Puyallup, WA

"The Greatest Gift of All" is the story of an honest, hard-working man who dreamed of a brighter tomorrow, but after years of struggle and bad luck, he found himself facing financial ruin, running from the law, and considering suicide - the story of a failure.

Puyallup Date Night Alert: This Movie is Playing Weds Dec 16th

at the Historic Liberty Theater in Downtown Puyallup.

Full Dinner and This Movie. Link: Liberty Theater for details!

Appropriately, the author's attempt to sell the story to every publisher he could find met with rejection after rejection. Giving up, he eventually just sent it out to 200 friends in a condensed version as his Christmas greeting - realizing that his dream of a big book deal had ended in failure.

By accident, the story came to the attention of the head of one of the biggest Hollywood movie studios. He decided to make it into a movie starring the biggest star of the day - Cary Grant. But three different script-writing teams couldn't to come up with a workable script so the project was shelved and Cary Grant moved on to other projects - another failure.

Finally, "The Greatest Gift of All" was purchased by a top-name director, who tweaked and massaged it, and rolled it out to big fanfare where it was met with - indifference. Even though the director was well-known, the reviews for the movie were excellent, and the studio was thinking "Oscars" - the public stayed away. A box-office failure.

Later that year, it was indeed nominated for five Academy Awards, but it failed to win a single one. But wait! With the attention that Academy Award nominations bring, surely the public would want to see it now? The studio re-release was met with (What else?) - failure.

Since the American public wasn't interested in it, it was taken to London in hopes that a foreign audience might embrace it. Alas, the story was rejected by foreign critics as "too sentimental" and the public stayed away again - failure.

Over the next 25 years, the movie sat collecting dust in storage until, of course, the company that owned the rights to the it went bankrupt - failure. But amazingly, from this final failure sprang another chance for this movie to win the hearts of the public, and this time it didn't disappoint - soon becoming one of the most cherished movies of all time.

You see, the top-name director who massaged and tweaked the story was Frank Capra, who also changed the name of the story to "It's a Wonderful Life". Capra had just returned home after fighting in WWII and was looking for a new project. He had seen great potential in the story and recruited another returning veteran - Colonel James Stewart - to play the lead character. (Capra had also directed Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and other projects before they both joined the military.)

The movie was completed in 90 days and in time for a pre-Christmas release in 1946, but for Oscar considerations, it was held until mid-January so it would qualify for the 1947 Academy Awards considerations. But in a war-weary, post-Christmas America, there was little enthusiasm for the sentimental story of struggle and failure.

But in 1974, through the bankrupt copyright-holding production company's failure to renew the copyright properly, the movie fell into the public domain - meaning any and all television stations could play the movie for free. And play it they did. It was not uncommon that year to find the movie playing at the same time on competing stations - and there weren't that many stations. Finally, after so many failures, the public was ready to receive Frank Capra's "Greatest Gift of All".

Out of the failure of this movie about a failure of a man, many would find a renewed hope and inspiration every year and realize, once again, "It's a Wonderful Life". Feeling like a failure these days? Remember, "No Man is a Failure who has Friends." - Clarence the Angel. Hang in there!

photo by: Tony the Misfit

Hi, animal lovers!

This is pretty simple... Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today!
The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals.

It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing.

Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/


AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS!

Car Sales Puyallup, Washington

My name is Joshua Martin and I am the Executive Chef at Stanley & Seaforts located in Tacoma, Washington. I wanted to share my recent car sales buying adventure with the world since it was my first positive car sales experience ever.
I do have prior sales experience but not actual car sales experience, but I do know how pushy & untruthful car salesmen can be. I have also gone through plenty of cars in my life time so that has brought me in front of many new & used car salesmen. I did some online searching and decided to venture out to Puyallup, Washington where there is plenty of new & used dealerships to choose from and is only ten miles away.

This time around I was looking for a slightly used car, w/ low miles, one owner, and it had to be in great condition. This is something that can be hard to come across in the car sales industry and as I have found out in the past especially in the Tacoma area. I drove to various car dealerships in Puyallup dealing with plenty of salesman as expected not exactly finding what I was in search of, and then we finally ended up at Puyallup Nissan. I have driven a Nissan in the past and it was a great car so I thought it wouldn't hurt to look around of course and chat with some of their salesmen.

In the past I have realized that you just never know if car salesman at the dealerships are telling the truth or if the salesmen just want to get the deal, so I usually let them know right away that I am just looking around & don't need a salesman just yet. My salesmen at this particular location, who introduced himself as Brian Paul, approached me with an honest smile and let me know that if I see any cars I that was interested in that he would be happy to answer any questions for me. As he shook my hand firmly and turned to walk away I realized Brian wasn't your average pushy salesman, so I yelled at him to hold on. I asked Brian a little bit about himself & his sales background to build a little report,
including where he was from. Brian was now a Puyallup, Washington resident, but before he moved to Puyallup he had lived in the same Tacoma area that I had grown up in. Come to find out we had actually even went to the same High School which was a weird coincidence, and we even had some similar sales experience as well. This had to do nothing with why I chose Brian to work with, but more or less because of how nice and Genuine Brian was. I then decided to proceed with my car buying experience at Puyallup Nissan.

Brian listened to my needs and my wants. He knew exactly what I was looking for. After spending about twenty minutes in his office reviewing their inventory we discovered the perfect Nissan Altima w/ my name written all over it. Brian than had the vehicle pulled-up and ready to be test driven. I knew after putting my eyes on this vehicle, that I would be back in Brian's office soon signing my life away. After my decision was made Brian then also took the extra step without my knowledge by tinting the windows knowing that it would be something that I would enjoy. The vehicle also had a couple of scratches, and Brian was determined to get those scratches removed before I finished my paperwork in finance. Their finance team had spectacular service and made me also feel just as welcome as Brian had. They went over all the paperwork with me and made sure that all of my questions were answered before continuing on with the signing. I also think that Brian gave me a fair deal on my car that I used for the trade in

One thing that I have learned in this experience is that there are still good loyal car salesman out there, and we can't judge them all to be the same. Brian Paul was a great listener, very trust worthy, and I couldn't of asked for a better car buying experience. I will recommend Brian Paul with Puyallup Nissan to any of my friends & family or anyone else looking for a new or pre-owned vehicle. Puyallup Nissan in Puyallup, Washington will always be my first choice to purchase a new or pre-owned vehicle in the future.

You can contact Brian Paul at 253-255-6710 or by email brianp@puyallupnissan.com.

He typically works Saturday-Wednesday 10am-7pm. Make sure when you call Brian with your new & used car questions tell him that Joshua Martin sent you.

Today the Senate finally passed H.R. 3548, the bill extending unemployment benefits, and with it comes an Amendment extending the Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers as well as an exception allowing for move up buyers to get their own credit.

In its current form the bill extends the $8,000 Tax Credit for First Time buyers as long as they are under contract before May 1, 2010, and close on the home before July 1, 2010.

The exception for move up buyers reads "In the case of an individual (and if married, such individual's spouse) who has owned and used the same residence as such individual's principal residence for any 5-consecutive-year period during the 8 year periodending on the date of the purchse of a subsequent principal residence, such individual shall be treated as a first-time homebuyer..."

The bill goes on to state that in that circumstance, that individual shall receive a $6,500 tax credit rather than the $8,000 for a true first time buyer.

The final vote by the Senate was 98 to 0 in favor, and the House is expected to make this bill a priority, possibly leading to a vote next week. Let's hope this gets done quickly so we can all stop playing the "rumor game" when it comes to the extension of this credit.