TOO MANY COINCIDENCES TO IGNORE...
SENECA FALLS, NY -
Was the Upstate New York village of Seneca Falls Frank Capra's inspiration for the design of Bedford Falls in It's A Wonderful Life?
Karolyn Grimes, the actress who played Zuzu, one of the children of George and Mary Bailey (James Stewart and Donna Reed) in the American movie classic, thinks it was.
"When I came around the corner and saw [Seneca Falls'] main street, I gasped and said, 'This is Bedford Falls!"" Grimes then saw the steel bridge that flows over the canal: "It is nearly a replica of the same bridge that George Bailey had grown up with all his life."
It Continues..
But none of them had as many similarities to Bedford Falls as Seneca Falls.
The final proof offered for the town's claim is the story that Frank Capra visited the town in late 1945. He was going to visit an aunt in nearby Auburn and stopped in Seneca Falls and had his hair cut. Barber Tommy Bellissima didn't know who Frank Capra was at the time, but when the movie came out, he recognized the name of his famous patron on the poster. He remembered Capra because the two had talked at length about their lives in Italy and common experiences as immigrants. The name stuck with Bellissima because capra in Italian means goat.
But Capra never mentioned Seneca Falls in his memoirs, and nothing about the town is found in his archives. No definitive proof has been found that Frank Capra visited Seneca Falls and brought the image of the town back with him to Hollywood.
So is it just a coincidence that Seneca Falls is practically identical to Bedford Falls, or did Capra deliberately keep the Seneca Falls connection to himself? After all, he wanted the town of Bedford Falls to appeal to everyone. Making it known his set design was based on one place would have compromised its universal appeal.
Consider this scenario:
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It is documented that Capra was in New York City in November 1945 trying to talk Jean Arthur into the female lead in It's A Wonderful Life. A check of historical maps shows that the most direct route in the '40s from New York to Auburn, where his aunt reportedly lived, would have been west across NY Route 17 and then north when he got to the southern Finger Lakes region – a route that would have taken him through Ithaca and then Seneca Falls.
Leaving Bellissima's barbershop, Capra would have gone over the steel truss bridge on Bridge Street to get to the main part of town. On that bridge was a plaque honoring Seneca Falls resident Antonio Varacalli, who had leaped into the icy waters of the canal in April 1917 to rescue a girl who had just attempted suicide by jumping off the bridge. Varacalli saved her but he was overcome by fatigue from the rescue and drowned.
Varacalli's "guardian angel" sacrifice would have certainly captured Capra's attention. It's A Wonderful Life was based upon the short story "The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern. The movie is remarkably true to the story: A man frustrated and beaten down by life contemplates suicide by jumping off a bridge, a guardian angel intercedes and grants him his wish that he had never been born, the man gets to see how terrible things in his small hometown would have turned out if he had never lived, then he frantically goes back to the bridge and pleads to get his life back. His wish is granted and the man rushes back into town in euphoria to celebrate his life with his wife and children.
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Here on the bridge in Seneca Falls was a real story similar to the opening incident in his upcoming movie; Capra certainly would have been inspired.
Capra was still in the early planning stages of It's A Wonderful Life when he visited Seneca Falls, having just signed the contract a few weeks before. Not only did the bridge over the canal and the guardian angel match the plot of "The Greatest Gift," but Seneca Falls also had the size, look, and personality of the town depicted in the story. It's not hard to imagine that he would have wondered into town and started taking notes...
And while the movie closely follows the storyline of "The Greatest Gift," there is no mention of location in the short story. Capra on his own placed Bedford Falls in Upstate New York.
Bedford Falls might just be a composite of small towns across America, set in Upstate New York. But the fact is no town in Upstate New York has as many similarities to the town in It's A Wonderful Life as does Seneca Falls.
Either by design or extraordinary coincidence, when Frank Capra created Bedford Falls, he replicated Seneca Falls.
The Similarities between
Bedford Falls and Seneca Falls
Seneca Falls and Bedford Falls are both mill towns.
Seneca Falls had a grassy median same as the one George runs down in Bedford Falls with a movie theater located off to the side.
Both communities boast Victorian Architecture and a large Italian population.
The location is perfect: George's sister-in-law's father owns a glass factory in Buffalo, NY.
Bailey's friend Sam wants to build a soybean processing plant outside of Rochester.
The bank examiner wants to get back to Elmira on Christmas Eve.
The train ran through Seneca Falls just as it did in Bedford Falls.
The Bedford Falls High School was dedicated in 1927 the same year as the old Mynderse Academy
was dedicated.
In the film, the Bailey's Savings and Loan Association builds low cost housing called Bailey Park. In Seneca Falls, 19th Century factory owner John Rumsey helped immigrant workers by lending them money and building low cost housing. It is still known as Rumseyville today.
A local businessman named Norman J. Gould owned Gould Pumps, and was one of the richest men in town. He drove his car with license number NJG1. Norman Gould also had great control over politics and economics of the area. Much as Mr. Potter did in the movie. Norman could send someone to fight in the military or retain them for his factory.