document_title: Christmas card

question_text: who commissioned the first christmas card in 1843

text: Christmas card

text: History[edit]

text: The first Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole and illustrated by John Callcott Horsley in London on 1st May 1843.[1][2][3] The central picture showed three generations of a family raising a toast to the card's recipient: on either side were scenes of charity, with food and clothing being given to the poor.[4] Allegedly the image of the family drinking wine together proved controversial, but the idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2,050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each.[5]

text: Early British cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials. At Christmas 1873, the lithograph firm Prang and Mayer began creating greeting cards for the popular market in Britain The firm began selling the Christmas card in America in 1874, thus becoming the first printer to offer cards in America. Its owner, Louis Prang, is sometimes called the "father of the American Christmas card."[6] By the 1880s, Prang was producing over five million cards a year by using the chromolithography process of printmaking.[1] However, the popularity of his cards led to cheap imitations that eventually drove him from the market. The advent of the postcard spelled the end for elaborate Victorian-style cards, but by the 1920s, cards with envelopes had returned. The extensive Laura Seddon Greeting Card Collection from the Manchester Metropolitan University gathers 32,000 Victorian and Edwardian greeting cards, printed by the major publishers of the day,[7] including Britain’s first commercially produced Christmas card.[8]

text: The production of Christmas cards was, throughout the 20th century, a profitable business for many stationery manufacturers, with the design of cards continually evolving with changing tastes and printing techniques. The now widely recognized brand Hallmark Cards was established in 1913 by Joyce Hall with the help of brother Rollie Hall to market their self-produced Christmas cards.[9] The Hall brothers capitalized on a growing desire for more personalized greeting cards, and reached critical success when the outbreak of World War I increased demand for cards to send to soldiers.[9] The World Wars brought cards with patriotic themes. Idiosyncratic "studio cards" with cartoon illustrations and sometimes risque humor caught on in the 1950s. Nostalgic, sentimental, and religious images have continued in popularity, and, in the 21st century, reproductions of Victorian and Edwardian cards are easy to obtain. Modern Christmas cards can be bought individually but are also sold in packs of the same or varied designs. In recent decades changes in technology may be responsible for the decline of the Christmas card. The estimated number of cards received by American households dropped from 29 in 1987 to 20 in 2004.[10] Email and telephones allow for more frequent contact and are easier for generations raised without handwritten letters - especially given the availability of websites offering free email Christmas cards. Despite the decline, 1.9 billion cards were sent in the U.S. in 2005 alone.[11] Some card manufacturers now provide E-cards. In the UK, Christmas cards account for almost half of the volume of greeting card sales, with over 668.9 million Christmas cards sold in the 2008 festive period.[12] In mostly non-religious countries (e.g. Czech Republic), the cards are rather called New Year Cards, however they are sent before Christmas and the emphasis (design, texts) is mostly given to the New Year, omitting religious symbols.

text: Official Christmas cards[edit]

text: "Official" Christmas cards began with Queen Victoria in the 1840s. The British royal family's cards are generally portraits reflecting significant personal events of the year.

text: Despite the governing practice of the separation of church and state within American politics, there is a long-standing custom for the President and First Lady to send White House Christmas Cards each holiday season.[13] The practice originated with President Calvin Coolidge, who was the first president to issue a written statement of peaceful tidings during the holidays in 1927.[13][14] President Herbert Hoover was the first to give Christmas notes to the White House staff, and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president to utilize the card format (rather than the previously used notes or a written statement) that most closely resembles the Christmas cards of today.[13]

text: In 1953, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first official White House card. The cards usually depict White House scenes as rendered by prominent American artists. The number of recipients has snowballed over the decades, from just 2,000 in 1961 to 1.4 million in 2005.[15]

text: Commercial Christmas cards[edit]

text: Many businesses, from small local businesses to multi-national enterprises send Christmas cards to the people on their customer lists, as a way to develop general goodwill, retain brand awareness and reinforce social networks. These cards are almost always discrete and secular in design, and do not attempt to sell a product, limiting themselves to mentioning the name of the business. The practice harkens back to trade cards of the 18th century, an ancestor of the modern Christmas card.

text: Charity Christmas cards[edit]

text: Many organizations produce special Christmas cards as a fundraising tool. The most famous of these enterprises is probably the UNICEF Christmas card program,[16] launched in 1949, which selects artwork from internationally known artists for card reproduction. The UK-based Charities Advisory Trust gives out an annual "Scrooge Award" to the cards that return the smallest percentage to the charities they claim to support[17] although it is not universally well received by the Christmas card producers.[18]

text: Christmas stamps and stickers[edit]

text: Many countries produce official Christmas stamps, which may be brightly colored and depict some aspect of Christmas tradition or a Nativity scene. Small decorative stickers are also made to seal the back of envelopes, typically showing a trinket or some symbol of Christmas.

text: In 2004, the German post office gave away 20 million free scented stickers, to make Christmas cards smell of a fir Christmas tree, cinnamon, gingerbread, a honey-wax candle, a baked apple and an orange.

text: Collectors items[edit]

text: From the beginning, Christmas cards have been avidly collected. Queen Mary amassed a large collection that is now housed in the British Museum.[19] The University College London's Slade School of Fine Art houses a collection of handmade Christmas Cards from alumni such as Paula Rego and Richard Hamilton and are displayed at events over the Christmas season, when members of the public can make their own Christmas cards in the Strang Print Room.[20] Specimens from the "golden age" of printing (1840s–1890s) are especially prized and bring in large sums at auctions. In December 2005, one of Horsley's original cards sold for nearly £9,000. Collectors may focus on particular images like Santa Claus, poets, or printing techniques. The Christmas card that holds the world record as the most expensive ever sold was a card produced in 1843 by J. C. Horsley and commissioned by civil servant Sir Henry Cole. The card, one of the world's first, was sold in 2001 by UK auctioneers Henry Aldridge to an anonymous bidder for a record breaking £22,250.[21]

text:
Santa Claus and his reindeer

Silk cord and tassels, c. 1860

Victorian, c. 1870

Christmas Card, 1880

Victorian, 1885

Postcard, c. 1901

Christmas card, 1904

Christmas postcard 1907

Christmas card, 1912

American card, c. 1920

Frances Brundage Christmas card, 1910

text: Home-made cards[edit]

text: Since the 19th century, many families and individuals have chosen to make their own Christmas cards, either in response to monetary necessity, as an artistic endeavour, or in order to avoid the commercialism associated with Christmas cards. With a higher preference of handmade gifts during the 19th century over purchased or commercial items, homemade cards carried high sentimental value as gifts alone. Many families make the creation of Christmas cards a family endeavour and part of the seasonal festivity, along with stirring the Christmas cake and decorating the tree. Over the years such cards have been produced in every type of paint and crayon, in collage and in simple printing techniques such as potato-cuts. A revival of interest in paper crafts, particularly scrapbooking, has raised the status of the homemade card and made available an array of tools for stamping, punching and cutting.

text: Advances in digital photography and printing have provided the technology for many people to design and print their own cards, using their original graphic designs or photos, or those available with many computer programs or online as clip art, as well as a great range of typefaces. Such homemade cards include personal touches such as family photos and holidays snapshots. Crowdsourcing, another trend enabled by the Internet, has allowed thousands of independent and hobbyist graphic designers to produce and distribute holiday cards around the world.

text: The Christmas card list[edit]

text: Many people send cards to both close friends and distant acquaintances, potentially making the sending of cards a multi-hour chore in addressing dozens or even hundreds of envelopes. The greeting in the card can be personalized but brief, or may include a summary of the year's news. The extreme of this is the Christmas letter (below). Because cards are usually exchanged year after year, the phrase "to be off someone's Christmas card list" is used to indicate a falling out between friends or public figures.

