Falls," and there is that bridge over the Cayuga-Seneca Canal that looks exactly like the one George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) jumped off into icy waters in the movie. Old houses and churches in Seneca Falls appear just as they could have in Capra’s mind and so does the picturesque little downtown, which is still lined with historic buildings.

But it’s more than that.

“You can feel it here,” said Julie Greenberg, a fan of the movie from Indiana.

Asked, after finally seeing Seneca Falls, if she thinks Capra had it in mind when he built the Bedford Falls set in Culver City, California, Greenberg said, “Oh, absolutely.”

She said that while standing on that famous steel bridge, where there are street signs on opposite sides that read, “GEORGE BAILEY LN” and “BEDFORD FALLS BLVD.” Greenberg and her best friend had talked about making this trip for a while. They left Hammond, Indiana on Thursday morning and made what turned into a 10-hour drive through some pretty nasty weather just to be in Seneca Falls.

It’s a doubly special weekend because not only is the movie celebrating its 70th anniversary this month, but three of the four surviving “Bailey children” — Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu), Carol Coombs Mueller (Janie) and Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy) — are in this Seneca County town for the first time together. Just toddlers during filming, they’re all in their 70s now.

“The stories (fans) share of how they’ve benefited so much (from the movie), it touches my heart,” Grimes said.

Pamela Rushmer of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, gets an autograph from actor Jimmy Hawkins, who played Tommy Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life", at the It's a Wonderful Life Museum in Seneca Falls.

They portrayed the children of Stewart and Donna Reed (Mary Bailey), who went on to many other starring roles but called It’s a Wonderful Life their favorite. Stewart and Reed each grew up in the small towns of Indiana, Pennsylvania and Denison, Iowa. The Bailey kids were given the key to the city on Friday morning and made “honorary citizens” by town supervisor Greg Lazzaro, making the population of Seneca Falls 9,003, Lazzaro joked.

“You’ve made me feel at home, made me want to come back,” Hawkins said, then added that his co-stars were talking on Thursday and agreed that “if we were ever born again we wish it was here in Seneca Falls.”

In Seneca Falls, they are rock stars.

Fans want to take selfies with them and black-and-white pictures from the movie of the trio, along with Stewart and Reed, look like decorations all over town. From the Gould Hotel, where they hang a sign outside during the festival that reads “Martini’s,” the name of the restaurant and bar George Bailey frequents, to the Seneca Falls It’s a Wonderful Life Museum.

There was a 25-minute wait there on Friday afternoon for their autograph. The museum opened in 2010 and Grimes is among the collectors who donated a lot of the memorabilia.

“You can see stuff here that you’re not going to see anywhere else,” said John Mencl, a Kansas City resident who is in Seneca Falls for the 11th straight year.

Peggy Huston of Indianapolis, IN, has her picture taken with Brian Rohan of Los Angeles, CA, as "George Bailey" at Martinis in Seneca Falls. The town celebrates "It's a Wonderful Life," annually with an annual festival in honor of the 1946 classic.

He’s more than just a movie buff. He’s president of the Zuzu Society, a fan club for Grimes, who said she didn’t even watch the movie until she was 40. Mencl brings memorabilia to be displayed annually. Among items: candid photographs during filming, a “call sheet,” for June 25, 1946 with the list of actors on set that day and what equipment and wardrobe would be needed, a telegram from Joan Crawford to Reed congratulating her on a “beautiful and refreshing performance.”

One other item is a 21-page holiday card by Peter Van Doren. The card was actually his short story, The Greatest Gift, that Capra adapted to become It’s a Wonderful Life. Only 200 cards were printed and Van Doren sent them to friends. Capra eventually bought the script, which had been rewritten a couple times. Hawkins made it clear Friday that the movie everyone loves was Capra’s vision and Mencl also said earlier versions didn’t include much of the final storyline, including any character jumping into water to save someone.

That heroic act is another strong connection, along with the scenery, to the legend of Seneca Falls being the real Bedford Falls.

As the story goes, while visiting an aunt in nearby Auburn in 1945, Capra got a haircut in Seneca Falls. He and the barber, Tom Bellissima, exchanged stories and Bellissima told Capra about Antonio Varacalli, who died April 12, 1917. Varacalli jumped from that bridge, where a plaque hangs in his honor, to save a teenage girl. Witnesses saw her leap off it and into the cold water. But another potential connection emerged Friday, one Hawkins and Mencl had never heard.

