One staple of the Holiday Season is the airing of It’s a Wonderful Life, the 1946 Christmas drama produced and directed by Frank Capra. Over the years there has been a convincing case made that Seneca Falls was the director’s inspiration for the film. The film references a number of upstate New York towns and villages, including Elmira and Utica. But, there another point of interest that lends itself to the case for Seneca Falls, and introduces you to the REAL George Bailey.

On Director Frank Capra’s 1945 trip from NYC to Auburn and the Finger Lakes, (prior to the construction of Route 81), he likely would have passed through the bucolic village of Dryden, NY. His trek to visit family in the area would have taken him down Dryden’s Main Street, and directly past the idyllic and unassuming storefront of the George B. Bailey Insurance Agency. 

In 1936 a travelling HVAC salesman wanted to work closer to his family, and so George Bailey began to sell insurance at a desk in the corner of his garage. A year later, the Main Street location was acquired, and Bailey soon came to be a household name in the Dryden area. George’s son Bill and his grandchildren came into the business and their generosity and philanthropic nature are still known today in the Dryden area. 

Frank Capra’s gregarious George Bailey may well have been named after our very own George, and Capra’s character would have been proud to have been named after the well-known and generous Bailey family of Dryden. The George Bailey Insurance Agency merged with Place Insurance in 2013 to become Bailey Place Insurance, and still maintains a thriving office in Dryden, Ithaca and Cortland to this day. The agency now puts out a sign every December, honoring the Bailey family and as a tribute to the connection we all feel to the message of Capra’s movie.