Former actress Karolyn Grimes might have uttered perhaps the most iconic line of any Christmas movie in American cinema history — "Daddy, teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings" — but at the time (1947), the 6-year-old actress had no immediate thoughts of "It's A Wonderful Life" becoming a timeless holiday classic.
"Oh, heavens no. It was just another job. I had already done four movies, so it was just another job," Grimes told Newsmax on Friday evening, while appearing on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" with guest host Bianca de la Garza.
Today, 76 years later, families are still spending the Christmas season with Grimes, Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed and all the other memorable actors who participated in "It's A Wonderful Life," thanks to repeat airings on cable and network TV.
The movie revolves around Stewart's character, George Bailey, a man who gave up his own personal dreams and ambitions to help rally his community together in the wake of devastating times. With the help of a guardian angel, he goes on to learn what life would have been like had he never been born.
The Frank Capra-produced movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture; but at the time, it wasn't deemed an automatic holiday staple.
In fact, the movie didn't even break even, profit-wise, in the first year after being released.
"I enjoyed doing [the movie], with all the fake snow and all the water. It was really fun," said Grimes, who played Zuzu, the youngest Bailey daughter, in the movie.
Grimes has fond recollections of sharing scenes with Stewart — particularly the one famous scene when they're coming down the house stairs in excitable fashion.
"[Stewart] had Mary in one hand, and Tommy under one arm, and I was hanging on his back ... for dear life," recalled Grimes, while wearing a wide smile. "My legs were wrapped around him, like a frog. He was just so gentle.
"And you never do a scene just once, you do it over and over again," added Grimes. "He was so gentle with me."
Stewart's heart-of-gold persona wasn't solely reserved for the big screen. Grimes said that in 1989, 42 years after "It's A Wonderful Life" debuted, Stewart tracked her down just to ask how she was doing at that stage of her life.
Grimes had left showbiz by her mid-teens. As such, she admitted to being very surprised — and touched — by Stewart's efforts to reunite.
"It was absolutely magical. He came down the stairs at the hotel, and he looked like he was 7 feet still," Grimes recalls of the 1989 meeting, roughly eight years before Stewart passed. "He was just the nicest man ever. We talked about old times. He did a lot of things for people that no one ever knew about.
"[Stewart] helped many, many people," said Grimes, now 82. "He really was George Bailey."
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