Glenn Beck (113:12)
Let me tell you a story that you think you already know. It's about a movie that feels like it has been there our whole lives. It's like a tree in the town square or the hymn you don't ever remember learning, but somehow you know it by heart. But this particular movie hasn't been around forever. It just seems like it was actually born out of failure. It was born out of exhaustion. And it was born out of people who felt just like its lead character, George Bailey. It's a Wonderful Life has a fascinating story behind it and it speaks volumes about us. Our hopes, our fears, our desires. The movie was made by Frank Capra and it was right after World War II. Frank Capra had just come back. He didn't come home triumphant. He came home a changed man. He had spent the war making film for the United States government, the War Department, about why the west is worth saving. This film series are fantastic. It's called why We Fight. And when he returned his old style of doing things, the old machinery just didn't fit Hollywood anymore. So he started his own studio. He bet absolutely everything on it. And It's a Wonderful Life was supposed to be the movie that proved Frank Capra is still Frank Capra. And it nearly ruined him. The movie lost money. Critics really didn't like it. They mocked how schmaltzy it was. Audiences stayed home. Jimmy Stewart, this was his first movie that he made when he came back home from the war, and this was his start. And between Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart, oh, my gosh, you've got a massive hit, right? Nobody came. Nobody watched it. Jimmy Stewart, the most beloved man in America, gave a really raw, shaken, almost too real performance for people at the time. He wasn't the cheerful hero that is coming out of war as a victory. This was a man that was cracking under the weight of responsibility. A man who did everything right, but he still feel like. Still felt like he was a failure. Any of this sound familiar? It was a story about what happened during the Depression and the crash of 29. Well, America had been living that forever. They had been living that since 29. They went through the long depression, then they went through the war. And the first thing out of war, they don't want to watch a movie about how depressing life can be. Okay, so it was a total failure. Film disappears, goes into a vault. It is a noble misfire. Good idea. Just didn't land. Maybe wrong time, maybe too schmaltzy. Then something weird happened. Everybody forgot about it. And so the rights lapsed. There was no grand relaunch. There was no marketing genius, just a legal oversight that let the rights lapse. Enter Ted Turner. Ted Turner and SuperStation TBS. Do you remember SuperStation TBS when he had bought. Bought a bunch of stations across the country and he tied them all together, and then cable came in and Superstation TBS became tbs. Turner, well, he was looking on Superstation tbs. They needed some holiday programming, and they needed it cheap. And I. When I say cheap, what. What they. What Ted really meant was free. We need a bunch of free programming that we can run all Christmas, okay? No rights, no royalties. What is out there? The vaults open up, and lo and behold, they find It's a Wonderful Life. Suddenly it appears in our life. And I don't know about you, but I always thought it had been around forever. I mean, didn't seem like it was a new relaunch. It wasn't like, hey, have you heard about this new movie? It just was there and on, and we thought everybody knew about it. Nobody knew about it. Our grandparents probably didn't even know about it because it was a massive failure. It's on afternoons, late nights. It's on morning. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. Black and white, snow flickering in the living rooms, as our kids are playing on the floor. And we as adults are in the kitchen, half listening and half watching. And slowly, slowly, its message found us. It found us this time because America had changed. We weren't fresh from despair, and we weren't fresh from victory anymore. We weren't those people. It wasn't so close to us that we didn't want to look at us. Yes, we were tired. We were busy. We were stretched thin. But we were also a group now that measured our lives in promotions and in square footage and bank balances. We were starting to become a little Mr. Potter like, and we didn't want to be Mr. Potter. And there on the screen is George Bailey, standing on a bridge, wondering, would the world be better without me? He's not a villain. He's not a loser. He's actually a really good man. He's the best of us. And that's why it still works. Think of all the happy endings that we have and everything else and all of the stories that we tell ourselves. This movie doesn't tell you that life is going to turn out the way you planned. This one tells you something much, much harder. That the measure of your life is probably going to be invisible to you while you're living your life because Clarence ain't coming down in his, you know, 1800s clothing and having a hot toddy with you. So you probably won't know the real measure of your life. And the biggest victories in your life don't come with applause. And the sacrifice, it usually doesn't feel heroic at the moment. It just feels like sacrifice and