text: Christmas letters[edit]

text: Some people take the annual mass mailing of cards as an opportunity to update those they know with the year's events, and include the so-called "Christmas letter" reporting on the family's doings, sometimes running to multiple printed pages. In the UK these are known as round-robin letters.[22] While a practical notion, Christmas letters meet with a mixed reception; recipients may take it as boring minutiae, bragging, or a combination of the two, whereas other people appreciate Christmas letters as more personal than mass-produced cards with a generic missive and an opportunity to "catch up" with the lives of family and friends who are rarely seen or communicated with. Since the letter will be received by both close and distant relatives, there is also the potential for the family members to object to how they are presented to others; an entire episode of Everybody Loves Raymond was built around conflict over the content of just such a letter.

text: Environmental impact and recycling[edit]

text: During the first 70 years of the 19th century it was common for Christmas and other greeting cards to be recycled by women's service organizations who collected them and removed the pictures, to be pasted into scrap books for the entertainment of children in hospitals, orphanages, kindergartens and missions. With children's picture books becoming cheaper and more readily available, this form of scrap-booking has almost disappeared.

text: Recent concern over the environmental impact of printing, mailing and delivering cards has fueled an increase in e-cards.[23][24]

text: The U.K. conservation charity Woodland Trust runs an annual campaign to collect and recycle Christmas cards to raise awareness of recycling and collect donations from corporate sponsors and supporters. All recycled cards help raise money to plant more trees. In the 12 years that the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme has been running, more than 600 million cards have been recycled. This has enabled the Woodland Trust to plant more than 141,000 trees, save over 12,000 tonnes of paper from landfill and stop over 16,000 tonnes of CO2 from going into the atmosphere – the equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road for a year.[25] The scheme has had celebrity supporters including Jo Brand, Dermot O' Leary and Sean Bean and is the longest running scheme of its type in the country.[26]

text: International Christmas greetings[edit]

text: The traditional English greeting of "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" as it appears in other languages:[27]

text:
Albanian: Gëzuar Krishtlindjet dhe Vitin e Ri
Basque: Gabon Zoriontsuak eta urte berri on
Breton: Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat
Bulgarian: Весела Коледа и Честита Нова Година
Catalan: Bon Nadal i Feliç Any Nou
Chinese Simplified (China, except Hong Kong): 圣诞快乐，新年进步
Chinese Traditional (Hong Kong & Taiwan): 聖誔快樂，新年進步
Cornish: Nadelik Lowen, Bledhen Nowyth Da.
Croatian - Hrvatski: Čestit Božić i sretna Nova godina
Czech: Veselé vánoce a šťastný nový rok.[28] But mostly used is secular 'P.F.' standing for French 'Pour féliciter' (literally 'For happiness in the year...').
Danish: Glædelig jul og godt nytår! or simply God jul
Dutch: Prettige kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar
Estonian: Häid jõule ja head uut aastat
Esperanto: Gajan kristnaskon kaj feliĉan novan jaron
Filipino: Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon
Finnish: Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta
French: Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année
Galician: Bo Nadal e Feliz Aninovo
Georgian: გილოცავთ შობა-ახალ წელს
German: Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches/gutes Neues Jahr
Greek: Καλά Χριστούγεννα και ευτυχισμένος ο Καινούριος Χρόνος
Hungarian: Kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket és boldog új évet or simply B. ú. é. k.
Icelandic: Gleðileg jól og farsælt nýtt ár
Indonesian: Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru
Irish: Nollaig Shona Duit
Italian: Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo
Kashubian: Wiesołëch Gòdów i szczestlewégò Nowégò Rokù
Korean : 메리 크리스마스
Japanese: メリー・クリスマス
Latvian: Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus un laimīgu Jauno gadu
Lithuanian: Linksmų šventų Kalėdų ir laimingų Naujųjų metų
Macedonian: Среќна Нова Година и честит Божиќ
Malay: Selamat Hari Krismas dan Tahun Baru
Maltese: Il-Milied Hieni u s-Sena t-Tajba
Mongolian: Зул сар болон Шинэ жилийн баярын мэнд хүргье
Norwegian: God jul og godt nyttår
Persian: کریسمس و سال نو مبارک
Polish: Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku
Portuguese: Feliz Natal e um Feliz Ano Novo
Romanian: Crăciun Fericit și La mulți ani
Russian: С Новым годом и Рождеством Христовым!
Sinhala: Suba naththalak wewa, suba aluth aurudhak wewa
Slovak: Veselé Vianoce a Štastný Nový rok
Slovenian: Vesel Božič in Srečno Novo Leto
Spanish: Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo
Swedish: God Jul och Gott Nytt År
Vietnamese: Chúc mừng Giáng Sinh và chúc mừng năm mơi (acute accent over ơ in "mơi")
Ukrainian: Веселих свят! (Happy Holidays!) / З Новим роком і Різдвом Христовим!
Urdu:آپکو بڑا دن اور نیا سال مبارک ہو
Welsh: Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

text:
Christmas postcards

American card, c. 1940

War-related, c. 1943

Rust Craft, c. 1950

Snow in the Netherlands

Christmas card

Christmas card Frances Brundage

Merry Christmas card

Christmas tree market

Christmas card with embroidery

Christmas Card

Santa Claus clothes


document_title: Land of the Lost (film)

question_text: who plays chaka from land of the lost

question_tokens: who plays chaka from land of the lost

root

text: Land of the Lost (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Pompous paleontologist Rick Marshall has a low-level job at the La Brea Tar Pits, three years after a disastrous interview with Matt Lauer of Today became a viral video and ruined his career. Doctoral candidate Holly Cantrell tells him that his controversial theories combining time warps and paleontology inspired her. She shows him a fossil with an imprint of a cigarette lighter that he recognizes as his own along with a crystal made into a necklace that gives off strong tachyon energy. She convinces him to finish his tachyon amplifier and come help her on a seemingly routine expedition to the cave where Holly found the fossil, which is in the middle of nowhere. With cave gift shop owner Will Stanton they raft into the cave, where Marshall has detected high levels of tachyons. He activates the tachyon amplifier, triggering an earthquake that opens a time warp into which the raft falls. The group finds themselves in a desert, filled with various items from many eras, and without the amplifier. They rescue a primate-like creature, Cha-Ka of the Pakuni tribe, who becomes their friend and guide.

tag: p

text: The gang spends a night in a cave after surviving a meeting with a fast, intelligent Tyrannosaurus they nickname "Grumpy", who stalks Marshall for calling him stupid.  Marshall receives a telepathic message begging for help and finds himself in ancient ruins. The group encounters a race of lizard men called Sleestaks before meeting the one who sent Marshall the telepathic message, Enik the Altrusian. He explains that he was exiled by the evil Zarn who is attempting to take over Earth with his Sleestak minions, but Enik can prevent this if Marshall retrieves the tachyon amplifier.

text: The group stumble upon a desert where many things from across time end up and they encounter many Compsognathus, Dromaeosaurs, Grumpy, and a female Allosaurus. The Allosaurus and Grumpy battle it out over a previously killed ice-cream seller until they sense Marshall and chase him. Marshall kills the Allosaurus with liquid nitrogen and finds that the amplifier was eaten by the Allosaurus. The amplifier is then stolen by a Pteranodon and taken to its nest. The group arrives at the nest and Marshall lightly steps through the Pteranodon eggs to retrieve the amplifier, but when he reaches it, it stops broadcasting the soundtrack to Marshall's favorite musical A Chorus Line. When the eggs begin to hatch, Holly realizes that the music was acting as a sort of lullaby keeping the baby Pteranodons asleep. Marshall, Will and Holly belt out "I Hope I Get It", with Cha-ka inexplicably joining in, displaying an impressive singing voice.

text: Marshall, Will and Cha-ka celebrate their good fortune. Meanwhile, Holly pockets a dinosaur egg and learns from a recording left by the long-deceased Zarn that Enik deceived them and he is actually the one planning to invade Earth. But she is captured by the Sleestaks to be brought to the Library of Skulls for judgment. The others save her from being executed for helping Enik, but the villain—now possessing the amplifier, and mind-controlling the Sleestaks—leaves them to open a portal to Earth. Marshall pole vaults into Grumpy's mouth and after removing an intestinal blockage, befriends him. He joins the others to defeat the Sleestak army and confront Enik. After the crystal link between the Land of the Lost and Earth is shattered, Enik reveals the portal will close forever. Thinking fast, Marshall grabs Holly's crystal and inserts it into the port, knowing that the substitute crystal won't hold for long. Will chooses to stay behind to live a better life and to prevent Enik from following Marshall and Holly back to Earth, learning later that female Pakuni are very attractive.

