Highlights with Original Footage

After 4 long years spent fighting for his country in World War II, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood unsure of where the industry stood in a post war world and equally unsure of his place in it. The rom-coms and comedies he was used to churning out seemed trite in the new world so scarred by pain.

Enter Frank Capra, whom Jimmy had previously worked with on the smash hit Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Capra approached Jimmy with a short story he was trying to produce and thought that Jimmy would be perfect for. The Greatest Gift would later be renamed It's a Wonderful Life and go on to not only solidify both Capra and Jimmy in the American film lexicon, but also become Jimmy's personal favorite film he ever made.

The Shop Around the Corner marked the 4th and final film that Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan made together. 

The two had such strong chemistry both on and off screen that the biographer Marc Elliot described their pairing in this particular film with a cinematic phenomenon known as "doubling" - where the characters in the film mirror the relationship between the characters in real life. The reality of the actors' lives off-screen adding depth to the lives of the characters they are portraying, and vice versa.

What the audience is seeing in this holiday classic is the real life chemistry between Jim and Maggie - and a big part of what has allowed the film to endure so vibrantly to this day.

Jimmy was not Frank Capra's first choice to play the lead in his 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - Gary Cooper was. However, when Columbia (who had Cooper under contract) refused to loan him out for the film, Capra turned to MGM (who had Jimmy under contract), where he knew he would have no trouble securing the actor from MGM studio head Louis B. Mayor.

Mr. Smith was the first time the world got to see Jimmy play a character of both desperation and depth, as opposed to the lighthearted comedies he was known for at the time.

For the infamous filibuster scene in which Jimmy (as Jefferson Smith) defends his honor against the corrupt congressmen who have falsely accused him of fraud on the Senate floor, Jimmy consulted a doctor and had him administer daily doses of deadly mercury dichloride directly to his vocal cords in order to achieve the appropriate level of hoarseness.

Mr. Smith earned Jimmy his first Oscar nomination, although he didn't secure an actual win until the following year for his role in The Philadelphia Story. Jimmy later believed his win was, in part, an apology of sorts from The Academy for his loss the previous year for Mr. Smith.

On March 22, 1941, only one month after winning the best actor Oscar for his role in The Philadelphia Story, Jimmy enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as a Private. Military service was a long standing tradition in the Stewart family dating all the way back to the Civil War. Jimmy felt that it was his duty both as an American and a Stewart to continue that tradition, take up arms and defend his country.

He insisted on being treated just like any other soldier and refused any special treatment.

From 1941-1945, Jimmy flew 20 combat missions over Germany as leader of a squadron of B-24's. He never spoke about his wartime experiences.

After WWII, Jimmy continued his military career serving in the Air Force Reserves and after 27 years retired at the rank of Brigadier General.