Some things not so ‘Wonderful’

YOUR long and detailed tribute to the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” [“On a Wing and a Prayer,” by Stephen Cox, Dec. 23] included everything from the name of the director, Frank Capra, to the name of “a trained blackbird,” Jimmy the Raven, which appeared in a few scenes. The only thing you left out were the names of the writers, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, the husband-and-wife team who shared screenplay credit with Capra.

Surely they -- whose credits also include “The Thin Man,” “The Pirate,” “Father of the Bride” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” -- deserved as much mention as Jimmy the Raven.

AL RAMRUS

Pacific Palisades

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I like to reward myself on Christmas Eve or thereabouts by watching Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” while wrapping gifts. I was a kid when the picture came out in ‘46, and I have always believed the portrayal of the optimism and decency of the U.S. spirit. Bedford Falls was my town -- your town.

But greed has taken over. Layoffs, outsourcing, obscene CEO pay packages and huge corporate profits while employee benefits disappear, skyrocketing home prices, a healthcare crisis, homelessness....

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I bring you tidings: Bedford Falls has become Pottersville.

JOAN MCDAVID

Laguna Woods