text: A triumphant Marshall again appears on Today with the dinosaur egg Holly brought back to promote his new book Matt Lauer Can Suck It. The egg left behind on the Today set hatches a baby Sleestak, which hisses as the screen goes black.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Will Ferrell as Dr. Rick Marshall, a renowned paleontologist and author, determined to prove his theory on time warps, thus embarking on a time travel experiment.
Anna Friel as Holly Cantrell, Rick's biggest fan.
Danny McBride as Will Stanton, a gift shop owner who takes Holly and Rick to a tachyon rich cave.
Jorma Taccone as Cha-Ka
John Boylan as Enik who plans to invade and conquer Earth, and deceives Rick and the others into believing otherwise; he also controls the Sleestak.
Matt Lauer as Himself
Leonard Nimoy as voice of The Zarn
Douglas Tait as Sleestak

tag: ul

text: The original actors who played Holly and Will in the TV series, Kathy Coleman and Wesley Eure, filmed cameos for the film.[4] However, the final version of the film cut these scenes.[4] Bobb'e J. Thompson, Kiernan Shipka (uncredited), Dylan Sprayberry, and Sierra McCormick appeared in a cameo as Tar Pit Kids and Raymond Ochoa as an uncredited boy in a museum.[5]

text: Production[edit]

text: Production for the film began on March 4, 2008. Only one week's worth of filming was shot using a large-scale soundstage with green screen technology.[6] The rest of filming took place on location in places such as the Dumont Dunes in the Mojave Desert, the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park, and Trona, California.[citation needed]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: The first trailer was shown during Super Bowl XLIII. Subway Restaurants, which paid to appear in the film and had cross promotions with (appearing on their cups), unveiled the second trailer exclusively on their website. JW Marriott Hotels and Pop Rocks also purchased rights to market with film tie-ins.[7] Syfy aired a marathon of the original series on Memorial Day in 2009 in coordination with the studio to have frequent film clips and an interview with Sid and Marty Krofft.[8] After the film's release, another marathon aired on Chiller on June 6. The majority of the first two seasons were also made available on Hulu. Ahead of the film's release, Universal also released the complete series on DVD; it had previously been released by Rhino Home Video. The entire series is also available via download from Xbox Live. Two different games were released online to promote the film. "Chakker" was available to play on the film's official Web site while "Crystal Adventure" was a free downloadable game for iPhones from Kewlbox. Both Subway and MapQuest hosted an online sweepstakes on their respective Web sites with various movie-related merchandise given away as prizes. Both sweepstakes ran from May 18 through June 7 of 2009. Ferrell also appeared on the season 4 premiere of Man vs. Wild, which aired June 2, 2009, to promote the film.

text: Music[edit]

text: The score to Land of the Lost was composed by Michael Giacchino, who recorded his score with an 88-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony and a 35-person choir.[9] On May 10, it was also announced by Dave Mustaine on TheLiveLine that some music from Megadeth would appear in the film.[10] Whether this would be music from the new record was not entirely clear, however during the phone message Mustaine stated that there was new music playing in the background of the message. However parts of the song "The Right to Go Insane", from the 2009 album Endgame, can be heard near the end of the film. In the film, Rick Marshall sings the original Land of the Lost theme and two other tracks (Tracks 5 and 27) utilize parts of the theme as well., The musical A Chorus Line plays a part in the story, and Ferrell sings Cher's 1998 dance pop hit "Believe". Varèse Sarabande released the soundtrack album on June 9, 2009 (tracks 30-32 are bonus tracks).

text: Differences from original series[edit]

text: The film serves as a parody of the original TV series, similar to Starsky & Hutch and The Brady Bunch Movie.[citation needed] In the original series, the main characters were the father and two children. While the first names remain the same, the film converts the Holly character into an unrelated research assistant to allow for more risque humor because she is the main character's love interest.[11]  Will, instead of being a son, is an amusement park operator and survivalist.[12]  Rick Marshall is a paleontologist in the film, not a park ranger as in the original series. The film's budget also uses CGI special effects rather than the puppet and stop motion animation effects that defined the original series."[13]  While the original Saturday morning show targeted a child audience, the film was designed for a more adult audience and includes profanity, sex, and a drug reference, among other adult-oriented items.[14]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 26% based on 188 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Only loosely based on the original TV series, Land of the Lost is decidedly less kid-friendly and feels more like a series of inconsistent sketches than a cohesive adventure comedy."[15] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 32 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[16] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[17]

text: The Wall Street Journal stated that it "isn't worth the celluloid it's printed on", Entertainment Weekly remarked that "it leaves you feeling splattered", the New York Daily News called it "a high-concept disaster", The Christian Science Monitor labeled it "resolutely uninspired", The Hollywood Reporter labeled it "lame", and The Miami Herald commented that "the whole thing feels at least three summers too stale." A few critics professed admiration for it, notably Roger Ebert who gave the film three stars out of four and wrote:

text:
“

The dinosaurs are so obviously not really there in shots where they menace humans that you could almost say their shots are about how they're not really there. Confronted with such effects, the actors make not the slightest effort to appear terrified, amazed or sometimes even mildly concerned. Some might consider that a weakness. I suspect it is more of a deliberate choice, and I say I enjoyed it.[18]

”

tag: table

text: Empire magazine's Sam Toy put the film #8 on his best of the year list.[19] On February 1, 2010, the film led the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards with seven nominations (tied with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Ferrell), Worst Director (Silberling), Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor (Taccone), Worst Screen Couple (Ferrell and any co-star, creature or "comic riff") and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. The film won the Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel award.[20] While at the Savannah Film Festival in 2011, Ron Meyer (president of Universal Pictures), said that "Land of the Lost was just crap. I mean, there was no excuse for it. The best intentions all went wrong."[21][22]

text: Awards[edit]

text:
Award

Category

Nominee

Result

Golden Raspberry Award

Worst Actor

Will Ferrell

Nominated

Worst Screen Couple

Nominated

Any co-star, creature or "comic riff"

Nominated

Worst Director

Brad Silberling

Nominated

Worst Picture

Universal Pictures

Nominated

Worst Screenplay

Dennis McNicholas and Chris Henchy

Nominated

Worst Supporting Actor

Jorma Taccone

Nominated

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel

Won

text: Box office[edit]

text: On its opening day of June 5, the film was a box office flop by grossing only $7.9 million. The film performed under expectations in its first weekend in theaters, its $19 million opening was far less than the expected $30 million. The film's box office results fell far behind that of the 2009 comedy The Hangover, which opened during the same weekend.[23][24] The film's opening weekend gross was about two-thirds what Universal reportedly expected to earn.[25] It made $69 million worldwide.[3] In 2014, the Los Angeles Times listed the film as one of the most expensive box office flops of all time.[26]

text: Home media[edit]

text: The DVD was released on October 13, 2009, with sales reaching $20,286,563 as of August 2011.[3]


document_title: Bible translations into English

question_text: what is the best selling bible translation of all time

text: Bible translations into English

text: Old English[edit]

text: Although John Wycliffe is often credited with the first translation of the Bible into English, there were in fact many translations of large parts of the Bible centuries before Wycliffe's work. The English Bible was first translated from the Latin Vulgate into Old English by a few select monks and scholars. Such translations were generally in the form of prose or as interlinear glosses (literal translations above the Latin words).

text: Very few complete translations existed during that time. Most of the books of the Bible existed separately and were read as individual texts. Thus the sense of the Bible as history that often exists today did not exist at that time. Instead, an allegorical rendering of the Bible was more common and translations of the Bible often included the writer’s own commentary on passages in addition to the literal translation.

text: Toward the end of the 7th century, the Venerable Bede began a translation of scripture into Old English (often incorrectly called Anglo-Saxon). Aldhelm (c. 639–709) translated the complete Book of Psalms and large portions of other scriptures into Old English.

