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A clerical oversight makes It’s a Wonderful Life a classic.
一個文書的疏忽使《生活多美好》成為一個經典。
Despite its reputation as one of the most cherished works in American cinema, Frank Capra’s 1946 film was a financial disaster.
盡管弗蘭克·卡普拉1946年的電影被譽為美國電影史上最受珍視的作品之一，但它卻是一場票房災難。
It failed to earn back its $2.3 million budget at the box office, and its losses helped drive its production company, Liberty Films, out of business.
該片在票房上未能收回230萬美元的預算，導致其制片公司自由影業破產。
Capra later said that Liberty’s financial woes proved “fatal to my professional career.”
卡普拉后來表示，事實證明，自由影業的經濟困境“對我的職業生涯造成了致命打擊”。
And yet today It’s a Wonderful Life is a classic. How is that possible? Carelessness.
但是今天《生活多美好》已經成為了經典之作。這怎么可能呢？粗心大意。
After Liberty Films went broke, no one involved thought to monitor the movie’s copyright, which lapsed in 1974.
在自由影業破產后，沒有人想到要監督電影的版權，該版權已于1974年失效。
That meant television stations were free to broadcast it without paying any royalties.
這意味著電視臺可以免費播放它，而無需支付任何版稅。
And for many years, they took that no-lose deal.
多年來，他們都做著這穩賺不賠的事情。
It wasn’t until a 1990 Supreme Court ruling on the ownership of Rear Window, another Jimmy Stewart movie, that the rights were effectively locked up again.
直到1990年，最高法院對吉米·斯圖爾特的另一部電影《后窗》的所有權做出裁決，版權才再次被有效地鎖定。
But by then, Americans couldn’t face Christmas without George Bailey, Clarence, and the town of Bedford Falls.
但到那時，沒有喬治·貝利、克拉倫斯和貝德福德瀑布鎮，美國人就無法面對圣誕節。
A note from Mom secures women’s right to vote. The road to women’s suffrage in the United States was long and difficult.
母親的一封信確保了婦女獲得投票權。在美國，婦女獲得選舉權的道路漫長而艱難。
After the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919, the measure needed to be ratified by 36 states to become law.
1919年第19條修正案通過后，這項措施需要得到36個州的批準才能成為法律。
By the summer of 1920, the amendment’s advocates were one state from victory.
到1920年夏天，該修正案的擁護者差一個州就能獲得勝利。
Unfortunately, almost all the southern states opposed the amendment, and Tennessee was poised to join them because of a 48–48 tie in its state legislature.
不幸的是，幾乎所有南方的州都反對這個修正案，田納西州也準備加入他們的行列，因為該州議會的票數是48比48。
A 24-year-old man named Harry Burn, the youngest representative in the state,
24歲的哈里·伯恩是該州最年輕的眾議員，
was expected to be among those to vote “nay”—he was even wearing a red rose in his lapel, the symbol of the antisuffragists.
他甚至在翻領上佩戴了一支紅玫瑰，這是反婦女參政論者的象征。
However, on the morning of the Tennessee roll call, Burn received a letter from his mother, Phoebe “Miss Febb” Burn.
然而，在田納西州計票的那天早上，伯恩收到了他母親“菲比·伯恩小姐”的一封信。
She implored him to “be a good boy” and support the measure.
她懇求他做個好孩子，支持這個舉措。
When Burn’s name was called, he voted “aye” in a voice that was barely audible and yet shocking.
當人們叫到伯恩斯的名字時，他用一種幾乎聽不見卻令人震驚的聲音投了“贊成”票。
He later declared, “I believe we had a moral and legal right to ratify” the amendment.
后來他表示，“我相信我們在道義上和法律上都有權批準”這個修正案。
He quickly fessed up to his mother’s influence on his vote.
他很快承認了他母親對他投票的影響。
“I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow,” he said, “and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”
我知道，對兒子來說，聽從母親的建議總是最安全的，”他說，“我母親希望我投票贊成。”
