Jeanine Basinger has put together the definitive collection of primary source information available about "It's a Wonderful Life."

Anybody who considers him or herself a "Lifer" (a fan of the movie, usually an extreme fan such as myself) needs to purchase this book.

Almost everything you want to know is in here, from the original story the film was based on to interviews with Stewart, an introduction by Capra, pictures galore, the final script, script revisions, notes about suggested censorship, and much, much more.

There is even information in here you wouldn't even think about asking. An example is the name of the "stars in charge." One is named Joseph. What is the name of the other galxy (Hint: The answer isn't God).

I often get e-mails asking me questions about the film. If I don't have the answer, this is the first book I pick up. Of the many times I've been asked questions, I have always found the answer in this book.

This is the ultimate IAWL reference.

Could it be possible that a book written about the most inspirational American film of all time do justice to it? The answer is a resounding "YES!". Jeanine Basinger's "The It's a Wonderful Life Book" is the ultimate tribute to the film that Jimmy Stewart, Frank Capra and millions of people all over the world call their favorite of all time.

Diving into the archives of Frank Capra to tell the evolution of the movie from cradle to grave (though it will never die!), Ms. Basinger manages to tell the story with such sincerety, fascination and charm that you get the feeling that everything surrounding the movie was just as wonderful as the final product! Best of all, the details of the making of the movie are so vivid that you almost start to feel that YOU WERE THERE!

The first thing you realize as you read the story of IAWL is that is was a really big movie from the gitgo. That is, Mr. Capra had high aspirations for it and did EVERYTHING in his power to make it his greatest and lasting achievement (little argument here) and that Hollywood was watching.

Fans may know that the story started as a Christmas card called "The Greatest Gift" which finally found its way into Mr. Capra's hands where, after many writes and re-writes into a script, got the Capra touch transforming it into his baby. Then casting began with each actor painstakingly chosen to be the perfect person for each particular character.

Anecdotes abound, starting with Capra's embarrassingly jumbled explanation of the storyline while recruiting Stewart. (Fortunately, all Jimmy needed to hear was that Frank wanted him.) Then we hear the one about Stewart's shattered confidence in acting which is restored when Lionel Barrymore pulls him aside for a peptalk. Finally, We're told that the famous phone scene where George kisses Mary was done in a single take AND THAT TWO PAGES OF DIALOGUE WERE SKIPPED! (Capra saw the magic and said "Print it!").

We also learn some fascinating facts about the production such as the 300-yard long set which made Bedford Falls' Main Street and how a record-breaking heat wave took place during the shooting of the snow scenes (in which a new technology was developed for making more realistic-looking snow which won the crew an honorable mention at the Oscars!). Other incredible details are too vast to mention - you've gotta read it for yourself!

The book is worth it if just to learn all of these amazing facts. Most amazing, though, is the LOVE that the two driving forces put into this film culminating in a "Capraesque" out-of-this-world PICNIC for the cast and crew.

The picnic's panoramic photo, which manages to miraculously include these guys on either end of the crowd (they ran behind as the cameraman slowly panned from left to right) typifies not only the ubiquitousness which Capra had to have to make IAWL a reality, but also how we can never seem to get enough of our lifetime friend, George Bailey.

This book is incredibly well written. Warner uses beautiful language to captivate her readers. The book is full of information on the historic town of Middletown. It provides great reading and you're sure to get your money's worth. For an even better deal, be sure to check out the copy signed by the author.

Middletown is a very interesting and important work of anthropology, sociology and history. Not just because it's the first time anthropological techniques were applied to a study of a single American city, but also Lynd's findings provide an interesting look at how by the time of his writings in the 1920s, things between then and now haven't changed in certain respects. Lynd reports disputes between parents and children over the use of the family autombile, the children out too late at parties and those parties not breaking up until the wee hours of the morning. All of this is certainly still prevalent today in many American families. Lynd also discusses how many people in "Middletown" did not vote in the 1922 elections and were cynical about politicians in general. This feeling again, is quite prevalent in American politics today.
Lynd's book serves to support the cliche, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."
For anybody who thinks that the problems of American society are new and caused by a decline in morality due to technology and other recent influences, get this book. Lynd will show you that this "decline" is not new nor caused by recent outside influences such as TV, the Internet. movies or music.

When this book was written, it was absolutely revolutionary: it was the first time someone had used anthropological tecniques on a modern American town! The authors studied newspapers, visible trends, and interviews with many of the inhabitants of Muncie, Indiana (which they picked and renamed "Middletown" because it was supposed to be an average American town). What they created was a vibrant picture of modern America.

Now, seventy years later, the book is an incredibly important historical work about the 1920's. Yet it's also a great read: my favorite part was the chapter where all the teenagers complain about how their parents never let them do anything, and the parents complain about how their teenagers have too much freedom and are probably getting into bad things.

I definately reccomend this book to anyone who is interested about the 1920's. Even if you don't like the book, you'll understand why Muncie, Indiana is used in so many pop culture references to average mid-western towns!

"Middletown" (1929) and "Middletown in Transition (1937) are among the highlights of American sociology. The books were studies of smalltown America by Robert and Helen Lynd and the typical American town they studied was Muncie, Ind.
The Lynds more or less ignored Muncie's Jewish community because it was statistically insignificant.
In the preface to "Middletown Jews: The Tenuous Survival of an American Jewish Community" (Bloomington, University of Indiana Press, 1997), Dan Rottenberg quoted the Lynds: "The Jewish population of Middletown is so small as to be numerically negligible."
The book is a collection of 19 interviews with members of Muncie's Jewish community, conducted in 1979, and is sad a reflection on the future of Jewry in America as you are likely to find. The oral history was edited by Rottenberg.
Muncie has had a temple since 1922, a Reform temple, but has never had a resident rabbi. It uses itinerant rabbis or students from Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College.
There are a few souls who want to follow kashrut and observe tradition, but in the end they usually join the temple. There is a great amount of intermarriage with non-Jews and even attendance at non-Jewish religious services, especially that of the Church of Jesus Christ, Scientist.
The spark for the book was Martin D. Schwartz, owner of a paper company and a graduate of Harvard College, who wanted to have the history of his shrinking community recorded. It is not explained why the 1979 interviews were the last word on the community. But Schwartz contributed a 1996 afterword, which shows some of the change.
What had been a community of merchants, almost all having shops on the same street, has become a community in which faculty of Ball State University have taken leading roles. There is still no rabbi, no kosher food, no real Sunday school.
What got mention in the 1979 interview was the Ku Klux Klan, which acted as a cementing force for the 200 or so 1920s families. Not one interviewee mentions the establishment of Israel and no one mentions visiting it.
But there are mentions of Christmas trees and non-Jewish relatives. There are no conversions to Christianity.
Jews were once excluded from certain neighborhoods and from the country club. They were later admitted to both and several interviewees see this as progress, although they remain members of the non-exclusive country club founded by Jews (which, it is specifically stated, is not a Jewish country club because there were not enough Jews to be able to support a country club of their own).
In his afterword, Schwartz wrote: "The possibility of Judaism's demise through intermarriage and gradual secularization concerns most thoughtful Jews. What they don't agree on is how to counter those trends."

A waste of time. The author doesn't know anything about documentary filmmaking or visual anthropology, and it clearly shows.

Hoover felt slighted by his total inclusion from the production of these films, and wrote this hard-to-follow book as payback. Unlike most paranoid vendettas, this one isn't even interesting... a waste of money.

Please take the FEb 2, 1997 review off the web. It doesn't make any sense ("inclusion"?) and it assumes things about the author that are not in the book itself ("failed academic" and "paranoid"). The review borders on being actionable....