text: In the 10th century an Old English translation of the Gospels was made in the Lindisfarne Gospels: a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred, Provost of Chester-le-Street.[3] This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English language.[3]

text: The Wessex Gospels (also known as the West-Saxon Gospels) are a full translation of the four gospels into a West Saxon dialect of Old English. Produced in approximately 990, they are the first translation of all four gospels into English without the Latin text.

text: In the 11th century, Abbot Ælfric translated much of the Old Testament into Old English. The Old English Hexateuch is an illuminated manuscript of the first six books of the Old Testament without lavish illustrations and including a translation of the Book of Judges in addition to the 5 books of the Pentateuch.

text: Middle English[edit]

text: The Ormulum is in Middle English of the 12th century. Like its Old English precursor from Ælfric, an Abbot of Eynsham, it includes very little Biblical text, and focuses more on personal commentary. This style was adopted by many of the original English translators. For example, the story of the Wedding at Cana is almost 800 lines long, but fewer than 40 lines are the actual translation of the text. An unusual characteristic is that the translation mimics Latin verse, and so is similar to the better known and appreciated 14th-century English poem, Cursor Mundi.

text: Richard Rolle (1290–1349) wrote an English Psalter. Many religious works are attributed to Rolle, but it has been questioned how many are genuinely from his hand. Many of his works were concerned with personal devotion, and some were used by the Lollards.[4]

text: The 14th century theologian John Wycliffe is credited with translating what is now known as Wycliffe's Bible, though it is not clear how much of the translation he himself did.[5] This translation came out in two different versions. The earlier text is characterised by a strong adherence to the word order of Latin, and might have been difficult for the layperson to comprehend. The later text made more concessions to the native grammar of English.

text: Modern English[edit]

text: Early Modern English Bible translations are of between about 1500 and 1800, the period of Early Modern English. This, the first major period of Bible translation into the English language, began with the introduction of the Tyndale Bible. The first complete edition of his New Testament was in 1526. Tyndale used the Greek and Hebrew texts of the New Testament (NT) and Old Testament (OT) in addition to Jerome's Latin translation. He was the first translator to use the printing press – this enabled the distribution of several thousand copies of his New Testament translation throughout England. Tyndale did not complete his Old Testament translation.

text: The first printed English translation of the whole bible was produced by Miles Coverdale in 1535, using Tyndale's work together with his own translations from the Latin Vulgate or German text. After much scholarly debate it is concluded that this was printed in Antwerp and the colophon gives the date as 4th October 1535. This first edition was adapted by Coverdale for his first "authorised version", known as the Great Bible, of 1539. Other early printed versions were the Geneva Bible (1560), notable for being the first Bible divided into verses; the Bishop's Bible (1568), which was an attempt by Elizabeth I to create a new authorised version; and the Authorized King James Version of 1611.

text: The first complete Roman Catholic Bible in English was the Douay–Rheims Bible, of which the New Testament portion was published in Rheims in 1582 and the Old Testament somewhat later in Douay in Gallicant Flanders. The Old Testament was completed by the time the New Testament was published, but due to extenuating circumstances and financial issues was not published until nearly three decades later, in two editions, the first released in 1609, and the rest of the OT in 1610. In this version, the seven deuterocanonical books are mingled with the other books, rather than kept separate in an appendix.

text: While early English Bibles were generally based on a small number of Greek texts, or on Latin translations, modern English translations of the Bible are based on a wider variety of manuscripts in the original languages (Greek and Hebrew). The translators put much scholarly effort into cross-checking the various sources such as the Septuagint, Textus Receptus, and Masoretic Text. Relatively recent discoveries such as the Dead Sea scrolls provide additional reference information. There is some controversy over which texts should be used as a basis for translation, as some of the alternate sources do not include phrases (or sometimes entire verses) which are found only in the Textus Receptus.[6]

text: Some[who?] say the alternate sources were poorly representative of the texts used in their time, whereas others[who?] claim the Textus Receptus includes passages that were added to the alternate texts improperly. These controversial passages are not the basis for disputed issues of doctrine, but tend to be additional stories or snippets of phrases. Many modern English translations, such as the New International Version, contain limited text notes indicating where differences occur in original sources.[7]

text: A somewhat greater number of textual differences are noted in the New King James Bible, indicating hundreds of New Testament differences between the Nestle-Aland, the Textus Receptus, and the Hodges edition of the Majority Text. The differences in the Old Testament are less well documented, but do contain some references to differences between consonantal interpretations in the Masoretic Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Septuagint. Even with these hundreds of differences, however, a more complete listing is beyond the scope of most single volume Bibles (see Critical Translations below).

text: Modern translations take different approaches to the rendering of the original languages of approaches. The approaches can usually be considered to be somewhere on a scale between the two extremes:

text: Formal equivalence translation (sometimes literal translation or formal correspondence) in which the greatest effort is made to preserve the meaning of individual words and phrases in the original, with relatively less regard for its understandability by modern readers.

text: Dynamic equivalence, sometimes called Paraphrastic translation, in which the translator attempts to render the sense and intent of the original. Examples of these versions include Tree of Life Bible, The Living Bible and The Message.

text: Some translations have been motivated by a strong theological distinctive, such as the conviction that God's name be preserved in a Semitic form, seen in Sacred Name Bibles. The Purified Translation of the Bible promotes the idea that Jesus and early Christians did not drink wine, but grape juice.[citation needed] The Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures renders the tetragrammaton as Jehovah throughout the Old Testament; it also uses the form Jehovah in the New Testament, including but not limited to passages quoting the Old Testament, even though it does not appear in the Greek text.

text: Individual translations[edit]

text:
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text: While most translations are made by committees of scholars in order to avoid bias or idiosyncrasy, translations are sometimes made by individuals. The translation of J.B. Phillips (1958), The Bible in Living English (1972) by Stephen T. Byington, J.N. Darby's Darby Bible (1890), Heinz Cassirer's translation (1989), R.A. Knox (1950), Gerrit Verkuyl's Berkeley Version (1959), The Complete Jewish Bible (1998) by Dr. David H. Stern, Robert Young's Literal Translation (1862), Jay P.Green's Literal Translation (1985), The Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson (1864), Noah Webster's Bible Translation (1833), The Original Aramaic Bible in Plain English (2010) by David Bauscher, American King James Version (1999) by Michael Engelbrite, The Living Bible (1971) by Kenneth N. Taylor, The Modern Reader's Bible (1914) by Richard Moulton, The Five Pauline Epistles, A New Translation (1900) by William Gunion Rutherford, Joseph Bryant Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (1902), Professor S. H. Hooke's The Bible in Basic English (1949), The Holy Name Bible containing the Holy Name Version of the Old and New Testaments (1963) by Angelo Traina, and Eugene H. Peterson's The Message (2002) are largely the work of individual translators. Others, such as Robert Alter, N. T. Wright and Dele Ikeorha have translated portions of the Bible.

text: Alternative approaches[edit]

text: Most translations make the translators' best attempt at a single rendering of the original, relying on footnotes where there might be alternative translations or textual variants. An alternative is taken by the Amplified Bible. In cases where a word or phrase admits of more than one meaning the Amplified Bible presents all the possible interpretations, allowing the reader to choose one. For example, the first two verses of the Amplified Bible read:

text: In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void or a waste and emptiness, and darkness was upon the face of the deep [primeval ocean that covered the unformed earth]. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.[8]

text: Single source translations[edit]

text: While most translations attempt to synthesize the various texts in the original languages, some translations also translate one specific textual source, generally for scholarly reasons. A single volume example for the Old Testament is The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible (ISBN 0-06-060064-0) by Martin Abegg, Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich.

text: The Comprehensive New Testament (ISBN 978-0-9778737-1-5) by T. E. Clontz and J. Clontz presents a scholarly view of the New Testament text by conforming to the Nestle-Aland 27th edition and extensively annotating the translation to fully explain different textual sources and possible alternative translations.[9][10]

text: A Comparative Psalter (ISBN 0-19-529760-1) edited by John Kohlenberger presents a comparative diglot translation of the Psalms of the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, using the Revised Standard Version and the New English Translation of the Septuagint.

