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LOS ANGELES -- George Bailey can rest easy. He really did make a difference in the lives of people, including all 3.8 million in Los Angeles.

Submit this storydigg reddit stumble LOS ANGELES -- George Bailey can rest easy. He really did make a difference in the lives of people, including all 3.8 million in Los Angeles.

Bailey, for the one or two people who still haven't seen the classic Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life," is a man driven to the brink of suicide when he comes to believe his life never really mattered.

It's up to his quirky guardian angel Clarence to set him straight by showing Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, what the world would have been like without him.

To get people in the spirit, Councilman Tom LaBonge, several members of Capra's family and a few others gathered at the director's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on a sunny holiday morning.

The section of the walk, it turns out, is one filled with cheesy souvenir shops and sex toy emporiums. They give it more the look of Pottersville, the disreputable place in the film that the evil banker Mr. Potter turns bucolic Bedford Falls into when Bailey isn't there to stop him.

That didn't dampen Friday's celebration, however, which included Jimmy Hawkins, the actor who played Bailey's 5-year-old son, Tommy.

As one of the last surviving cast members, the 70-year-old actor-producer said he considers it an honor to introduce new audiences to the movie.

When it debuted in theaters in 1946, "It's A Wonderful Life" was actually a commercial and critical flop. But if that bothered Capra, he never let it show.

"My father always said that `It's A Wonderful Life' was the best movie that he ever made," Tom Capra said. "As a matter of fact, he said it was the best movie ever made."

The film, whose story takes place at Christmas, became a holiday classic with the dawn of television, when families began to gather each holiday season to watch it.

"It carried with it the message that you can find in each of my dad's films. The message of hope," Capra said. "Maybe like George Bailey, we should pause for a brief moment and examine our lives and see if we can make a difference as long as we never give up."

1 of 5FIRST SLIDEPREVIOUS SLIDENEXT SLIDESHOW James Stewart, center, is reunited with his wife, Donna Reed, left, and children during the last scene of Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life". (AP Photo)

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James Stewart, center, is reunited with his wife, Donna Reed, left, and children during the last scene of Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life". (AP Photo)

LOS ANGELES -- George Bailey can rest easy. He really did make a difference in the lives of people, including all 3.8 million in Los Angeles. Bailey, for the one or two people who still haven't seen ...

LOS ANGELES -- George Bailey can rest easy. He really did make a difference in the lives of people, including all 3.8 million in Los Angeles. Bailey, for the one or two people who still haven't seen ...

Councilmember Tom LaBonge will annouce today at City Hall that Dec. 3 will be declared "It's a Wonderful Life Day" in the city of Los...

Councilmember Tom LaBonge will annouce today at City Hall that Dec. 3 will be declared "It's a Wonderful Life Day" in the city of Los...

Top 2011 Scandals: What's A Year Without...Christopher Sullivan, U.S. Soldier, Shot At Homecoming...Unlicensed Drivers In California Will No Longer...Occupy LA Costs At Least $2.3 Million,...

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2 minutes ago(11:20 AM) The 2012 remake of this film will of course have the Hero Banker, Potter prevailing and making DARN sure that damned socialist Bailey Gets His!

My favorite scene: When his character is trying to return the uncle's hat to him after an evening out. The uncle has had a few(!) and George Bailey says "It's the middle one!".

12 hours ago(11:44 PM) love this movie. It wasn't quite the flop that the article implies. It didn't make as much money as hoped and it got mixed reviews, but it was also nominated for five academy awards including best film, director and actor.

14 hours ago( 9:45 PM) A couple years ago, I took my lady friend to the intersecti­on of Louise Ave and Oxnard Street in Encino, CA, had her face south and introduced her to Bedford Falls, NY. LOL. I took her photo on the SE corner. This Christmas, she sent out postcards made from that photo that said "Greetings from Bedford Falls, New York, in Encino, Calif." She's an actress and almost all her pals are in the biz out here so they will get the reference. It's a cool postcard. Check out Google Street View for that intersecti­on.

14 hours ago( 9:31 PM) I have a fully restored version of IAWL on DVD and I played it last night for my lady friend and I. Required viewing every Christmas, along with Miracle on 34th Street (the original in black and white.)

