HISTORY OF THE MOVIE:
In 1943, Phillip Van Doren Stern wrote a short story entitled The Greatest Gift as a Christmas card to send to his friends and family. Van Doren's literary agent sold the movie rights to the story as a vehicle for Cary Grant. After unsuccessful attempts at a screen treatment, the story was shelved for a few years. Then Frank Capra, who was just out of the army, read the story and wanted it for Jimmy Stewart, who had just completed his service with the Air Force. Capra and Stewart felt it was the perfect vehicle for both of them as their first project after World War II. A number of screenwriters tried their hand at a treatment, but Capra wasn't satisfied. He finally settled on working with Albert Hackett and Hackett's wife, Frances Goodrich (who were later to win a Pulitzer Prize for their play, The Diary of Anne Frank).The film, renamed It's a Wonderful Life, was released by Republic Films in December, 1946. The movie was greeted lukewarmly by critics and audiences alike, some feeling it was too sentimental, too sweet, calling it "Capra-Corn." Ironically, others felt it was too dark and depressing, following World War II. It was not a huge box-office success, in fact, the film lost money. It was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Jimmy Stewart for Best Actor, but failed to win in any category. The film was shelved and forgotten for many years.
After years of mergers and acquisitions in the film industry, ownership of the film changed hands many times. Copyright protection in this era was limited to twenty-seven years. Add twenty-seven years to 1946 and you come up with 1973. Strangely, for no good reason, no one at Republic Pictures renewed the copyright for It's a Wonderful Life and it entered the public domain. This "fumble" resulted in many cable and independent, non-network stations showing the film repeatedly, for free, during the Christmas season for many years. It was television that made It's a Wonderful Life the beloved classic it is today. It is probable that without the copyright falling into the public domain, It's a Wonderful Life would not enjoy its current "classic" status.
In the 1980s, Ted Turner acquired the rights from a federal judge to colorize the film, as well as rights for video sales and broadcast rights. These were later sold again, and now NBC holds the broadcast rights and broadcasts the film once or twice a year during the Christmas season. While the broadcast and video sale rights have been awarded to NBC and Artisan Entertainment, the screenplay remains in the public domain. As a result, there are multiple plays and musical versions based on the screenplay.