text: R. A. Knox's Translation of the Vulgate into English is another example of a single source translation.

text: Jewish translations[edit]

text: Jewish English Bible translations are modern English Bible translations that include the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) according to the masoretic text, and according to the traditional division and order of Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim.

text: Jewish translations often also reflect traditional Jewish interpretations of the Bible, as opposed to the Christian understanding that is often reflected in non-Jewish translations. For example, Jewish translations translate עלמה ‘almâh in Isaiah 7:14 as young woman, while many Christian translations render the word as virgin.

text: While modern biblical scholarship is similar for both Christians and Jews, there are distinctive features of Jewish translations, even those created by academic scholars. These include the avoidance of Christological interpretations, adherence to the Masoretic Text (at least in the main body of the text, as in the new Jewish Publication Society (JPS) translation) and greater use of classical Jewish exegesis. Some translations prefer names transliterated from the Hebrew, though the majority of Jewish translations use the Anglicized forms of biblical names.

text: The first English Jewish translation of the Bible into English was by Isaac Leeser in the 19th century.

text: The JPS produced two of the most popular Jewish translations, namely the JPS The Holy Scriptures of 1917 and the NJPS Tanakh (first printed in a single volume in 1985, second edition in 1999).

text: Since the 1980s there have been multiple efforts among Orthodox publishers to produce translations that are not only Jewish, but also adhere to Orthodox norms. Among these are The Living Torah and Nach by Aryeh Kaplan and others, the Torah and other portions in an ongoing project by Everett Fox, and the ArtScroll Tanakh.

text: Popularity[edit]

text: The evangelical Christian Booksellers Association lists the most popular versions of the Bible sold by their members in the United States. Through 29 December 2012, the top 5 best selling translations (based on both dollar and unit sales) are as follows:[11]

text:
New International Version
King James Version
New Living Translation
New King James Version
English Standard Version

tag: ol

text: Sales are affected by denomination and religious affiliation. For example, the most popular Jewish version would not compete with rankings of a larger audience. Sales data can be affected by the method of marketing. Some translations are directly marketed to particular denominations or local churches, and many Christian booksellers only offer Protestant Bibles, so Catholic and Orthodox Bibles may not appear as high on the CBA rank.

text: A study published in 2014 by The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University and Purdue University found that Americans read versions of the Bible as follows:[12][13]:12–15

text:
King James Version (55%)
New International Version (19%)
New Revised Standard Version (7%)
New American Bible (6%)
The Living Bible (5%)
Other Translations (8%)


document_title: It's a Wonderful Life

question_text: who owns the movie its a wonderful life

question_tokens: who owns the movie its a wonderful life

text: It's a Wonderful Life

text: Plot[edit]

text: On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey is suicidal. Prayers for him reach Heaven, where Clarence Odbody, Angel 2nd Class, is assigned to save George, in return for which he will earn his angel wings. To prepare him for his mission, Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life. The first is from 1919, when 12-year-old George saves his younger brother Harry from drowning at a frozen lake; George loses his hearing in one ear as a result. At his after-school job, George realizes that the druggist, Mr. Gower – distraught over his son's death from the flu – has accidentally added poison to a child's prescription, and intervenes to stop it from causing harm.

text: In 1928, George plans to leave on a world tour and then attend college. At Harry's high-school graduation party, he is reintroduced to Mary Hatch, who has had a crush on him from childhood. Their walk home is interrupted by news that George's father, Peter, has died of a stroke. George postpones his travel so he can sort out the family business, Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan. Henry F. Potter, the richest man in town, wishes to dissolve the Building and Loan to eliminate it as a competitor. The board of directors votes to keep the Building and Loan open, on condition that George stay to run it (along with his absent-minded uncle Billy). George gives his college tuition to Harry on the condition that Harry take over the Building and Loan when he returns.

text: Four years later, Harry returns from college with a job offer from his father-in-law. George tells Harry to take the job and he will keep running the Building and Loan. George and Mary get married. On their way to their honeymoon, they witness a run on the bank and use their honeymoon savings to keep the Building and Loan solvent until the bank reopens.

text: Eventually, George establishes Bailey Park, a housing development with small houses financed by the Building and Loan, so that people can own their own homes rather than paying rent to live in Potter's overpriced slums. Potter attempts to lure George into becoming his assistant, offering him $20,000 (equivalent to $270,000 in 2017[8]) a year; George is momentarily tempted, but rebukes him.

text: During World War II, George is ineligible for service because of his bad ear. Harry becomes a Navy pilot and earns the Medal of Honor by shooting down a kamikaze plane headed for a troop transport. On Christmas Eve morning 1945, as the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry, Uncle Billy manages to misplace $8000 of the Building and Loan's cash (equivalent to $110,000 in 2017[8]). When a bank examiner arrives to review the Building and Loan's records, George realizes that criminal charges are possible; he berates Uncle Billy, then goes home and takes out his frustration on his family. He soon apologizes to his wife and children, then leaves.

text: George desperately appeals to Potter for a loan. When George offers his life insurance policy as collateral, Potter says George is worth more dead than alive and phones the police to have him arrested. George gets drunk at a local bar and is involved in a fight before he leaves and goes to a nearby bridge, thinking of suicide. The film's narrative catches up to the time of the opening scene. Before he can jump, Clarence dives into the river just before George does, causing George to rescue Clarence rather than killing himself. George does not believe Clarence's subsequent claim that he is George's guardian angel.

text: When George says he wishes he had never been born, Clarence decides to grant his wish and show George an alternate timeline in which he never existed. Bedford Falls is named Pottersville and is a less congenial place. Mr. Gower has recently been released from prison for manslaughter, because George was not there to stop him from putting poison in the pills. The Building and Loan has closed down, as George never took over after Peter's passing.

text: George's mother does not recognize him; she reveals that Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the collapse of the Building and Loan. In the cemetery where Bailey Park would have been, George discovers the grave of his brother. Clarence tells him all the soldiers on the transport died, as Harry was never there to save them, because George had never saved Harry from drowning. Mary, who works at the library, never married; when George says he is her husband, she screams for the police, causing George to flee and the local policeman to give chase.

text: George, now convinced that Clarence is really his guardian angel, runs back to the bridge and begs for his life back; the alternate timeline changes back to the original reality. George runs home to await his arrest. Mary and Uncle Billy arrive, having rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to cover the missing $8,000 and for Potter's warrant to be torn up. Harry arrives and toasts George calling him "The richest man in town". A bell on the Christmas tree rings, and his daughter recalls a story that says the sound means that an angel has just earned his wings, signifying Clarence's promotion.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Credited cast

James Stewart as George Bailey
Donna Reed as Mary Hatch Bailey
Henry Travers as Clarence Odbody
Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Henry F. Potter
Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy Bailey
Beulah Bondi as Ma Bailey
Frank Faylen as Ernie Bishop, the cab driver
Ward Bond as Bert, the cop
Gloria Grahame as Violet Bick
H. B. Warner as Mr. Emil Gower
Todd Karns as Harry Bailey
Samuel S. Hinds as father Peter "Pop" Bailey
Lillian Randolph as Annie, maid
Frank Albertson as Sam Wainwright
Virginia Patton as Ruth Dakin Bailey, Harry's wife
Mary Treen as Cousin Tilly, employee
Charles Williams as Cousin Eustace, employee
Sarah Edwards as Mrs. Hatch, Mary's mother
William Edmunds as Mr. Giuseppe Martini
Argentina Brunetti as Mrs. Martini
Bobby Anderson as Little George Bailey
Ronnie Ralph as Little Sam Wainwright
Jean Gale as Little Mary Hatch
Ray Walker as Joe
Jeanine Ann Roose[9] as Little Violet Bick

George Nokes as Little Harry Bailey
Danny Mummert as Little Marty Hatch
Sheldon Leonard as Nick, the bartender
Frank Hagney as Potter's mute aide
Charles Lane as Potter's rent collector
Larry Simms as Pete Bailey
Carol Coomes (AKA Carol Coombs) as Janie Bailey
Jimmy Hawkins as Tommy Bailey
Karolyn Grimes as Zuzu Bailey

