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Husband and wife scriptwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett raised this very issue even as the film was still in production, taking it to a Screenwriters Guild arbitration. You’ll notice the results of the guild’s determination in cards at the top of the movie you likely watch each December. Frank Capra was given third position credit after Goodrich and Hackett, and Capra's writer for the final shooting script, Jo Swerling, was credited for additional scenes. Philip Van Doren Stern was credited for his original short story, The Greatest Gift, while playwright Clifford Odets, who the podcast discovered contributed much to the movie’s first act, is uncredited. So too is Dorothy Parker, who contributed some memorable lines to the dialogue.

“That's a tough one, because it was grandpa’s,” says Capra’s granddaughter Monica Capra Hodges. “I would say he's the author, but he's not the only author. It was his creation, with everybody else's help. It would be an insult to him if I didn't say he was the author, because I do believe that that's what he thought.”

“I mean, the film is Capra and dad really,” postulates Kelly Stewart Harcourt, one of two biological daughters born to Jimmy Stewart, who brought to life the movie’s protagonist George Bailey, voted in a 2003 American Film Institute poll the 9th Greatest American Movie Hero of all time. She raises whether actors deserve to be seen alongside directors and writers in a movie’s formation. “I don't think that many actors could have made a story like that so believable, being shown what his life would be like if he hadn't been born. You know, it just didn't seem ridiculous [the way he performed it.]”

Capra tended late in life to speak dismissively in interviews about the movie’s contributions from its original story writer Van Doren Stern, a matter the writer’s three granddaughters have sought to rectify. Since It’s a Wonderful Life fell into the public domain in 1974, his heirs and their small family-owned The Greatest Gift Company have held the copyright claims to the portions of Van Doren Stern’s story enmeshed in the movie. The idea first came in a strangely vivid dream in 1938 that the mostly non-fiction writer recalled the next morning, on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, while undertaking his definitive Lincoln biography.

“This story has a man named George, who's a banker in a small town standing on a bridge, contemplating jumping in,” argues Van Doren Stern granddaughter Sarah Robinson of his strong claims to be considered a significant creator. “It has George's wish never to be born and the grant of the wish by this nondescript, cheerie stranger. And then, of course, the tour of the never-born George to the town… and his desperate visits to his non-parents and his non-wife, his return to the bridge and the stranger to ask for his life back and his reemergence with new eyes in the world in which George had never been born. The bank that he worked in had failed and his brother had drowned because he had not been there to save him as a child. And Mary lived a hard, sad life. This is all from the initial draft, the initial writing of the dream.”

Odets’ son Walt Whitman Odets, who has rarely spoken about his father’s contributions, raises in the podcast whether his grandfather was an inspiration for actor Lionel Barrymore’s Mr. Potter, voted in that same American Film Institute poll the 6th Greatest American Movie Villain.

“[Mr. Potter] kind of looked like my grandfather,” Odets reveals. “[Clifford’s] father, whom he couldn't stand, was interested in nothing but money. My sister and I weren't permitted to see him because my father didn't want us exposed to someone like that.”

The rest of the story is told in George Bailey Was Never Born, episode 8, entitled “The Creators’ Movie (1938-’73)”, available now wherever you get your podcasts.

“George Bailey Was Never Born” is distributed by iHeartPodcasts.

Potentially Available for Media Appearances & Interviews: Monica Capra Hodges, Frank Capra III, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, Sarah Robinson, Walt Whitman Odets, Mark Harris, Ray Nowosielski & Kurt Engfehr (creators of the podcast)

Link To Cover Art here

Visit iHeart.com/apps to download iHeartRadio and listen to “George Bailey Was Never Born” on your favorite device.

About iHeartMedia

iHeartMedia, Inc. [Nasdaq: IHRT] is the leading audio media company in America, reaching over 90% of Americans every month. iHeart’s broadcast radio assets alone have more consumer reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet; twice the reach of the next largest broadcast radio company; and over four times the ad-enabled reach of the largest digital only audio service. iHeart is the largest podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more downloads than the next two podcast publishers combined and has the number one social footprint among audio players, with seven times more followers than the next audio media brand, and the only fully integrated audio ad tech solution across broadcast, streaming and podcasts. The company continues to leverage its strong audience connection and unparalleled consumer reach to build new platforms, products and services. Visit iHeartMedia.com for more company information.

About Double Asterisk

Double Asterisk, Inc., is the documentary and podcast media company of John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski. DA’s first major podcast series, After the Uprising, was nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Podcast. Visit DoubleAsteriskMedia.com for more company information.

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