It could be there is a true story behind the decades-old Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Having become nearly synonymous with the Christmas holiday, viewers return year after year to watch George Bailey come to terms with his beautiful, normal, small-town life in the fictional town of Bedford Falls, NY. While the set of the idyllic Bedford Falls is meant to appear as quintessential every-town, America, it bears striking similarities to another—real—small town with its own George Bailey.
Set in 1945 on a snowy Christmas Eve, It’s a Wonderful Life follows Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey, Bedford Falls’ resident good guy, who has given up all his dreams in an effort to help others. Ready to end his life, George prepares to take his own life by jumping off a bridge when his guardian angel, Clarence, appears and jumps into the canal first. George Bailey saves him, and the pair set off on an epic journey together as Clarence shows George what everyone’s life would be like if George had never been born.
Though the film is supposedly loosely based on Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol (with other contemporary versions including the much-loved kids’ movie, The Muppets Christmas Carol), clues point to other inspirations as well. The film’s Bedford Falls—though a set—may have been based on Seneca Falls, NY, a small town, so like It’s a Wonderful Life that they have established a museum and an annual festival in the film’s name. Likewise, the story of George Bailey may stem from the story of one of Seneca Falls’ residents Antonio Varacalli.
Director Frank Capra visited Seneca Falls, NY, while writing the script for It’s a Wonderful Life and seems to have drawn much inspiration from the small town. Throughout Seneca Falls, many structural similarities can be seen compared to It’s a Wonderful Life. At the time, Seneca Falls’ lower main street had a grassy median down the center of town like the one George Bailey runs down in It’s a Wonderful Life. The Seneca Falls railroad station in 1945 was nearly identical to the one seen in the film and Victorian homes peppered the town. Additionally, It’s a Wonderful Life references nearby towns of Rochester and Elmira, with a train that ran straight to Buffalo from Seneca Falls the year the film was made.
Most significantly, Seneca Falls is home to the Bridge Street Bridge—a steel truss bridge identical to the one George is seen on in the film—which bears an important plaque. The plaque memorializes Antonio Varacalli, who, in 1917, died saving a woman who had jumped into the canal in an attempted suicide. Following his heroic act, the town came together and raised money to fund Varacalli’s life-long dream of bringing his family to the U.S. from Italy, much like how the townspeople of Bedford Falls—all of the people whose lives would have been changed if George Bailey had not been born—came together, pooling their money to save George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life.
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