News Release –
Seneca Falls, NY, November 1, 2024 —- Widely believed to be the inspiration for Frank Capra’s holiday classic, It’s A Wonderful Life, the It’s a Wonderful Life Festival will once again return to Seneca Falls, on December 13-15 this year.
Known as “The Real Bedford Falls”, Seneca Falls will host the three-day festival which features over 100 events. Annual highlights include Friday night favorites Mrs. Martini’s Pasta Dinner and It’s a Wonderful Bonfire and Tree Lighting with Santa. On Saturday, enjoy the It’s a Wonderful Parade featuring The Bedford Falls Mediocre Marching Band and Witchy Women of the Finger Lakes, as well as the colorful It’s a Wonderful Run 5K, which draws more than 5000 runners to race through the streets and neighborhoods of Seneca Falls. The festivities continue on Sunday with Uncle Billy’s Wonderful Scavenger Hunt and the Wonderful Music Brass Ensemble.
“We’re thrilled to introduce a new event this year called ‘Lights, Camera, Action!’,” said Haidee Oropallo, President of the It’s a Wonderful Life Festival Committee. “Enthusiastic festival attendees will engage in activities inspired by memorable scenes from the movie at various locations around town, capture them on their phones, and upload them to the It’s a Wonderful Life Festival site for a chance to win $100.” The Festival will conclude with the annual Bells of the Real Bedford Falls ringing throughout town at the end of the day Sunday.
Cast members from 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life will participate throughout the weekend attending events, offering opportunities for autographs, hosting special presentations about the making of the movie, and more! Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu Bailey; Jimmy Hawkins, who played Tommy Bailey; and Donald & Ronald Collins who played Young Pete Bailey will be returning again this year to be a part of the festival. Additional guests and presenters will be Mary Owen, Donna Reed’s daughter; Monica Capra Hodges, Frank Capra’s granddaughter; and John Kuri, son of Emile Kuri, set decorator for It’s a Wonderful Life.
The weekend festivities kick-off Thursday evening with In the Mood – a 1940s Cabaret at the “Pottersville Palladium.” Throughout the Festival, visitors can enjoy screenings of the original black and white and the colorized editions of It’s a Wonderful Life, enjoy a hot drink or light snack at Annie’s Pitstop, and do a little holiday shopping at Sam Wainwrights Five & Dime crafts fair.
The Festival Information Center, open Friday and Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 9am-4pm, offers information, souvenirs and ticketing for special events. For a touch of nostalgia, enjoy a free horse-drawn wagon ride or embark on the Bedford Falls Express Train, for a 90-minute ride through the countryside and over Cayuga Lake on Sunday.
Be sure to visit the It’s a Wonderful Life Museum to see memorabilia from the movie and cast members and stop by the Post Office for the unique opportunity to cancel letters from the “Bedford Falls Postal Station.” Keep an eye out for It’s a Wonderful Life character actors wandering the streets. Expect opportunities for photo ops with Mr. Potter, Violet, George Bailey and other movie characters.
“The message of It’s a Wonderful Life holds profound meaning for people from all walks of life. Every year, individuals travel from across the country, eagerly anticipating this event. We listen to their stories and share in their excitement, making it a truly exhilarating weekend for everyone involved,” shares Ms. Oropallo.
The festival is always seeking volunteers to assist with various activities. We need more “George Baileys” to help with everything from staffing the Festival Headquarters and the Bedford Falls Express Ride with Santa to Annie’s Pit Stop. If you’re interested in volunteering and sharing in the excitement of this wonderful weekend, please reach out through our website at therealbedfordfalls.com.
Conveniently located halfway between Rochester and Syracuse, Seneca Falls is a little town with some big connections. Proud to be part of the New York State Canal System, showcasing a beautiful waterfront with docking facilities and amenities for boaters traveling through the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, it is also a testament to the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. Seneca Falls is where more than 300 women and men gathered for the nation’s first women’s rights convention in 1848 and now is home to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Visit www.therealbedfordfalls.com for more information, tickets, volunteer opportunities, and to stay updated on festival details. Or you can contact the festival by email – [email protected] or phone – 315-215-1610.
It’s a Wonderful Life
Seneca Falls/Bedford Falls Connections
• Former Seneca Falls barber, Tom Bellissima, recalled cutting the hair of a man who introduced himself as Frank Capra at a time when the screenplay was still under development. Frank Capra is known to have visited relatives in nearby Auburn.
• Both Seneca Falls and Bedford Falls are located in upstate New York in relatively close proximity to Rochester and Elmira, both are industrial towns on a river.
• In the screenplay, originally Harry Bailey attends Cornell University, located in nearby Ithaca, approximately 50 miles from Seneca Falls. The studio recommended not referring to the college by name.
• Seneca Falls’ Bridge Street bridge, a steel truss bridge, is a close match to the Bedford Falls bridge from which George Bailey jumped to save the angel Clarence.
• Seneca Falls’ bridge has a plaque dedicated to the memory of Antonio Varacalli, who died in 1917 when he jumped into the water, saving a suicidal woman. In the original story, The Greatest Gift, George never actually jumps. Capra may have been inspired by Mr. Varacalli’s selfless act.
• One of the main streets in Bedford Falls is Genesee Street. While Seneca Falls’ main street is named Fall Street, the old Genesee turnpike that traversed the state came right through Seneca Falls.
• Bedford Falls’ high school, or at least it’s gymnasium, was newly built in 1928; Seneca Falls’ new, state of the art high school facility was dedicated in 1926, although without an under-floor pool.
