Bedford Falls

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Bedford Falls is the fictional city in Frank Capra's 1946 cinematic classic It's a Wonderful Life. It is an attractive small town in upstate New York.

The name of the town is likely a combination of actual cities and towns, Bedford Hills or Bedford (in Westchester County near New York City) and Seneca Falls (between Rochester and Syracuse) or Glens Falls (near Saratoga, north of Albany). Local lore has Capra visiting Seneca Falls many times, to visit a nearby relative, and thereafter using it as his model for the look and feel of the movie set. In the film, reference is made to Elmira, Rochester, and Buffalo, three upstate New York communities.

The people of Seneca Falls have long been convinced of their town's association with Bedford Falls. The town has re-named streets for characters in the movie, and its restaurants such "ZuZu Café" and "Antonina's" (whose owner around Christmas time changes its name to "Martini's") also are named after characters from the town's most beloved movie.

Seneca Falls also has a steel bridge similar to the structure used in the film. The Seneca Falls bridge also displays a plaque recognizing the heroic efforts of a man who, early in the 20th Century, jumped off the bridge to save a young girl. The girl survived but the man later died. In the film, guardian angel Clarence jumps into the river from the bridge to "save" George Bailey, who was contemplating suicide.

In honor of It's a Wonderful Life, the Bedford Falls Company was named after the fictional town, and an overhead view of a facsimile of the Bailey household appears in the production logo, which also features a man and a woman singing the last line of "Buffalo Gals" (a song featured in the movie), "..aaand dance by the light of the moon."