30 Fascinating Things You Didn't Know About 'It's a Wonderful Life'

After failing to find a publisher, Stern decided to print his story as a 21-page Christmas card that he sent to 200 of his friends in 1943. An RKO Pictures producer saw the "card" and convinced the studio to buy the rights to the story, which were eventually sold to Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films.

Stern's short story was also eventually published as a book in 1944—and Stern also sold the story to Good Housekeeping, which published it in its January 1945 issue under the title "The Man Who Was Never Born."

Lionel Barrymore (who played Mr. Potter in the movie) convinced Stewart to be in it. Stewart was also nervous about the phone kiss scene, his first on-screen kiss since returning from war.

Look closely—you can see Stewart sweating in some of those snowy scenes. Ah, the magic of Hollywood.

Prior to It's a Wonderful Life, most movie productions used cornflakes painted white as "snow." However, Capra found this special effect to be too noisy, so he had the special effects department mix foamite (a fire-fighting chemical) with sugar and water. A whopping 6,000 gallons of this new "chemical snow" transformed the California set into a winter wonderland.

After leaving the house, it sounds like Uncle Billy stumbles into trash cans and we hear him yell, "I'm alright, I'm alright." This wasn't a line in the script—it was a crew member who accidentally dropped equipment during filming and Capra decided to keep it. The crew member even got a $10 bonus for his off-screen appearance as "Uncle Billy."

While a stuntman was standing by to throw a rock at the window, Reed broke it herself on the first try (which could apparently be attributed to her high school baseball days).

It's a Wonderful Life had a big budget for the time ($3.7 million), so it's no wonder that the crew put a lot of time and effort into constructing the town of Bedford Falls. The set took two months to build and included 75 buildings stretched out over four acres in Encino, California.

While the fictional town's name combines those of Bedford Hills in New York's Westchester County and Seneca Falls in New York's Finger Lakes region, the latter claims to be the real deal. Seneca Falls even has a website, called TheRealBefordFalls.com, which is dedicated to pointing out all of the similarities between the two towns.

You guessed it—it's located in Seneca Falls. The town is also home to an annual It's a Wonderful Life festival. Plus, you can run in a movie-themed 5K and enjoy an annual festival each winter.

While It's a Wonderful Life didn't win any of the five major Oscars it was nominated for, it did take home a trophy. The RKO Effects Department received a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The landmark Swim-Gym is located in Beverly Hills High School and is still used today.

"The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it," Capra once said, according to Mental Floss. "I'm like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I'm proud… but it's the kid who did the work. I didn't even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea."

Switzer played the character who pushes the button that opens the gym floor to reveal the pool—but he is uncredited in the movie.

The original final scene had the cast singing "Ode to Joy" instead of "Auld Lang Syne."

Receiving mixed reviews, It's a Wonderful Life only made back $3.3 of its $3.7 million budget at first. It placed 26th in box office sales for all films released in 1947—right ahead of Miracle On 34th Street.

When It's a Wonderful Life's copyright lapsed in 1974, it became available royalty-free to any station that wanted to air it until 1994. Of course, thanks to repeated airings throughout the '80s, it's now a Christmas classic that's guaranteed to make an appearance on our television screens each holiday season.