I guess the best Christmas present any of us receive this year is that the market is closed for the holiday so at least there's no further bad news to report. And it's for the best to take the day to take a breath, appreciate what we have, and hope that tomorrow brings the traditional "Santa Claus" rally that they say happens every year. But for the moment, let's focus on brighter topics and, in that spirit, I present this article that made Barry Ritholtz's Christmas Reading List today. "It's a Wonderful Life," like it is with so many others, happens to be one of my very favorite films of all time and I was privileged to be able to see it in the theater again on Sunday night courtesy of MJR's Flashback Cinema.
It was the first time I'd seen it on the big screen since my second year in Los Angeles in 1979. I took my cousin to see it with me at the then one of two retro theaters in L.A. -- the NuArt -- in Santa Monica. It was her first time and I still remember the first thing she said after the lights came up, "I would pay a lot of money to see that film again." And at the MJR Sunday, I feared I would not be hearing such adulation as the public has become so very familiar with the film these past few decades with its constant exposure on television. And I was right. But there was one comment that I heard over and over Sunday, "It sure was a completely different experience than seeing it on television." And that it definitely was. Anyway, here is a laundry list of things that most people probably don't know about the film.
It is a film that should be of interest to any one in finance since it is very much about the banking industry. But most of these things I did not know about either. I did know that it was initially a flop and only became hugely popular when the public rediscovered it when it went into the public domain in the late 1970s. I did not know that the FBI had investigated the film for "pro-communist leanings" simply because big banker Lionel Barrymore was the villain. It didn't seem to matter to the FBI that hero James Stewart was also a banker. The investigation must have been a big blow to director Frank Capra who was intensely patriotic, had just finished serving as a decorated Army officer in World War II before making the film, and was a staunchly proud and staunchly anti-communist lifelong Republican. So it goes. I submit the list for your lighthearted holiday reading pleasure. Merry Christmas!
12-25-18 Big Pic: 25 Wonderful Facts About It’s a Wonderful Life | Mental Floss
12-25-18 BigPic: 10 Christmas Day Reads - The Big Picture
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