The Father Who Wrote The Story That Became “It’s a Wonderful Life”

When people tell me about their favorite movies, one title is mentioned more often than any other — “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Director Frank Capra was known for “Capra-corn,” warm-hearted films that paid tribute to the common people. James Stewart was one of his favorite leading men. Their films together included “You Can’t Take it With You,” the Oscar-winner for Best Picture in 1939, followed by “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” in 1939. Then both men went to war.

After World War II ended, Capra and Stewart wanted to return to work in Hollywood, but both were determined to make a film that made a meaningful statement in the context of a world redefining itself for peacetime. Capra found their next film in a Christmas card. A man named Philip Van Doren Stern wrote a story called “The Greatest Gift,” about a despondent man who had a chance to see what his community would have been like if he had never been born, and sent it to his friends as a holiday greeting in 1943. Capra wanted to make it into a film.