According to the January 17, 1940 Daily Home News, “Rutgers will be back on Broadway tonight, even though Paul Robeson and his “John Henry” company has called it quits after less than a week’s run. Tonight comes the premiere of “The Man Who Shot Lincoln,” a play adapted from the story of the same name written by Philip Van Doren Stern, Rutgers ’24.” Robeson’s play ran at the 44th Street Theatre from January 10-15. Stern’s play ran at the Longacre Theatre from January 17-20. An English major at Rutgers, Stern wrote about 40 major books and became a noted Civil War historian. But his most known work started from a dream that was turned into a story but initially rejected by book publishers.
The February 24, 1945 Sunday Times of New Brunswick reported, “Some people have all the luck or could it be all the brains? They even make money from personal Christmas cards. Phillip V.D. Stern, Rutgers graduate and famous author, has just had such a stroke of luck. When war clouds hung heaviest and gloom was knee deep, he wrote a little booklet about a man who thought life wasn’t worth living only to find it is, and mailed it to his personal friends for Christmas. Now what happens? A motion picture company has picked it up and paid him $10,000 for its use.”
The November 5, 1945 New York Times reported, “The picture, which will be put into production on Feb. 1 for RKO release, will be based on ‘The Greatest Gift,’ a fantasy by Philip Van Doren Stern…. The story was bought by RKO at the suggestion of Cary Grant, who previously was to do the lead.” The August 1, 1984 New York Times carried Philip Stern’s obituary which read in part, “In 1943, Mr. Stern wrote a 4,000-word Christmas message to his friends… In 1946, the fantasy became the basis for a Frank Capra movie, “’It’s A Wonderful Life,’ with James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore.”
The movie was not an initial success. When Stern died, the movie was starting to be shown annually and often on television from 1974-94 due to a copyright lapse that made it available for broadcast royalty-free. By 1998, the American Film Institute’s initial list of “best American films ever made” ranked it at #11. Today it continues as an American holiday classic. In one of the Newark papers on December 22, 1946, Stern said, “Incidentally, the movie takes place in [fictional Bedford Falls] Westchester County. Actually, the town I had in mind was Califon, N.J.” Califon is 31 miles northwest of Rutgers in New Brunswick. And there is a bridge in town that sits over the Raritan River. Seven miles to the east of Califon is the unincorporated town of Pottersville.
"Clarence" was originally "The Stranger" who grants "George Pratt's" wish that he was never born and gives him a bag to go door-to-door to sell brushes and find out how people's lives have changed.
For the full story:
http://www.nj.com/education/2017/12/the_surprising_jersey_roots_of_its_a_wonderful_lif.html
The February 24, 1945 Sunday Times of New Brunswick reported, “Some people have all the luck or could it be all the brains? They even make money from personal Christmas cards. Phillip V.D. Stern, Rutgers graduate and famous author, has just had such a stroke of luck. When war clouds hung heaviest and gloom was knee deep, he wrote a little booklet about a man who thought life wasn’t worth living only to find it is, and mailed it to his personal friends for Christmas. Now what happens? A motion picture company has picked it up and paid him $10,000 for its use.”
The November 5, 1945 New York Times reported, “The picture, which will be put into production on Feb. 1 for RKO release, will be based on ‘The Greatest Gift,’ a fantasy by Philip Van Doren Stern…. The story was bought by RKO at the suggestion of Cary Grant, who previously was to do the lead.” The August 1, 1984 New York Times carried Philip Stern’s obituary which read in part, “In 1943, Mr. Stern wrote a 4,000-word Christmas message to his friends… In 1946, the fantasy became the basis for a Frank Capra movie, “’It’s A Wonderful Life,’ with James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore.”
The movie was not an initial success. When Stern died, the movie was starting to be shown annually and often on television from 1974-94 due to a copyright lapse that made it available for broadcast royalty-free. By 1998, the American Film Institute’s initial list of “best American films ever made” ranked it at #11. Today it continues as an American holiday classic. In one of the Newark papers on December 22, 1946, Stern said, “Incidentally, the movie takes place in [fictional Bedford Falls] Westchester County. Actually, the town I had in mind was Califon, N.J.” Califon is 31 miles northwest of Rutgers in New Brunswick. And there is a bridge in town that sits over the Raritan River. Seven miles to the east of Califon is the unincorporated town of Pottersville.
"Clarence" was originally "The Stranger" who grants "George Pratt's" wish that he was never born and gives him a bag to go door-to-door to sell brushes and find out how people's lives have changed.
For the full story:
http://www.nj.com/education/2017/12/the_surprising_jersey_roots_of_its_a_wonderful_lif.html
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