It’s a Wonderful Gift

In the early 1970s, actor Jimmy Hawkins left a phone message with a New York agent. When the man’s colleague, Mary Jo Slater, heard his name, she asked if he was the Jimmy Hawkins from her favorite film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” None other, Hawkins replied--and the seeds of a 25-year friendship were sown.

Slater, who later traded agenting for a Hollywood casting career, went on to produce a musical of the 1946 Frank Capra holiday classic. Hawkins, who played the youngest child of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in the movie, turned out a “Wonderful Life” scrapbook, calendar and trivia book.

Now, Hawkins and Slater, are presenting a Lux radio play version of the film tomorrow night at the Pasadena Playhouse, which will also be broadcast, as “Merry Christmas, George Bailey,” on KCET Channel 28 Christmas night. The live event will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the taped version, underwritten by PBS, will be available for pledge drives down the road.

Standing behind old-fashioned radio mikes will be an all-star cast: Bill Pullman as George Bailey; Penelope Ann Miller as his wife, Mary; Nathan Lane as Clarence the angel; and Martin Landau as the villainous Mr. Potter. Other roles also shine brightly: Sally Field will double as the narrator and George Bailey’s mother; Joe Mantegna will appear as Nick the bartender, Minnie Driver as Violet Bick and Carol Kane as Mary’s mother. Slater’s sons, Christian and Ryan, will also participate.

“We couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring a nearly lost art form to contemporary audiences with a whole new generation of talent,” says Mare Mazur, KCET’s director of national productions for drama.

On the face of it, the holiday project was a natural. But appearances can be deceptive. Because of the convoluted history of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the road to Pasadena and the television broadcast had almost as many ups and downs as Bailey himself.

“It was,” said Laurel Lambert, director of advertising and promotion for KCET, “like a big ball of knotted string [we had] to untie.”

Few people have more knowledge of “Wonderful Life” lore than Hawkins. He was 4 years old, and the veteran of more than 20 movies, when Capra shot the film. Hawkins would go on to play Tagg in the Annie Oakley series and to land continuing roles in “Bachelor Father,” “The Ozzie and Harriet Show,” “Petticoat Junction,” “Gidget” and “The Donna Reed Show.” But “It’s a Wonderful Life” holds a special place in his heart.

The movie focuses on a man who is saved from suicide by an angel who shows him how life would have been altered--for the worse--if he weren’t around. Its message, Hawkins maintains, is as relevant today as it ever was.

“People like to think they mean something--that, if they were gone, it would leave an awful hole,” says the 56-year-old actor-producer. A child of the ‘50s, he has shown up for the interview in his 1959 gold-and-blue senior jacket from Sherman Oaks’ Notre Dame High School and plans a TV movie based on the life of Roy Rogers.

In retrospect, Hawkins points out, the most interesting aspect of “Wonderful Life” may be how little was expected of the film.

“Donna [later] told me that Capra and Stewart were nervous about the movie, the first they’d done after the war,” he recalls. “War changes people drastically, and they were wondering if they still had it. No one thought the movie was very special--it was just another picture to us.”

The one-hour radio drama, with Reed and Stewart re-creating their roles, was broadcast in early 1947, shortly after the film’s release, in attempt to promote the picture. Despite that effort, and five Academy Award nominations, the movie was something of a flop, Hawkins says. It wound up about $500,000 in the hole.

Decades later, it was TV that recast it as a hit--in part, because of a legal slip-up. In the 1970s, the film’s owner, Republic Pictures, failed to renew its copyright. That meant that TV stations, considering the film to be in the public domain, could broadcast it free of license fees. Playing it nonstop at holiday time, they turned “It’s a Wonderful Life” into a staple of the airwaves.

In fact, it’s hard to come up with another film so identified with the season. “Isn’t there an ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Channel,” quips Nathan Lane, “aimed at people who want to throw themselves off a bridge some snowy night? Actually, the picture speaks to everyone. Who doesn’t know what it’s like to have dreams--and then have life get in the way? Though the material is wonderful, it’s not unusual they didn’t know what they had at the time. Just ask Van Gogh.”