Uncredited cast

Charles Halton as Mr. Carter, bank examiner
J. Farrell MacDonald as the man whose great-grandfather planted the tree that George drives into
Harry Holman as Mr. Partridge, High School principal
Harold Landon as Marty Hatch, Mary's brother
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Freddie (Mary's annoying high school suitor)
Mark Roberts as Mickey (student with the key to open up pool)
Max Wagner as Cashier/Bouncer at Nick's Bar
Dick Elliott as fat man on porch
Tom Fadden as Bridge Caretaker
Stanley Andrews as Mr. Welch, teacher's husband
Al Bridge as Sheriff with arrest warrant
Ellen Corby as Miss Davis
Marian Carr as Jane Wainwright, Sam's wife[10]
Adriana Caselotti as the singer in Martini's Bar[11][N 2]
Joseph Granby as Angel Joseph (voice)
Moroni Olsen as the Senior Angel (voice)

text: The contention that James Stewart is often referred to as Capra's only choice to play George Bailey is disputed by film historian Stephen Cox, who indicates that "Henry Fonda was in the running."[12][13] Cary Grant was also considered for the role when RKO still had the rights to the film, before they were sold to Capra.[14]

text: Although it was stated that Jean Arthur, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers were all considered for the role of Mary before Donna Reed won the part, this list is also disputed by Cox as he indicates that Jean Arthur was first offered the part but had to turn it down for a prior commitment on Broadway before Capra turned to Olivia de Havilland, Martha Scott and Ann Dvorak. Ginger Rogers was offered the female lead, but turned it down because she considered it "too bland". In Chapter 26 of her autobiography Ginger: My Story, she questioned her decision by asking her readers: "Foolish, you say?"

text: A long list of actors were considered for the role of Potter (originally named Herbert Potter): Edward Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan, Louis Calhern, Victor Jory, Raymond Massey, Vincent Price and even Thomas Mitchell.[13] However, Lionel Barrymore, who eventually won the role, was a famous Ebenezer Scrooge in radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol at the time and was a natural choice for the role. Barrymore had also worked with Capra and Stewart on his 1938 Best Picture Oscar winner, You Can't Take It with You.

text: H.B. Warner, who was cast as the drugstore owner Mr. Gower, actually studied medicine before going into acting. He was also in some of Capra's other films, including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It with You, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.[15] In the silent era, he had played the role of Jesus Christ in Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927). The name Gower came from Capra's employer Columbia Pictures, which had been located on Gower Street for many years. Also on Gower Street was a drugstore that was a favorite for the studio's employees.[16]

text: Charles Williams, who was cast as Eustace Bailey, and Mary Treen, who was cast as Matilda "Tilly" Bailey, were both B-list actors, as they both had appeared in 90 films each before filming It's a Wonderful Life.[17]

text: Jimmy the raven (Uncle Billy's pet) appeared in You Can't Take It with You and each subsequent Capra film.[12][18]

text: Production[edit]

text: Background[edit]

text: The original story "The Greatest Gift" was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943.[19][N 3][21] The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent, and in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000, hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant.[22] RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie, and Grant went on to make another Christmas movie staple, The Bishop's Wife.[N 4][24]

text: At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read "The Greatest Gift" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, in 1945 sold the rights to Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000,[N 5] and threw in the three scripts for free.[19] Capra, along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, and Dorothy Parker brought in to "polish" the script,[26] turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename It's a Wonderful Life.[19] The script underwent many revisions throughout pre-production and during filming.[27] Final screenplay credit went to Goodrich, Hackett and Capra, with "additional scenes" by Jo Swerling.

text: Seneca Falls, New York claims that when Frank Capra visited their town in 1945, he was inspired to model Bedford Falls after it. The town has an annual "It's a Wonderful Life festival"in December.[28] In mid-2009, The Hotel Clarence opened in Seneca Falls, named for George Bailey's guardian angel. On December 10, 2010, the "It's a Wonderful Life" Museum opened in Seneca Falls, with Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the movie, cutting the ribbon.[29] Philip Van Doren Stern said in a 1946 interview, "Incidentally, the movie takes place in Westchester County. Actually, the town I had in mind was Califon, N.J. " The historic iron bridge in Califon is similar to the bridge that George Bailey considered jumping from in the movie.[30]

text: Both James Stewart (from Indiana, Pennsylvania) and Donna Reed (from Denison, Iowa) came from small towns. Stewart's father ran a small hardware store where James worked for years. Reed demonstrated her rural roots by winning an impromptu bet with Lionel Barrymore when he challenged her to milk a cow on set.[31]

text: Filming[edit]

text: It's a Wonderful Life was shot at RKO Radio Pictures Studio in Culver City, California, and the 89 acre RKO movie ranch in Encino,[32] where "Bedford Falls" consisted of Art Director Max Ree's Oscar-winning sets originally designed for the 1931 epic film Cimarron that covered 4 acres (1.6 ha), assembled from three separate parts, with a main street stretching 300 yards (three city blocks), with 75 stores and buildings, and a residential neighborhood.[33] For It's a Wonderful Life Capra built a working bank set, added a tree-lined center parkway, and planted 20 full grown oak trees to existing sets.[34]

text: Pigeons, cats, and dogs were allowed to roam the mammoth set to give the "town" a lived-in feel.[18] Due to the requirement to film in an "alternate universe" setting as well as during different seasons, the set was extremely adaptable. RKO created "chemical snow" for the film to avoid the need for dubbed dialogue when actors walked across an earlier movie snow that was made of crushed cornflakes.[35] Filming started on April 15, 1946 and ended on July 27, 1946, exactly on deadline for the 90-day principal photography schedule.[23]

text: RKO's movie ranch in Encino, a filming location of Bedford Falls, was razed in 1954.[N 6] There are only two surviving locations from the film. The first is the swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene where George courts Mary. It is located in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School and is still in operation as of 2013. The second is the "Martini home" in La Cañada Flintridge, California.[37]

text: During filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's welcome home/newlyweds' party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" Equipment on the set had actually been accidentally knocked over; Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's impromptu ad lib (although the "crashing" noise was augmented with added sound effects).

text: Dimitri Tiomkin had written "Death Telegram" and "Gower's Deliverance" for the drugstore scenes, but in the editing room Capra elected to go with no music for those scenes. Those changes, along with others, led to a falling out between Tiomkin and Capra. Tiomkin had worked on a lot of Capra's previous films, and was saddened that Capra decided to have the music pared or toned down, moved, or cut entirely. He felt as though his work was being seen as a mere suggestion. In his autobiography Please Don't Hate Me, he said of the incident, "an all around scissors job".[38]

text: The products and advertisements featured in Mr. Gower's drugstore include Coca-Cola, Paterson tobacco pipes, La Unica cigars, Camel cigarettes, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Chesterfield cigarettes, Sweet Caporal cigarettes (with a sign that says "Ask Dad he knows" that plays a role in the plot), Vaseline hair tonic, Penetro cough syrup, Pepto-Bismol, Bayer Aspirin ("for colds and influenza"), and The Saturday Evening Post.[39]

text: In an earlier draft of the script, the scene where George saves his brother Harry as a child was different. The scene had the boys playing ice hockey on the river (which is on Potter's property) as Potter watches with disdain. George shoots the puck, but it goes astray and breaks the "No Trespassing" sign and lands in Potter's yard. Potter becomes irate, and the gardener releases the attack dogs, which causes the boys to flee. Harry falls in the ice, and George saves him with the same results.[40]

text: Another scene that was in an earlier version of the script had young George visiting his father at his work. After George tells off Mr. Potter and closes the door, he considers asking Uncle Billy about his drugstore dilemma. Billy is talking on the phone to the bank examiner, and lights his cigar and throws his match in the wastebasket. This scene explains that Tilly (short for Matilda) and Eustace are both his cousins (not Billy's kids though), and Tilly is on the phone with her friend Martha and says, "Potter's here, the bank examiner's coming. It's a day of judgment." As George is about to interrupt Tilly on the phone, Billy cries for help and Tilly runs in and puts the fire out with a pot of coffee. George decides he is probably better off dealing with the situation by himself.[38]

