You are probably familiar with the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life. Perhaps you may have heard of the movie, Meet John Doe. The film, Mr. Deeds, was quite popular before the Adam Sandler remake. And, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is just as truthful today about corrupt politicians as it was when it was produced in 1939. All of those films were directed by Frank Capra, who became a wealthy and powerful force in Hollywood during the 1930s and 40s.
You may know all of that success enjoyed by Mr. Capra. However, were you aware of his difficult life prior to receiving his first big break in 1925? It’s quite the Heroic Tale!
Capra was born in a village near Palermo, Sicily, Italy in 1897. His parents emigrated to America in 1903 in search of a better life. Frank was only 5 years-old but vividly remembered that rough 13-day trip, traveling in the steerage compartment of a ship called the Germania. They were given a cot to sleep on and that was the entirety of their designated space for the two-week voyage. It was the cheapest way, the only way, the passengers in that section of the ship could afford to make the journey. They couldn’t bring trunks of clothes, or any belongings, because there was no storage room for them. They travelled with whatever they were wearing and carrying and that is how they would start their lives once they arrived in America.
When the Germania entered New York Harbor, the Capra family stood on the deck gazing at the Statue of Liberty, it was a thrilling moment. His father, Salvatore, pronounced that the torch was the greatest light since the Star of Bethlehem. That same torch can be seen today in the Statue of Liberty Museum.
That’s how the great man started his American journey. After making it through the Ellis Island processing, his parents were somehow able to take their four children across the country via train to Los Angeles. They settled on the East side, an Italian ghetto, now called Lincoln Heights. His father eked out a living as a fruit picker. Frank helped by selling newspapers for a decade while going to school, just like another famous Italian-American, Joe DiMaggio, who lived up in San Francisco during that same time period.
Frank’s parents wanted him to work fulltime after high school graduation, but young Frank wanted a better life. He went against their wishes and attended college at California Institute of Technology. Even though he was studying fulltime in school, he didn’t let his parents down. He worked to help bring money into the family, doing all sorts of odd jobs like waiting tables in restaurants, working at the campus laundry and playing a banjo at a nightclub.
Sadly, during this time in college, Frank’s father died in 1916. This sad time for the Capra family must have weighed on Frank and perhaps made him consider quitting school to work fulltime in order to better help support his family. But he was convinced college would provide a much better future and stayed in school.
In 1918, he received a degree in chemical engineering, not a study discipline that would lend itself to an artistic future. Shortly afterwards, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War I. He never saw action. Frank was assigned to teach math to artillerymen in San Francisco. During that time, he caught the Spanish flu and was discharged from the service. The H1N1 pandemic killed 50 million worldwide and approximately 675,000 Americans. But Frank survived the terrible virus.
Once healthy, he looked for work. Despite his college degree, he couldn’t find employment. His frustration led to bouts of depression. Then, another health scare occurred when his appendix burst. After recovering, he must have left the hospital feeling like everything was stacked up against him. Feeling desperate and defeated, he began an adventurous period of his life, hopping onto freight trains and traveling around the West coast, taking all types of jobs in order to eat. He sold stocks, worked as a movie extra, gambled, took jobs on farms, and sold books by philosopher, Elbert Hubbard, just to get by. He was basically living the life of a vagabond.
Broke, desperate, willing to try anything, he made a phone call to a new studio in San Francisco letting them know that he had just moved up to the Golden Gate City from Hollywood. Dancing around the truth a bit, he gave them the impression that he had experience in film. When he arrived at the studio, the owner, Walter Montague, was very impressed with the confidence of the young “filmmaker.”
Frank said later, “All I had was cockiness - and let me tell you that gets you a long way.” He was hired to direct a documentary about an Italian navy ship, Libia, for $75, which must have seemed like a fortune back then. And that was the start of a magnificent career for the 25 year-old who had hit rock bottom and thought he would never catch a break.
Once he started working, he went full steam ahead into the film business. Frank worked on several projects for several studios in San Francisco before moving back to Los Angeles to work for a struggling producer named Harry Cohn. In this position, Frank learned everything about filmmaking. He had responsibilities as a property man, film cutter, title writer, and assistant director. It was the best training he could have ever hoped for in his new quest, his unforeseen career.
Frank worked with other studios as well, including for Hal Roach’s studio on the Our Gang series. He wrote comedy bits for Mack Sennett. He worked with Charlie Chaplain, Buster Keaton and Claudette Colbert. When he found himself back with Cohn in 1928, the Talkies were coming in and Frank’s engineering experience helped him make that transition better than most. Cohn’s studio had grown a great deal and became known as Columbia Pictures. The 30 year-old Capra was well on his way, directing film after film for Columbia and quickly becoming Cohn’s most trusted director.
In 1934, Capra directed, It Happened One Night a comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. The film was a major success and won five Academy Awards, including Best Director.
It was shortly after this film when Capra was approached by a man who convinced him that God was guiding his life. From that point on, he felt compelled to use his talents to fulfill a higher purpose. “My films must let every man, woman and child know that God loves them, that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other.”
With that revelation during The Great Depression, he used his talents to present stories that so many Americans could strongly relate to their own lives. Although he was doing financially well by this time, Capra knew all too well the horrible depressing experience millions of Americans were enduring from his time selling newspapers, riding freight trains, living in flophouses, taking any work he could find, just to make enough money to eat. Given that personal understanding and new mission, consider the great movies he made during that era that continue to make an impact to this day: Mr. Deeds (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), and Meet John Doe (1941). Frank Capra was making inspirational movies for the common man.
Once World War II arrived, Capra and other great filmmakers like John Ford and Walter Houston worked for the U.S. Government making films to educate and inspire Americans. Four days after Pearl Harbor, the 44 year-old Capra quit his director’s job to help the war effort. Working directly for General George Marshall, he made a series of seven documentaries titled, Why We Fight: Prelude to War. All of the footage came from military sources with animated charts from Walt Disney and music supplied by Alfred Newman and Dimitri Tiomkin.
When General Marshall and President Franklin Roosevelt viewed the first film, they were so inspired that the President said, “I want every American to see this motion picture. General, please make all the necessary arrangements.”
Capra always considered those films his best and most important work. After the war, he returned to Hollywood, but didn’t have the same success he had enjoyed prior to World War II. His 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life did not do well at the box office or with the critics. It was generally considered a failure until 1971 when it began being aired on television. That’s when the popularity of the movie exploded and continues to be a Christmas viewing habit for millions of Americans.
For many, It’s a Wonderful Life is their favorite Christmas movie. Like his films of the 1930s and early 40s, strong Christian messages dominate the story, presenting a man trying to do good for the sake of his community, placing his own needs last. That is the takeaway message from this beautiful movie starring the beloved Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.
Capra continued making moves into the 1950s and 60s. For me, the film that I treasured is Pocketful of Miracles (1961) starring Betty Davis and Glenn Ford. Like his earlier work, this delightful movie fits perfectly into the Capra Christian theme of helping the down-trodden, the down-and-out. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ — Matthew 25:40
And by living that Gospel passage, Capra most certainly lived a heroic life. In my view, Frank Capra is one of our greatest Americans, a true hero to the concept of the American dream and a man who truly lived his Christian faith.