crap. Why me? Why me? Why don't I ever get the adventure that I planned my whole life? Remember, George never left Bedford Falls. He never becomes famous. He just stays and he shows up and he keeps his promises and he holds people together. What is the real. What is the real miracle of the film? It is not Clarence. It is not the bells. It is not him getting his life back. The real miracle is the ledger. That is the miracle. The names, the faces, the small kindness, all stacked up one on top of each other until you realize, oh, my gosh, all of those little acts, they amount to a life that actually mattered. We're all looking for the big splashy. He didn't get any of those. He didn't get that. And that's why he felt like he was a failure. That's why when the. The town shows up in the end and they're all giving, you know, just a few dollars, it breaks us every Single time. Because deep down, we're not watching George Bailey. Deep down, we're checking our own books, our own ledger. Did I. Do I matter to anybody? Would I be missed? Did the things I gave up, the things that I really wanted to do in life, but because something else came up, I had to serve. I had to do this for my kids or I had to do this. The things I gave up. Does it mean anything? This film answers it with a whisper. Doesn't shout it. It whispers. You'll never fully know the good you've done. I can't give you an answer. You'll never know. You'll never see the ripples while you're standing in the water, but they're there. Believe me, they're there. So this year, when you either just have it running while you're all in the kitchen and you're watching from time to time. Oh, I love this part. I love this part. And everybody gets quiet for a minute or you just curl up on the couch and watch it again. Remember, you're not watching a Christmas movie. What you're watching is a reminder that life doesn't have to be loud to be important. That staying can be braver than leaving. That loving your family and your neighbors and your town, imperfect as it is, that's not settling, it's choosing. And whether Ted Turner knew it or not. But I can guarantee you that Jimmy Stewart did and Frank Capra certainly did that. Every time you see that, why we, year after year, when the snow starts falling and that old piano theme plays, we come back. Not for the nostalgia, but for the reassurance. Because every once in a while, all of us need somebody to just to look us in the eye and say, you're here, you mattered. And it is a wonderful life. Let me tell you about our sponsor. It is simply safe. Around the holidays, our homes get busier. More packages, more visitors, more to travel. More opportunities for the wrong people to take advantage. And that's why I recommend SimpliSafe. It's an award winning home security that protects your house with the kind of speed and precision that you'd expect from a much more expensive system. But without all the hassle and the contracts or the installation teams. None of that. SimpliSafe's 247 professionally monitor professional monitoring is incredibly fast. When an alarm goes off, they can verify that threat and get emergency response on the way to your house in minutes. And the technology that they use does exactly what you need it to do. It lets you see, hear and respond to what's happening around your home no matter where you are. You can set it up yourself in minutes. It works right out of the box. And this is real peace of mind at the time of the year when you want to focus on your family and not worry about what's happening, you know, back home or at your home while you're gone. All the Christmas presents that are in the house this month only take 50% off the new system. This is the best price you'll ever see on Simplisafe, so don't miss it. Go to simplisafe.com beck that's simplisafe.com beck. Lock in your discount. There is no safe like Simplisafe. Teach your kids right. Shoot. You know, schools won't do it for you. This is Glenn Beck. So I just saw something in a Blaze article about craving for a simpler time. I don't remember what show I was watching the other day, but they each had a phone on each side of the bed. Husband and wife, they each had a phone on one side of the bed and his line of her line. And I thought, my gosh, I mean, it's no different now. It's just, you know, not hooked to the wall, I guess. And it's not this giant contraption. Most people don't even know how. A rotary dial. You talk to anybody under 30, they have no idea how to use a rotary dial. They're making a comeback. This guy started making an entrepreneur, began to make physical phones. That's the name of the brand, physical phones. And within the first 72 hours, he sold a thousand of them. And people, I guess they want it, you know, I don't know why. I mean, I'd want it because of the nostalgia. I have an old phone hanging up on my wall in my ranch, but I don't. It's not plugged in anything because, you know, we don't have phone service. But this is actually. This works. Operates, I think, on Bluetooth, and so it's actually running through your. Your cell phone. But it works like a physical phone. It can't have the weight of those old phones, do you think, Stu? Because it doesn't have any. I bet it has, like, you know, one little diode inside. You know, it doesn't have all the crap that they used to have, I'm sure.