17 hours ago( 5:54 PM) The linkage of Mark Twain to the angel is a marvelous aspect of the movie. Twain used what he called the fragrance of humor to preach a humorist's vision of what we need to change. If, for instance, some guy named Romney were running during the Gilded Age Twain railed against and said that he'd never apologize for America, Twain would point out in delicate and indelicate ways that we need to apologize for our worst angels and not simply imagine we are exceptiona­l, perfect, and without sin or other forms of mistake.

I do recall working at a job a very large company whom i will not mention where this film was given as a gift and everyone did not particular­ly like it. They did not know what was going on...actua­lly i was told i was the only one who had a positive view of the offer! Of course in the film a family film children come first and it gnaws at us because very few of us put children first in our life...not that we are bad you just have to fine tune your mind to be that way or it will not naturally come? If you look your life it will be that way...film­s like this could be healing...­bringing things up that gnaw at our conscience­...and societal conscience as well...tha­t's why at christmas it was blasted all over the airwaves for awhile...s­ince very few of us put children first if this film bothers us you deserve to be bothered..­.if this email bothers anyone its served a good function..­.and if anything i say bothers anyone i actually mean to do well...

Here we are in the midst of the election..­... saying the economy is tops on everyone's mind,which or some issue we should bring all these issues together and form a national idea and vote for that candidate.­. reasonable ...people will look at their daily life,their daily experience of what they and their families lack, and need and what is important in their life based on the experience of their daily life...tim­e to reach out to these people and their votes appeal to whatever people think their actual needs are... the declared winner will have done that...

There's been all kinds of talk about journalism lately. If women have a harder time in the profession they are new at, its probably relevant to look into whether they are given a fair chance or what their problems are or why?On an individual basis its hard to judge,but you really hear all kinds of stories,wo­rldwide about female journalist­s especially and i wonder why?Even across american newsrooms,­prominent female journalist­s may be interfered with in all kinds of ways,many men are just uncomforta­ble with females in the news media especially in a prominent role,in a subtle form i noted this myself. I may be wrong and hope i am...but if men can relate to women outside the workplace.­..in a prominent role disemminat­ing news that would be a person they would have problems with......

24 hours ago(11:52 AM) any Repug Tea Partier must denounce this film, right, as it is blatantly socialisti­c in tone, class warfare, showing people getting help with buying houses etc etc.

10:01 AM on 12/25/2011 My husband and I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" again last night, for the first time in years. It is eerily applicable to current times. The aspect that stood out for me, more so than in the past, was the much humbler life imposed on the businessma­n who chooses community and high ideals as opposed to the grandiose and unprincipl­ed life of the unprincipl­ed greedy. In the movie, the rich but rather intangible rewards of a good life are celebrated­, but there is not really any punishment for greed, other than lack of respect and a creeping ugliness that threatens to destroy most everything that we hold sacred. I am somewhat surprised that the movie is still allowed to hold its special place in our hearts.

10:16 AM on 12/25/2011 As I watched it last night (Thanks to my DVR) I listened carefully to the back and forth speeches by George Bailey and Mr. Potter in the scene in the Bailey Savings and Loan after Mr bailey Sr passed....

It was a classic review of the current Conservati­ve extremists (Potter), and the current liberal/de­mocrats, (George Bailey). It could not have been more relevant!!

18 hours ago( 5:46 PM) When I was teaching 10th grade world history, i told the economic teacher to play this movie, especially the scent involving "...that has all the makings of a RUN!" the panicked savings & loan scene, when George Bailey is explaining to the panicked people, "no, no, see, you're money isn't in a dusty old vault someplace, it's in Tom's house and why it's in Your house..."

There was a time back in the 80s when you could find IAWL somewhere on TV just about any time of the day - Every Day! - between Thanksgivi­ng and Christmas night. One year, ('85 I think) I watched it about 34 times.... no lie. I would be channel surfing and if I saw it, I watched it - even if it was 1 AM or later. Drove my husband nuts. But now we're lucky to find it once or twice during the Christmas season. Shame, that.

23 hours ago(11:53 AM) it's not because we were more heartwarmi­ngly moral then - it's because it was a public domain b&w print free to show, and now it's been re-copyrig­hted (& ruined with a color) so stations have to finally pay to show it.

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