A Little Known Fact About It's a Wonderful Life

As Gossips pointed out last week, the town of Bedford Falls, New York, in It's a Wonderful Life was, in fact, an elaborate four-acre Hollywood set which involved seventy-five buildings and twenty fully grown oak trees. Gossips has since learned that Seneca Falls is believed to have been the inspiration for Bedford Falls, and the bridge where George Bailey contemplates ending his life and meets up with Clarence Odbody is modeled after the actual bridge over the Seneca River. When you see the movie on the big screen, you may notice this detail: an arrow shaped sign on the bridge that reads "Albany."

This detail was pointed out by Michael O'Hara, who saw It's a Wonderful Life last Saturday at Friends of Fairview Cinema 3's Breakfast and a Movie. He also shared these comments about the experience:

Like many people, I've seen this movie on TV dozens of times and can quote long passages of the script. I attended last week's showing of  It's a Wonderful Life and was very impressed by the difference between the movie theater experience of this film and the TV-based experience. The expansion of the visual field allows for much higher resolution of details and a greatly improved overall "immersion" in the atmosphere of the film. Also, the theme of the movie is very much in alignment with the theme of the fundraising event. This sort of collective experience--sharing a performance with other people instead of in isolation--is worthy of our support. I recommend this film highly and encourage all Gossips readers to use this opportunity to support our community theater.

Don't miss your second chance to see It's a Wonderful Life on the big screen at Fairview Cinema 3 on Saturday, December 21. The movie starts at 10 a.m., but come anytime after 9:30 to get your coffee and cake and settle in to enjoy a memorable holiday experience. A donation of $25 is suggested to help our only locally owned, hometown movie house (just across the border in Greenport) survive the switch to digital.

Enjoy a happy ending and be part of making another one happen!