How Wilmington's connection to 'It's a Wonderful Life' keeps film screening here each year

On Dec. 22, Thalian Hall will screen the classic holiday film "It's a Wonderful Life" for the 13th year. You've got two chances to see it on the big screen that Friday, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

It might seem like a given that the historic downtown Wilmington theater would screen the movie everyone knows and loves each year. There's a reason, however, and a backstory, to why "It's a Wonderful Life" has become a big-screen staple in Wilmington every holiday season — beyond Jimmy Stewart's unforgettable portrayal of a man who finds out what life in his beloved town of Bedford Falls would've been like if he'd never been born.

The story begins with Frank Capra Jr., son of the famous director of the film.

Capra Jr. had first come to Wilmington in the 1980s to work on "Firestarter," the film produced by Dino De Laurentiis that's often credited with sparking Wilmington's film industry. In the mid-1990s, Capra Jr. returned to Wilmington to run EUE/Screen Gems Studios, which had purchased the former Carolco Studios, which had purchased De Laurentiis' DEG Studios. (Earlier this year, EUE/Screen Gems' Wilmington location was purchased by Cinespace.)

Capra Jr. quickly became a prominent member of the Wilmington community, and was often spotted lunching at the old Caffe Phoenix downtown or at any number of community events. He even directed a couple of plays at Thalian Hall for Opera House Theatre Co., and was inducted into the now nearly forgotten Wilmington Walk of Fame in the parking lot of the Cotton Exchange.

By the late 1990s, Capra Jr. had started teaching a couple of film courses at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Some have credited Capra with pushing UNCW to expand what was then the Film Studies Program into a full department, which it eventually became in 2003, as a way of helping train a workforce for Wilmington's film industry.

Here's where "It's a Wonderful Life" comes into it.

The Dec. 9, 1999, issue of UNCW's Campus Communique newsletter, back when it was a literal physical newsletter, mentions a "holiday screening and discussion of Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life' 7 p.m. Dec. 10 in the Warwick Center Ballroom. Frank Capra Jr. and his sons, Frank Capra III and Jonathan Capra, will serve as guest panelists for a post-screening discussion of the film."

According to Dave Monahan, professor and MFA coordinator in UNCW's film studies department, the department screened the Capra family's personal 35mm film print of "It's a Wonderful Life," and the event was held at Warwick because "it had a 35mm projection booth."

By the year 2000, UNCW's student newspaper, The Seahawk, was calling the Warwick Center screening an "annual" event. That year, Capra Jr. was joined by his sister Lucille and brother Tom.

After several years of screenings at the Warwick, "Frank Jr. decided to stop lending the print out of concern for wear and tear," Monahan said.

Around this time, however, Lou Buttino took over as the chair of UNCW's Film Studies department, "And he started the tradition of screening 'It's a Wonderful Life' at Kenan Auditorium during the Christmas season," Monahan said. "It became more of a family holiday event than an academic event.

"Frank Jr. would introduce the film. We screened a DVD (and) it was very well attended."

The screening was used to raise money for the Salvation Army, with bell ringers out front recalling the film's famous line, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings."

At the Kenan screenings, an annual Clarence Award was given out, named for the angel in the film played by Henry Travers, and given to someone from the Wilmington area who made a difference in the community by helping others.

In 2007, the film was shown at Kenan on Dec. 21, just two days after Frank Capra Jr. died from prostate cancer on Dec. 19. In 2008, "It's a Wonderful Life" was screened at Kenan for the last time, introduced by Capra Jr.'s daughter, Christina Capra.

The tradition could've died there, but it didn't.

Capra Jr. had an association with Thalian Hall downtown, and was friends with the late Tony Rivenbark, who was the director of the Hall at that time. A public memorial for Capra Jr. had been held in February of 2008 at Thalian, and in December of 2009 the Hall held a holiday screening of "It's a Wonderful Life" for the first time.

A new tradition was born. The film has screened at Thalian Hall every December since, save for the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. For a time, Rivenbark made it as much of an event as a screening, with free candy for children and a display of his personal collection of antique toys.

At Thalian Hall, there's still a production room and light booth named in honor of Capra Jr.

Interestingly, "It's a Wonderful Life" came out in late 1946 but didn't hit most movie screens nationwide until after Christmas, in January of 1947. Perhaps because of that it fared poorly at the box office, initially failing to recoup its budget, but was nominated for five Oscars that year, winning one for technical achievement thanks to its lifelike fake snow.

The movie didn't become a true holiday staple until the 1970s, thanks to regular screenings on TV.

"Dad always thought this movie had its own guardian angel," Capra told the StarNews in 2006. "My father said he put more of himself into that film than in any other picture … It spoke to his beliefs about the worth and value of the individual, how one guy discovers how much his life meant, no matter how modest it seemed to be."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: It's a Wonderful Life: How annual film screening came to Wilmington NC