text: Capra had filmed a number of sequences that were subsequently cut, the only remnants remaining being rare stills that have been unearthed.[41] A number of alternative endings were considered, with Capra's first script having Bailey falling to his knees reciting "The Lord's Prayer" (the script also called for an opening scene with the townspeople in prayer). Feeling that an overly religious tone did not have the emotional impact of the family and friends rushing to rescue George Bailey, the closing scenes were rewritten.[42][43][44]

text: Reception[edit]

text: It's a Wonderful Life premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York on December 20, 1946, to mixed reviews.[23] While Capra thought the contemporary critical reviews were either universally negative, or at best dismissive,[45] Time said, "It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's inventiveness, humor and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement."[46]

text: Bosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times, complimented some of the actors, including Stewart and Reed, but concluded that "the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it—its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities."[47]

text: The film, which went into general release on January 7, 1947, placed 26th ($3.3 million) in box office revenues for 1947[2] (out of more than 400 features released),[48] one place ahead of another Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street. The film was supposed to be released in January 1947, but was moved up to December 1946 to make it eligible for the 1946 Academy Awards. This move was seen as worse for the film, as 1947 did not have quite the stiff competition as 1946. If it had entered the 1947 Awards, its biggest competition would have been Miracle on 34th Street. The number one grossing movie of 1947, The Best Years of Our Lives, made $11.5 million.[2]

text: The film recorded a loss of $525,000 at the box office for RKO.[49]

text: On May 26, 1947, the FBI issued a memo stating, "With regard to the picture 'It's a Wonderful Life,' [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists. [In] addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters."[50][51][52]

text: In 1990, It's a Wonderful Life was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.[53]

text: In 2002, Britain's Channel 4 ranked It's a Wonderful Life as the seventh greatest film ever made in its poll "The 100 Greatest Films".[54]

text: In June 2008, AFI revealed its 10 Top 10, the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. It's a Wonderful Life was acknowledged as the third-best film in the fantasy genre.[55][56]

text: Somewhat more iconoclastic views of the film and its content are occasionally expressed. In 1947, film critic Manny Farber wrote, "To make his points [Capra] always takes an easy, simple-minded path that doesn't give much credit to the intelligence of the audience", and adds that there are only a "few unsentimental moments here and there."[57][N 7] Wendell Jamieson, in a 2008 article for The New York Times which was generally positive in its analysis of the film, noted that far from being simply a sweet sentimental story, it "is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife."[58]

text: In a 2010 Salon.com piece, Richard Cohen described It's a Wonderful Life as "the most terrifying Hollywood film ever made". In the "Pottersville" sequence, he wrote, George is not seeing the world that would exist had he never been born, but rather 'the world as it does exist, in his time and also in our own."[59] Nine years earlier, another Salon writer, Gary Kamiya, had expressed the opposing view that "Pottersville rocks!," adding, "The gauzy, Currier-and-Ives veil Capra drapes over Bedford Falls has prevented viewers from grasping what a tiresome and, frankly, toxic environment it is... We all live in Pottersville now."[60]

text: The film's elevation to the status of a beloved classic came decades after its initial release, when it became a television staple during Christmas season in the late 1970s. This came as a welcome surprise to Frank Capra and others involved with its production. "It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen," Capra told The Wall Street Journal in 1984. "The film has a life of its own now, and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. 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."[61] In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film's theme as "the individual's belief in himself" and that he made it "to combat a modern trend toward atheism".[61]

text: The film's positive reception has continued into the present, and review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes currently reports a 94% "Certified Fresh" approval rating. The website's critical consensus reads, "The holiday classic to define all holiday classics, It's a Wonderful Life is one of a handful of films worth an annual viewing."[62]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: Prior to the Los Angeles release of It's a Wonderful Life, Liberty Films mounted an extensive promotional campaign that included a daily advertisement highlighting one of the film's players, along with comments from reviewers. Jimmy Starr wrote, "If I were an Oscar, I'd elope with It's a Wonderful Life lock, stock and barrel on the night of the Academy Awards". The New York Daily Times published an editorial that declared the film and James Stewart's performance to be worthy of Academy Award consideration.[63]

text: It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations:[64]

text:
Award
Result
Nominee / Winner

Best Picture
Nominated
Frank Capra
Winner was Samuel Goldwyn – The Best Years of Our Lives

Best Director
Nominated
Frank Capra
Winner was William Wyler – The Best Years of Our Lives

Best Actor
Nominated
James Stewart
Winner was Fredric March – The Best Years of Our Lives

Best Film Editing
Nominated
William Hornbeck
Winner was Daniel Mandell – The Best Years of Our Lives

Best Sound Recording
Nominated
John Aalberg
Winner was John P. Livadary – The Jolson Story

Technical Achievement Award
Won
Russell Shearman and RKO Radio Studio Special Effects Dept.
For the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets.

text: It's a Wonderful Life won just the one Academy Award, in the Technical Achievement category for developing a new method of creating artificial snow.[65] Before It's a Wonderful Life, fake movie snow was mostly made from cornflakes painted white. And it was so loud when stepped on that any snow-filled scenes with dialogue had to be re-dubbed afterwards. RKO studio's head of special effects, Russell Shearman, developed a new compound, utilizing water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar.[66]

text: The Best Years of Our Lives, a drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War II lives, won most of the awards that year, including four of the five for which It's a Wonderful Life was nominated. (The award for "Best Sound Recording" was won by The Jolson Story.) The Best Years of Our Lives was also an outstanding commercial success, ultimately becoming the highest-grossing film of the decade, in contrast to the more modest initial box office returns of It's a Wonderful Life.[67]

text: It's a Wonderful Life received a Golden Globe Award:

text:
Award
Result
Winner

Best Director
Won
Frank Capra

text: Capra won the "Best Motion Picture Director" award from the Golden Globes, and a "CEC Award" from the Cinema Writers Circle in Spain, for Mejor Película Extranjera (Best Foreign Film). Jimmy Hawkins won a "Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Young Artist Awards in 1994; the award recognized his role as Tommy Bailey as igniting his career, which lasted until the mid-1960s.[68]

text: American Film Institute lists

text:
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – 11
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – 8
AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:

Mr. Potter – No. 6 Villain
George Bailey – No. 9 Hero

AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:

"Buffalo Gal (Won't You Come Out Tonight)" – Nominated[69]

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:

"What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down." – Nominated[70]
"To my big brother George, the richest man in town!" – Nominated[70]
"Look, Daddy. Teacher says, 'Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.'" – Nominated[70]

AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – No. 1
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – No. 20
AFI's 10 Top 10 – No. 3 Fantasy Film

text: Release[edit]

text: Ownership and copyright issues[edit]

text: Ancillary rights[edit]

text: Liberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. In 1955, M. & A. Alexander purchased the movie. This included key rights to the original television syndication, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the film rights to the story on which the film is based, "The Greatest Gift".[N 8] National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the film soon thereafter.

