Happy Anniversary, Donna Reed!

Happy Anniversary, Donna Reed!!

Donna Reed and James Stewart in "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946) directed by Frank Capra

Capra told friends that Lu had convinced him to retire, but though his concern for her health was genuine, that was just another excuse. "I want to work! What do you think I'm dying for? I'm in great shape except that nobody wants me for a job. I want to direct —if people would let me alone to do my own picture." In those rare instances when anyone approached him with a "go" project in his later years, Capra would go away. Perhaps he could not be criticized for rejecting such a motley bunch of offers as a 1972 documentary on Frasier, the Sensuous Lion, an elderly resident of Southern California's Lion Country Safari who was renowned for his sexual exploits; a 1975 television special starring Lucille Ball, who had played a bit part in Broadway Bill; Mr. Kruegers Christmas (1980), a sentimental, mildly religious half-hour TV drama with James Stewart and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Capra was uncomfortable because the Mormons were the producers);

and It's Still a Wonderful Life, a later-abandoned TV sequel project with Stewart and Donna Reed playing their characters in later years, originally proposed by Reed to the author of this book and offered by Universal in 1982 to Capra, who responded, "That's the kind of goddamn thing a producer would suggest. They can go fuck themselves."