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With a father who directed film classics such as "It Happened One Night" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," young Capra could expect stars such as Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart to drop by for dinner.
It wasn't until he was 12, however, that he got to see his father at work.
"My mother was very dead-set against us visiting the sets," he told the Star-News of Wilmington in 2006. "She didn't want us to become studio brats."
But in July 1946, Capra, along with his brother and sister, were driven to a studio ranch in the San Fernando Valley, where their father was filming "It's a Wonderful Life," which became a Christmas classic. There, spread out before them in 90-degree summer heat, was the town of Bedford Falls -- 75 stores and buildings over four acres and all covered with artificial snow.
"That," Capra recalled, "was when I realized my father could make magic."
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