The movie is also a treasure to two surviving cast members. Jimmy Hawkins, who played 4-year-old Tommy Bailey and Karolyn Grimes who played 6-year-old Zuzu Bailey and uttered the famous line, "Look, Daddy. Teacher says, 'Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.' "
The movie, however, was just a footnote in their lives until the late 1970s. Jimmy Hawkins said, "I started hearing more about it then. People were holding trivia parties." He remained an actor in the 1950s and 1960s and worked with Reed on the "Donna Reed Show" from 1958 to 1966.
Karolyn Grimes got out of show business in her teens after her mother died from early-onset Alzheimer's disease and her father was killed in a car accident. She didn't even ever see the movie until she was 40 years old.
"I was enthralled with the messages from that movie when I first saw it," Grimes said. "I knew then it was very special, and I could understand why I started getting fan mail and people wanted to have interviews with me."
And, remember, it will be on NBC December 4 and December 24.
--CooterOldManPotter
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