• Both Seneca Falls and Bedford Falls constructed post-war housing developments. Also, Bedford Falls’ housing development, Bailey Park, was built by the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, and provided affordable, decent housing for working-class families. Seneca Falls’ 19th century industrialist, John Rumsey, provided decent affordable homes for his employees, many of which were immigrant families; that neighborhood became known, and is still known, as Rumseyville.
• Both Bedford Falls and Seneca Falls have significant populations of people of Italian and Irish heritage.
• Seneca Falls’ former passenger railroad station is similar to the station featured in the film.
• The principal of the high school in Bedford Falls is Mr. Partridge; Seneca Falls had a very prominent family of bankers and merchants named Partridge.
• A man named Potter was a prominent landowner in Seneca Falls, though we have no knowledge of his demeanor, and should not consider him “the meanest man in the county.”
• The commercial and residential architecture in Seneca Falls is a good match to the film’s architecture; several homes on Cayuga Street in Seneca Falls are similar to the old Granville house where George and Mary Bailey lived.
• A portion of lower Fall Street, near Trinity Church and The Seneca Falls It’s a Wonderful Life Museum & Archives, formerly the old Seneca Theater, had a median dividing the street, as in Bedford Falls.
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BACKGROUND
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Bedford Falls/Seneca Falls Connection
For years some Seneca Falls, NY residents, as well as many visitors to this small Upstate New York community, quietly wondered whether Frank Capra had somehow had Seneca Falls in mind when he created the fictional Bedford Falls as the setting for his 1946 cinematic classic, It’s A Wonderful Life.
On December 15,1995 the question went public as regional newspaper, The Finger Lakes Times, published a front-page article by reporter Craig Fox entitled, “Is Bedford Falls Really Seneca Falls?”
The following July the Albany Times Union published a column entitled, “One Town’s Capraesque Coincidences” about the similarities between these real and fictional communities. This column was picked up and distributed by the New York Times Wire Service, quickly followed by a more in-depth Associated Press article that was widely distributed, generating additional media attention from around the United States, Canada, Germany, as well as the Stars and Stripes military news. On December 18, 1996, CNN came to Seneca Falls to do a story on the connection, and two days later CBS This Morning broadcast live from the Seneca Falls Historical Society highlighting the local Bedford Falls connections.
That holiday season the Seneca Falls Business Association utilized the recent publicity in its seasonal promotions focusing on a new It’s a Wonderful Life theme.
The following year retired local barber, Tom Bellissima, quietly came forward to relate his experience of cutting Frank Capra’s hair in his shop in Seneca Falls at a time when the film’s screenplay was still in development. It is likely that Capra, during his visit, saw a plaque on the Bridge Street Bridge dedicated to the memory of Antonio Varacalli, who lost his life in 1917 while saving the life of a suicidal woman who had leapt into the cold April waters of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. Local belief holds that Capra was influenced by this historic act of heroism to create the scene in which the character, George, jumps from the bridge to save a “drowning” Clarence. 1997 was also the first year in which the film was shown as part of the local holiday celebration. Admission was free, but the audience was encouraged to bring food stuffs, toys and monetary donations for area charitable efforts. This tradition continues today.
As national media attention continued in 1997, Italian newspaper, La Stampa, published an article on the local belief in the connection to Bedford Falls. Not surprisingly, the article played heavily on the Italian heritage of not only Mr. Capra and Mr. Bellissima, but also the fact that nearly 75% of Seneca Falls residents are of Italian descent. At this time local efforts to celebrate the connection each Christmas season were still being organized by an informal committee of municipal officials, businesspeople, and citizens who believed in the connections. By 2001 events continued to expand to include an annual special postal cancellation, exhibits and decorations, a chili-making contest, and continued showing of the film.
In 2002, with the help of the Seneca County Tourism Office, Karolyn Grimes, who portrayed little Zuzu Bailey in the film, made her first visit to witness the annual transformation of Seneca Falls into Bedford Falls. “Zuzu” has come “home” to Seneca Falls each year since. Besides a showing of the film hosted by Ms. Grimes, that year’s celebration also included the first “Dance by The Light of the Moon” and a special live performance of the Lux Theater radio production of “Merry Christmas George Bailey.”
Today, the annual planning of holiday events is handled by the formally organized It’s a Wonderful Life Seneca Falls Inc. Committee. In 2010, The Seneca Falls It’s a Wonderful Life Museum & Archives officially opened its exhibits at 32 Fall Street, the location of the former Seneca Theater. New ideas are constantly being tested to keep the celebration fresh and growing. In 2011, a pre-festival countdown to the film’s 65th anniversary celebration was launched with the inaugural “It’s A Wonderful Walking Tour” as a cooperative effort of the Committee, the Museum, and the Hotel Clarence, now the Gould Hotel. At that year’s Seneca Falls event Ms. Grimes was joined by Carol Coombs-Mueller who portrayed her big sister, “Janie,” in the film. Donna Reed’s youngest daughter, Mary Owen, joined the celebration in 2013. “Janie” and Mary have now become annual visitors, along with “Zuzu.” Each year more and more visitors from around the world come to see the community that could very well have influenced Frank Capra to create Bedford Falls, a town we would all like to call our own.
The 75th Anniversary of It’s a Wonderful Life was celebrated in 2021, with the largest attendance on record. Programming was expanded to include additional cast members who continue to participate to this day.
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