{"id":20688,"date":"2021-12-01T17:23:48","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T22:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=20688"},"modified":"2021-12-01T17:25:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T22:25:03","slug":"easy-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/easy-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy Living"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"position:relative;padding-top:max(60%,326px);height:0;width:100%\"><iframe sandbox=\"allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation allow-downloads allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-modals allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"position:absolute;border:none;width:100%;height:100%;left:0;right:0;top:0;bottom:0;\" src=\"https:\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23ebebeb&#038;d=portland_magazine_dec21_issuu&#038;hideIssuuLogo=true&#038;pageNumber=14&#038;u=portlandmagazine\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s2\">How would <b>Preston Sturges <\/b>direct us into a monster hit? First, he\u2019d call it <i>Holidaze. <\/i>Next he\u2019d use our snapshot of Congress Street before Porteous, Mitchell &amp; Braun be- came MECA as the movie poster. He\u2019d make sure to spotlight the sweet, courageous<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">way we\u2019re turning scary times into the best of times. Surely he\u2019d capture, as he did during the <b>Depression<\/b>, that every crazy moment is full of hope.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Portland\u2019s own <b>Jean Arthur <\/b>(1900-1991) grew up at <b>1 Marie Terrace <\/b>as well as on <b>Congress Street<\/b>. She was Sturges\u2019s lead actress in the 1937 screwball comedy <i>Easy Living<\/i>. She doesn\u2019t catch pennies from heaven; she catches mink coats from penthouses.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">When such a garment is tossed from the lofty apartment window of a <b>Manhattan<br \/>\n<\/b>high-rise, it floats down and lands on her head. Now that she\u2019s sheathed in glossy fur, she has everyone\u2019s attention.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Gossips link her to the financier who threw the coat, and suddenly she\u2019s somebody. The owner of the glitzy Hotel Louis offers her a suite for free just so he can whisper to investors<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">that she\u2019s staying there. World markets rise and tumble on her stock tips. Did somebody say \u201cinfluencer\u201d?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">I first learned that Jean Arthur lived among us in the <b>Forest City <\/b>between 1910 and 1915 from a wonder- ful story called \u201cMs. Deeds\u201d written for <i>Portland Magazine <\/i>by <b>William <\/b>and <b>Debra Barry<\/b>. Even better, the Bar- rys report that Arthur worked with fellow Portlander <b>John Ford <\/b>at least twice. The 1923 silent film <i>Cameo Kirby<\/i>, based on a theater production by Kennebunkport<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"s2\">novelist <b>Booth Tarkington<\/b>, was the first time, the Barrys say, that Ford worked under the name John Ford. Then, in 1935, Arthur shines in Ford\u2019s <i>The Whole Town\u2019s Talking<\/i>. Catch it on Amazon Prime.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Why bring up screwball comedy now, of all times? As we bundle up for 2022, what\u2019s really easy isn\u2019t money or even living but how fun it is to feel this city wrapped around us right now, glossy and impossible, sharing a place that fosters talents like Jean Arthur and John Ford.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s2\">Happy holidays!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20761,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20688\/revisions\/20761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}