The bridge that inspired Frank Capra's bridge scene in the Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life" is located in Seneca Falls.

John Bailey, 51, who lives in Dryden, just east of Ithaca, asked the Bailey kids during their news conference if they knew why Capra chose that last name for the family. They did not. Neither did Mencl. In The Greatest Gift, George’s last name was Pratt.

John Bailey wondered if Capra had driven through Dryden during his travels and saw a sign in its downtown for his grandfather’s business, which he started in 1936. It read: “George B. Bailey Agency, Insurance and Bonds.”

“That gives a little more credence to the theory,” about Seneca Falls being what inspired Capra, John Bailey said.

At this point, it doesn’t matter. Fans seem to believe it and in Seneca Falls, where actors are hired to portray the movie’s characters and mingle all weekend, the fans and residents revel in it every December.

“The town is just hopping. There’s magic in the air and we’ve got a little snow to make sure that we have the setting right,” said Billy Weston, sales manager at the Gould Hotel, which was renovated in 2011 but still maintains a classic look.

It's a Wonderful Life Museum in Seneca Falls.

Karen Ivy, 36, and her aunt, Tammy Oliver, 56, flew in from San Antonio to enjoy the festival. “With all three (Bailey children there) we thought: We can’t miss this,” Ivy said. “Southwest (Airlines) had some pretty good deals. It was time to come.”

They flew in to Rochester, about an hour away, and said waking up to snowflakes in the air Friday morning made everything just feel right. “I was telling my niece this morning we can see now why we cut out snowflakes like we do with paper in Texas, with all the different shapes, because you don’t see that in Texas,” Oliver said. “You just see little dots.”

Maryann and Vito Truglio of Hopewell, New Jersey, drove to Seneca Falls. Their daughters wanted them to be there, so they paid for Friday night’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” dinner in conjunction with the festival as a birthday gift for Vito, who turned 75 recently.

“When the girls tried to think of what they could get him, the one thing they knew was important to him was the film,” Maryann said

Vito said he first saw the movie when he was about 6 or 7. “It just hit me. It was so inspiring,” he said.

And that’s just it. The movie has sustained because of the message, the actors and fans said. “It’s inspired me to be a better person, to live life to the fullest,” said Jet Kaiser, 31, a filmmaker from Greencastle, Indiana.

He and his wife, Danielle, had been wanting to go to Seneca Falls for years. The 70th anniversary tipped the scale. Danielle watched the film with her family growing up, but her husband has turned her into an even bigger fan since their wedding eight years ago.

It's a Wonderful Life Festival starts Friday in Bedford, er, Seneca Falls

“Like Jimmy (Hawkins said): It’s not really that the film has changed but the people have changed,” Danielle said. “I appreciate it just because of the message that it portrays. Everybody has some importance in this world whether you think you’re special or not.”

In the movie, Bailey’s character fears he’s about to lose his savings and loan business. He’s bitter. He thinks the generosity he has shown to others for years hasn’t gotten him anywhere. “At some point in everyone’s life, we feel like George Bailey did that Christmas Eve,” Kaiser said, “like we haven’t amounted to anything.”

But Bailey finds out differently, that having friends makes him “the richest man in town,” as his brother, Harry, says near the end of the film.

“It’s important to remember,” said Carrie Massey, a Waterloo resident portraying Mary Bailey this weekend around Seneca Falls, “who’s really there for you and that people actually care.”

JDIVERON@Gannett.com

'Bailey kids' support Alzheimer's Association

Carol Coombs Mueller (Janie), Karolyn Grimes (Zuzu) and Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy) — the surviving Bailey kids from It's a Wonderful Life — hosted a luncheon Friday in Seneca Falls to support the Rochester/Finger Lakes Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. Each of the actor's mothers were afflicted and they asked the It's a Wonderful Life Festival committee if they could help a local charity.

"It's the first time they've publicly talked about their moms as a group and it was an awesome tribute to their families to be able to do this and it's given us an incredible opportunity for awareness of our cause," said Teresa Galbier, a Victor resident who is president and CEO of the local chapter.