Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Meet “everyman” George Bailey who thinks he’s worth more dead than alive and his hapless guardian angel Clarence who gives him the gift of seeing what life in the little town of Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never been born. It’s a Wonderful Life marked Hollywood legends Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart’s return to filmmaking after service in WWII. Preserved by the Library of Congress, featured on the AFI’s list the 100 Best American Films, and nominated for five Academy Awards, It’s a Wonderful Life received lukewarm reviews and was a box office failure when it opened in January 1946. It fell into obscurity but finally found its audience three decades later after it accidentally fell out of copyright protection and could be broadcast by TV stations free of charge.
Film transports us to another time and place, offering new understandings of history, reinforcing, or creating myths, and sparking powerful emotional connections to the past. Join History Film Forum Director Christopher Wilson for a panel discussion of life in small town America, the Spanish flu pandemic, the Great Depression, and World War II as they are presented in this beloved Christmas classic. And, Ryan Lintelman, entertainment curator, at the National Museum of American History interviews Donna Reed’s daughter Mary Owen about her mother’s experiences growing up during the period portrayed in the movie and during the filming of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Participants:
Dr. Jason A. Higgins, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities and Oral History at Virginia Tech
Leo Landis, State Curator, State Historical Society of Iowa
Ryan Lintelman, entertainment curator, National Museum of American History
Nell Minow, editor and film critic, rogerebert.com and author of books and articles about media and culture
Presented by the Smithsonian Associates and Smithsonian's National Museum of American History through generous support of Dan Manatt.
Watch more conversations from the History Film Forum series here: youtube.com/watch?v=d2tVIwsCATg&list=PLZxSSLX6InCRmlPrctSgjGfZgsab4GzbS
For more information about History Film Forum visit: https://historyfilmforum.si.edu/
Meet “everyman” George Bailey who thinks he’s worth more dead than alive and his hapless guardian angel Clarence who gives him the gift of seeing what life in the little town of Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never been born. It’s a Wonderful Life marked Hollywood legends Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart’s return to filmmaking after service in WWII. Preserved by the Library of Congress, featured on the AFI’s list the 100 Best American Films, and nominated for five Academy Awards, It’s a Wonderful Life received lukewarm reviews and was a box office failure when it opened in January 1946. It fell into obscurity but finally found its audience three decades later after it accidentally fell out of copyright protection and could be broadcast by TV stations free of charge.
Film transports us to another time and place, offering new understandings of history, reinforcing, or creating myths, and sparking powerful emotional connections to the past. Join History Film Forum Director Christopher Wilson for a panel discussion of life in small town America, the Spanish flu pandemic, the Great Depression, and World War II as they are presented in this beloved Christmas classic. And, Ryan Lintelman, entertainment curator, at the National Museum of American History interviews Donna Reed’s daughter Mary Owen about her mother’s experiences growing up during the period portrayed in the movie and during the filming of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Participants:
Dr. Jason A. Higgins, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities and Oral History at Virginia Tech
Leo Landis, State Curator, State Historical Society of Iowa
Ryan Lintelman, entertainment curator, National Museum of American History
Nell Minow, editor and film critic, rogerebert.com and author of books and articles about media and culture
Presented by the Smithsonian Associates and Smithsonian's National Museum of American History through generous support of Dan Manatt.
Watch more conversations from the History Film Forum series here: youtube.com/watch?v=d2tVIwsCATg&list=PLZxSSLX6InCRmlPrctSgjGfZgsab4GzbS
For more information about History Film Forum visit: https://historyfilmforum.si.edu/
