Was it George’s idea to put the swimming pool under the gym floor?

An “It’s A Wonderful Life” investigation

I love “It’s A Wonderful Life.” It’s not just my favorite Christmas movie, it’s my favorite movie period. I’ve watched it every holiday season for over 30 years now, and every time, as I grow older, the movie seems to grow with me.

When I first saw it, I saw myself in young George Bailey, wishing for a bright future full of adventure. Later I would come to identify with the older George Bailey, who traded his big dreams for more human-sized ones, and came to appreciate all that he had. Now I guess I’m in my Uncle Billy years. Eventually I’ll come to see myself in Mr. Gower the druggist.

It’s a very rich movie, covering 40 years and featuring a large cast, and every year I watch it, I see something new. Maybe I make a connection that I hadn’t seen before, like during the pandemic, when I realized that Mr. Gower’s son had died during the 1918 influenza epidemic. Or I’ll appreciate a small background player who I hadn’t noticed before, or a line of dialogue Jimmy Stewart mutters under his breath.

But this year, while watching it at my local movie theater, something hit me about one of the most famous scenes in the movie, something I never noticed before:

Was it George Bailey’s idea to put the swimming pool under the gymnasium?

You remember the scene. George, who is about 21 or so and delayed college to help his father run the Bailey Building and Loan, revisits his old high school for an end-of-year party. The school’s new gymnasium floor covers the swimming pool, and can be retracted. (This was actually for real, but at Beverly Hills High School, not Bedford Falls).

During the Charleston competition, one jilted suitor of Mary’s gets revenge by retracting the floor, and George and Mary and everybody else at the party end up in the drink.

But backtrack to the start of that scene, when George arrives and meets the principal:

Every other time I’ve watched this movie, I’ve just dismissed this interaction as a way to plant the idea in the audience’s head in advance that there’s a swimming pool under the gym.

But this time I watched it, and it struck me differently. Why is the principal saying directly to George that it was “a great idea”? Is the implication that it was George’s idea? While it isn’t said outright, the tone in the principal’s voice almost seems to be one of gratitude.

Because what did George want to be before his dreams were waylaid by the needs of Bedford Falls? He wanted to be an architect. (“Build things, design new buildings, plan modern cities,” as he tells his dad in the previous scene.) So, while he was languishing around Bedford Falls, was he acting as sort of a freelance consultant, helping out folks with their architectural needs?

This idea was reinforced to me later in the movie, when George is a family man and throws a temper tantrum in the living room, knocking over some papers and books. Watching on the big screen, I could see more clearly that what George is knocking over are architectural drawings and books. It was like his hobby, after a long day at work to come home and sit at his workshop and draft bridges and buildings.

He never quite let it go. So it’s reasonable to assume that, off-screen, he continued his architectural dreams as best he could, if only in his own mind. Maybe he designed the little homes in Bailey Park himself? Who else in town would have thought up the pool idea?

Which would make it extra funny, and fitting, that in the pool scene, George is the first one to fall in himself.

Maybe this is all extremely obvious to everybody else, and it only took me 30 viewings to figure out. Or maybe I’m just seeing connections that aren’t there in a movie I know by heart. But it’s fun to think about.

And honestly, it kind of makes me feel good that George never quite gave up on his big dreams, dreams kept hidden from the hard realities of the real world.

Hidden like a swimming pool under a gymnasium floor.

Happy Holidays! Thank you so much for reading and supporting Not That Rob Thomas!

Update!: After this article posted, I heard from Andrew Abrams, who wrote the music for a new musical production of “It’s A Wonderful Life” in Madison. He said they tweaked the principal’s line to make it clear that it was George’s idea! So I’m not alone in thinking this!