How would Preston Sturges direct us into a monster hit? First, he’d call it Holidaze. Next he’d use our snapshot of Congress Street before Porteous, Mitchell & Braun be- came MECA as the movie poster. He’d make sure to spotlight the sweet, courageous 

way we’re turning scary times into the best of times. Surely he’d capture, as he did during the Depression, that every crazy moment is full of hope. 

Portland’s own Jean Arthur (1900-1991) grew up at 1 Marie Terrace as well as on Congress Street. She was Sturges’s lead actress in the 1937 screwball comedy Easy Living. She doesn’t catch pennies from heaven; she catches mink coats from penthouses. 

When such a garment is tossed from the lofty apartment window of a Manhattan
high-rise, it floats down and lands on her head. Now that she’s sheathed in glossy fur, she has everyone’s attention. 

Gossips link her to the financier who threw the coat, and suddenly she’s somebody. The owner of the glitzy Hotel Louis offers her a suite for free just so he can whisper to investors 

that she’s staying there. World markets rise and tumble on her stock tips. Did somebody say “influencer”? 

I first learned that Jean Arthur lived among us in the Forest City between 1910 and 1915 from a wonder- ful story called “Ms. Deeds” written for Portland Magazine by William and Debra Barry. Even better, the Bar- rys report that Arthur worked with fellow Portlander John Ford at least twice. The 1923 silent film Cameo Kirby, based on a theater production by Kennebunkport novelist Booth Tarkington, was the first time, the Barrys say, that Ford worked under the name John Ford. Then, in 1935, Arthur shines in Ford’s The Whole Town’s Talking. Catch it on Amazon Prime. 

Why bring up screwball comedy now, of all times? As we bundle up for 2022, what’s really easy isn’t 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. 

Happy holidays!