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Life magazine has posted online a gallery of unpublished photos from the 1946 set of "It's a Wonderful Life," the holiday classic starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey. Several of the photos focus in on the creation of all that fake snow, requested by director Frank Capra, using a new method that won awards in Hollywood that year. How do we know for certain it was all fake? Because "It's a Wonderful Life" was filmed on the RKO Ranch beside the Los Angeles River in Encino in June of '46. Summer in the Valley is not exactly snow-making season. The film was actually shot during a heat wave — you can see Stewart covered in perspiration in some of the photos (and in the movie, if you look closely.)
When Encino became Bedford Falls
Photo: Martha Holmes/TIME & LIFE Pictures