A hit, of course, is a hot property, so Republic Pictures--later acquired by Viacom’s Spelling Entertainment-- decided to challenge the public domain status of the film. Republic/Spelling nailed down rights to the film’s music and to the story on which it was based, then sent out cease-and-desist letters to the TV stations that were airing the film. The strategy worked: By the mid-’90s, NBC was paying Republic/Spelling a hefty sum for exclusive broadcast rights.

As the film headed toward its 50th anniversary, Hawkins locked horns with Republic/Spelling. The entertainment company, which also claimed “Wonderful Life” merchandising rights, objected to calendar and book projects he was producing and marketing. It was “like Mr. Potter going after the Baileys again,” Hawkins told The Times in March 1996

Hawkins fought back, filing a series of suits in the last year and a half. The first, still unresolved, charged interference with Hawkins’ contracts to disseminate merchandise. Another, undertaken in conjunction with two other “Bailey children” asks for reimbursement for the use of their images on merchandise. Settlement talks are underway. The third, filed last week, requests a court decision once and for all as to whether “It’s a Wonderful Life” is in the public domain.

In July 1996, Hawkins got the idea to produce the radio drama as a charitable event--thinking that the battle over the film rights would have no impact on his plans. Contacing the Illinois-based company that controls rights to Lux plays, he got permission to move ahead.

He then brought in Slater, who suggested a hookup with the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, a charity that has raised more than $55 million for research in the last nine years.

“I compare George Bailey and Pediatric AIDS co-founder Elizabeth Glaser,” Slater says, referring to the activist who died of complications of AIDS in 1994 at age 47. “She’s someone who affected other people’s lives--an average person who made a difference.” A sellout Monday night, Slater says, would earn Pediatric AIDS $200,000.

Finally, Hawkins took the idea to PBS’s Jim Arntz, a producer for the network’s “Great Performances” series. But when KCET got wind of the proposal, it wanted in on the act. The radio play would fit perfectly into its plans to reclaim old turf.

“We want to get back in the drama game, one at which we excelled in the 1970s with [the series] ‘Hollywood Television Theater’ and ‘Visions,’ ” explains Blaine Baggett, vice president of program development, scheduling and acquisitions for KCET. “The goal is to reconnect with Hollywood--an asset in our own backyard.”

The project was set for December 1997. PBS would pick up the $300,000 broadcast tab.

To ensure that there were no legal problems, KCET and Hawkins’ attorney Richard T. Ferko notified Republic/Spelling and NBC of the plan. That triggered a threat to block the broadcast, Ferko maintains.

“Republic claims to own every right known to mankind--common law, trademark, copyright--even those to the radio play,” he says. “Approval for the radio play was initially linked to our settlement of the suits.”

“All the people with money at stake decided we shouldn’t be able to do this,” adds Slater. “They wanted us to go away. Even when they came around, we had to change the title to ‘Merry Christmas, George Bailey.’ ”

“Ultimately,” Ferko says, “no one wanted to be the heavy in a Pediatric AIDS project, so after months of fighting, they finally backed down in October.”

Republic/Spelling won’t comment on the Hawkins lawsuits, but the company maintains that it supported the radio-play project from the outset.

“We think this is a wonderful event benefiting Pediatric AIDS, which is a terrific organization,” says Nancy Bushkin, spokeswoman for Spelling Entertainment. (NBC declined to respond to questions about negotiations with KCET, except to say that it had just renewed TV rights to the movie for another three years.)

KCET takes a diplomatic stance. “This wouldn’t be happening without the generosity of Spelling Entertainment and NBC,” Mazur says.

Baggett, for his part, thinks everyone deserves credit.

“Given the long-term confusion and murkiness with regard to this property, we knew this would be a complicated project to get underway,” he says. “But all’s well that ends well. At the end of the day, everyone came to the table and made it work--everyone, in effect, was a George Bailey. I’m probably mixing my metaphors here, but ‘God bless us everyone.’ ”

“IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE--THE RADIO PLAY,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Date: Monday, 8 p.m. Tickets: $150. Phone: (310) 395-9051. Television broadcast: “Merry Christmas, George Bailey,” Dec. 25, 8 p.m., on KCET-TV Channel 28.