“The appeal of James Stewart, the shy, inarticulate movie actor, is that he reminds every girl in the audience of the date before the last. He’s not a glamorized Gable, a remote Robert Taylor. He’s ‘Jim’, the lackadaisical, easy-going boy from just around the corner.”
The paragraph quoted above was pulled from the attached article which was one of the first widely read profiles of Jimmy Stewart (1908 – 1997). Written four years after his arrival in the California dream factory and printed during the same year as his first encounter with the director Frank Capra in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, this article reveals that Stewart had a small town upbringing and was essentially the same character he played in “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
“Booth Tarkington might have created Jim Stewart. He’s ‘Little Orvie and Billie Baxter’ grown up ‘Penrod’ with a Princeton diploma.”
One year after this article appeared Jimmy Stewart would be awarded an Academy Award for his performance in “Philadelphia Story“.
From Amazon: It’s a Wonderful Life
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