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The Finger Lakes

By Daniel Leventhal | Published March 1, 2022

It’s a Wonderful Life

In this new post of my Erie Canal series we’ll be starting the drive through the central portion of the canal region.  Having stopped off in Rochester (see previous post) we will now make a detour to the Finger Lakes region and then head back to the Canal and get to the outskirts of Syracuse.

In the map below is a grouping of 11 long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes called the Finger Lakes.  It’s a lovely area and a big vacation destination.  Beautiful historic houses and pretty lakeside vistas, among other things. An impressive craft beer scene, too.  

Seneca Falls is the birthplace of the women’s suffrage movement in the US.  Mark Twain lived in Elmira later in his life. Corning is the home of the Corning Glass Works and the Corning Museum of Glass (at the southern end of the region – I didn’t stray that far from the Erie Canal and did not make it there).  Lots of things to do and places to visit.  Recommended but book ahead – the area is very popular!  I was there in August, and it was busy.

So why is the heading above the title of the classic 1946 Christmas film “It’s a Wonderful Life”? That treasured film starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore, produced and directed by the great Frank Capra, takes place in the fictional town of Bedford Falls in New York.  In the photos below you will see some photos of Seneca Falls by Cayuga Lake.  It’s believed that Seneca Falls was the inspiration for Bedford Falls. Indeed, Frank Capra visited Seneca Falls while the screenplay was being developed (to which he contributed) and had family in Auburn by Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. The bridge George Bailey (James Stewart) jumped off is supposedly based on the Bridge Street Bridge in Seneca Falls. In the photos below you’ll see a couple of larger homes which evoke the architecture in the film (such as the Bailey house).  The photo (not mine!) is of actress Karolyn Grimes who played Zuzu standing on the bridge in Seneca Falls.  She and other surviving cast members make it there for some of the celebrations of the film.

Be that as it may, It’s a Wonderful Life was filmed entirely in my home state of California!  Mostly at the RKO Radio Pictures Studios in Culver City, and the 89-acre RKO movie ranch in Encino (both in the greater Los Angeles area), although a few other southern California locations were used, including Beverly Hills High School. 

That’s it for the Hollywood history in this post. 

After the Finger Lakes we’ll head back up to the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and make a few stops on the way to Syracuse.  As luck would have it, when I stopped off in Port Byron it was during the local Fire Department’s annual car show which was great fun.  This part of the drive had lots of surviving portions of the Old Canal (the 19th century canal), and we will see some of that in the photos below. 

Enjoy!

Next post:  Syracuse and more Erie Canal as we head eastward toward Utica.

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