Christmastime is Here Again…Can It’s a Wonderful Life Be Far Behind?

 

Let’s spend some time on Christmas day with two newly found versions of the classic It’s a Wonderful Life.

When it was first issued, It’s a Wonderful life was not associated with any particular time of the year. Today, of course it has become very much a part of the Christmas season.

On May 8, 1949, Screen Directors’ Playhouse broadcast its half-hour version of the story. The production starred Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, Barbara Eiler as Mary Hatch and Arthur Q. Bryan as Clarence Oddbody.

In 1991, Metacom issued a special 4-cassette set of Christmas shows as a special boxed set.

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This Stewart classic was one of the shows included.

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You can read more about the original broadcast and listen to it here.

Secondly, yet another version of the Lux presentation of It’s a Wonderful Life has recently made an appearance on eBay. This one may have a couple of advantages over the many others which are available. First, it is a regular CD and can be played in any CD playback machine. Second, it has a great photo from the film printed right on the disc.

Our original presentation of this program, starring Stewart, Donna Reed and Victor Moore, can be found here.