text: A clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974.[72][73] Despite the lapsed copyright, television stations that aired it still had to pay royalties because—though the film's images had entered the public domain—the film's story was still protected as a derivative work of the published story The Greatest Gift, whose copyright Philip Van Doren Stern had properly renewed in 1971.[74][75][N 9] The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season on hundreds of local television stations. It was mentioned during the deliberations on the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.[74][76]

text: In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim to the copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, Republic still owned the film rights to "The Greatest Gift"; thus the plaintiffs were able to argue its status as a derivative work of a work still under copyright.[74][77] NBC, since 1996, is licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and traditionally shows it twice during the holidays, with one showing on Christmas Eve. Paramount (via parent company Viacom's 1998 acquisition of Republic's then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has distribution rights for the first time since 1955.[74][78]

text: Due to all the above actions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros. in the USA. It is also one of two Capra films Paramount owns despite not having originally released it—the other is Broadway Bill (originally from Columbia, remade by Paramount as Riding High in 1950).[74]

text: Colorization[edit]

text: Director Capra met with Wilson Markle about having Colorization, Inc., colorize It's a Wonderful Life based on an enthusiastic response to the colorization of Topper from actor Cary Grant.[79] The company's art director Brian Holmes prepared 10 minutes of colorized footage from It's a Wonderful Life for Capra to view, which resulted in Capra signing a contract with Colorization, Inc., and his "enthusiastic agree[ment] to pay half the $260,000 cost of colorizing the movie and to share any profits" and giving "preliminary approval to making similar color versions of two of his other black-and-white films, Meet John Doe (1941) and Lady for a Day (1933)".[79] However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process.[79]

text: Three colorized versions have been produced. The first was released by Hal Roach Studios in 1986. The second was authorized and produced by the film's permanent owner, Republic Pictures, in 1989. Both Capra and Stewart took a critical stand on the colorized editions.[80] The Hal Roach color version was re-released in 1989 to VHS through the cooperation of Video Treasures. A third colorized version was produced by Legend Films and released on DVD in 2007 with the approval of Capra's estate.[citation needed]

text: Home media[edit]

text: VHS[edit]

text: Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, when the film was still under public domain status, It's A Wonderful Life was released on VHS by a variety of home video companies. Among the companies that released the film on home video before Republic Pictures stepped in were Meda Video (which would later become Media Home Entertainment), Kartes Video Communications (under its Video Film Classics label), GoodTimes Home Video and Video Treasures (now Anchor Bay Entertainment). After Republic reclaimed the rights to the film, all unofficial VHS copies of the film in print were destroyed.[77] Artisan Entertainment (under license from Republic) took over home video rights in the mid-1990s. Artisan was later sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, which continued to hold US home video rights until late 2005 when they reverted to Paramount, who also owns video rights throughout Region 4 (Latin America and Australia) and in France. Video rights in the rest of the world are held by different companies; for example, the UK rights are with Universal Studios.

text: Technological first: CD-ROM[edit]

text: In 1993, due in part to the confusion of the ownership and copyright issues, Kinesoft Development, with the support of Republic Pictures, released It's a Wonderful Life as one of the first commercial feature-length films on CD-ROM for the Windows PC (Windows 3.1). Predating commercial DVDs by several years, it included such features as the ability to follow along with the complete shooting script as the film was playing.[81][82][N 10]

text: Given the state of video playback on the PC at the time of its release, It's a Wonderful Life for Windows represented another first, as the longest running video on a computer. Prior to its release, Windows could only play back approx. 32,000 frames of video, or about 35 minutes at 15 frames per second. Working with Microsoft, Kinesoft was able to enhance the video features of Windows to allow for the complete playback of the entire film — all of this on a PC with a 486SX processor and only 8 MB of RAM.[83]

text: Computer Gaming World said in April 1994 that, "The picture quality still has a way to go before it reaches television standards," but was "...a noble effort" that would "please fans of the film."[84]

text: DVD and Blu-ray[edit]

text: The film has seen multiple DVD releases since the availability of the DVD format. In the autumn of 2001, Republic issued the movie twice, once in August, and again with different packaging in September of that same year. On October 31, 2006, Paramount released a newly restored "60th Anniversary Edition". On November 13, 2007, Paramount released a two-disc "special edition" DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black-and-white version, and a new, third colorized version, produced by Legend Films using the latest colorization technology. On November 3, 2009, Paramount released a DVD version with a "Collector's Edition" ornament, and a Blu-ray edition.

text: Adaptations in other media[edit]

text: The film was twice adapted for radio in 1947, first on Lux Radio Theater (March 10) and then on The Screen Guild Theater (December 29), then again on the Screen Guild Theater broadcast of March 15, 1951. James Stewart and Donna Reed reprised their roles for all three radio productions. Stewart also starred in the May 8, 1949 radio adaptation presented on the Screen Director's Playhouse.

text: A musical stage adaptation of the film, titled A Wonderful Life, was written by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo. This version was first performed at the University of Michigan in 1986, but a planned professional production was stalled by legal wrangling with the estate of Philip Van Doren Stern. It was eventually performed in Washington, D.C. by Arena Stage in 1991, and had revivals in the 21st century, including a staged concert version in New York City in 2005 and several productions by regional theatres.

text: Another musical stage adaptation of the film, titled It's a Wonderful Life – The Musical, was written by Bruce Greer and Keith Ferguson. This version premiered at the Majestic Theatre, Dallas, Texas in 1998. It was an annual Christmas show at the theatre for five years. It has since been performed at venues all around the United States.[85]

text: The film was also adapted into a play in two acts by James W. Rodgers. It was first performed on December 15, 1993 at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. The play opens with George Bailey contemplating suicide and then goes back through major moments in his life. Many of the scenes from the movie are only alluded to or mentioned in the play rather than actually dramatized. For example, in the opening scene Clarence just mentions George having saved his brother Harry after the latter had fallen through the ice.[86]

text: It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, a stage adaptation presented as a 1940s radio show, was adapted by Joe Landry and has been produced around the United States since 1997. The script is published by Playscripts, Inc.

text: In 1997, PBS aired Merry Christmas, George Bailey, taped from a live performance of the 1947 Lux Radio Theatre script at the Pasadena Playhouse. The presentation, which benefited the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, featured an all-star cast including Bill Pullman as George, Nathan Lane as Clarence, Martin Landau as Mr. Potter, Penelope Ann Miller as Mary, and Sally Field as Mother Bailey.[87]

text: Philip Grecian's 2006 radio play based on the film It's a Wonderful Life is a faithful adaptation, now in its third incarnation, that has been performed numerous times by local theatres in Canada.[88]

text: The Last Temptation of Clarence Odbody is a novel written by John Pierson. The novel imagines the future lives of various characters if George had not survived his jump into the river.[89]

text: Remakes[edit]

text: It Happened One Christmas

text: The film was remade as the 1977 television movie It Happened One Christmas. Lionel Chetwynd based the screenplay on the original Van Doren Stern short story and the 1946 screenplay. This remake employed gender-reversal, with Marlo Thomas as the protagonist Mary Bailey, Wayne Rogers as George Hatch, and Cloris Leachman as the angel Clara Oddbody.[N 11] Leachman received her second Emmy nomination for this role. In a significant departure from his earlier roles, Orson Welles was cast as Mr. Potter.[N 12] Following initial positive reviews, the made-for-television film was rebroadcast twice in 1978 and 1979, but has not been shown since on national re-broadcasts, nor issued in home media.[N 13][90]

text: The Christmas Spirit was a retelling of the movie starring Nicollette Sheridan as . This was a made-for-TV film aired in December 1, 2013 on the Hallmark Channel executive produced by Sheridan under her company, Wyke Lane Productions, and Brad Krevoy Television. The film was directed and written by Jack Angelo. Spirit was set in the present day featuring the Charlotte Hart character, who works to save a "quiet New England town from a ruthless real estate developer." The film was planned to kick off a film series centered around the Hart character.[91] The film had 3.372 million viewers overall.[92]

text: Sequel[edit]

text: In 1990, another made-for-television film called Clarence starred Robert Carradine in a new tale of the helpful angel.[93][94]

text: Potential[edit]

text: A purported sequel was in development for a 2015 release, and was to be called It's a Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story. It was to be written by Bob Farnsworth and Martha Bolton and follow the angel of George Bailey's daughter Zuzu (played once again by Karolyn Grimes), as she teaches Bailey's evil grandson how different the world would have been if he had never been born. Producers were considering directors and hoped to shoot the film with a $25–$35 million budget in Louisiana early in 2014.[95]

text: The film had been announced as being produced by Star Partners and Hummingbird Productions, neither of which are affiliated with Paramount, owners of the original film (Farnsworth claimed that It's a Wonderful Life was in the public domain). Later, a Paramount spokesperson claimed that they were not granting permission to make the film, "To date, these individuals have not obtained any of the necessary rights, and we would take all appropriate steps to protect those rights," the spokesperson said.[96] No further developmental plans have since arisen.

text: Antecedent[edit]

text: In a 1997 review, film historian James Berardinelli commented on the parallels between this film and the classic Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol. In both stories, a man revisits his life and potential death (or non-existence) with the help of supernatural agents, culminating in a joyous epiphany and a renewed view of his life.[97]