The movie “It’s A Wonderful  Life” is based on ‘The Greatest
Gift,’ a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern. He originally
started writing the story in 1939, but had no luck publishing
it at first.

After failing to find a publisher, Stern decided to print his story
as a 21-page Christmas card that he sent to 200 of his friends
in 1943.

An RKO Pictures producer saw the "card" and convinced the
studio to buy the rights to the story, which were eventually
sold to Frank Capra’s production company, Liberty Films.

Stern’s short story was also eventually published as a book in
1944—and Stern also sold the story to Good Housekeeping,
which published it in its January 1945 issue under the title
"The Man Who Was Never Born."

Philip Van Doren Stern
(September 10, 1900 – July 31, 1984)

On December 3, 1979, the last Pacer rolled off the assembly line
at the American Motors Corporation (AMC) factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin. When the car first came on the market in 1975, it was
a sensation, hailed as the car of the future. “When you buy any
other car,” ads said, “all you end up with is today’s car. When
you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow.” By 1979, however,
sales had faded considerably.

In a letter dated December 3, 1776, General George Washington
wrote to Congress from his headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey,
to report that he had transported much of the Continental Army’s
stores and baggage across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania.

His famous crossing of the Delaware would come less than one
month later. 

On December 3, 1947, Marlon Brando’s famous cry of “STELLA!”
first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience
at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance
of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire.

A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most critically acclaimed
plays of the twentieth century and Williams’s most popular work. 

The 23-year-old Brando played the rough, working-class Polish-
American Stanley Kowalski, and his violent clash with Blanche
DuBois (played on Broadway by Jessica Tandy),

Jessica Tandy with Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named
Desire.

Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Marlon Brando.

     
From Act Three, Scene Five.