SCÈNE 21. Victoria Myers, Writer and Filmmaker
Upstairs, downstairs: Large parties are so intimate.
Victoria writes an excellent Substack of her own, A Legend is Hatched, “a comedic newsletter about the adventures of an over-privileged and under-boundaried gal-about-town” (her words). Her writing is zippy and, like all the best people, she’s curious and finds a unique way in to things. She’s considered the parallels between Joan Didion and Jennifer Aniston for the Los Angeles Review of Books and profiled Bernadette Peters and Lear deBessonet for The Interval (more on deBessonet in VICTORIA MYERS RECOMMENDS below). Reading her feels like browsing the Film and Theater aisle at Strand Books and landing on the daffy-but-deep memoirs of a decorated star of stage and screen. Which is fitting, because Victoria has a gift for period-specific precision and was an artistic consultant on Roundabout Theatre Company’s acclaimed and awarded production of Bess Wohl’s Liberation, for which she conceived, directed, and produced this promotional video. Not a detail out of place!
George Cukor’s Holiday, the 1938 version starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is Victoria's Mise-En-Scène selection. The film, released 87 years and four days ago, started out as a Broadway play in 1928 before being adapted into a film for the first time by screenwriter Horace Jackson and director Edward H. Griffith in 1930 (which is fascinating to watch as a companion piece to the 1938 remake, if only to contemplate the difference in acting styles between the pre-Hays Code and Golden Age of Hollywood actors).
Here’s a brief story synopsis from Google:
Jonathan “Johnny” Case seems like a solid match for Julia Seton, the socialite daughter of Edward Seton. Assured that Johnny is a worthy suitor, Edward approves of the pairing. But, as Johnny's wanderlust surfaces—he is more interested in traveling than in business—Edward starts to have doubts. Johnny also begins to wonder if he might not be a better match for Linda, Julia's outspoken younger sister, with whom he has much more in common.
It's fascinating to me that this particular story was told three different times: first when the country was sinking into the Great Depression, then when it was grappling with it, and again as it was crawling out of it. And in the face of this fact, I'm struck by the still au courant attitude of Johnny Case, who's all about grinding for a time before taking a few years off to travel and enjoy his life. (Nearly every description of Holiday describes this as a "free-thinking lifestyle," ha.)
Beyond the themes explored in Holiday—being self-possessed or beholden to tradition, et al—there's the irresistible detail that the 1938 version marked the third of Hepburn and Grant's four pairings (indeed, their smash Bringing Up Baby debuted just a few months before). As Victoria writes below, their chemistry is electric and enigmatic in that way most Code-era Hollywood movie stars excelled at, their dynamic sparkling especially in this film.
Without further ado, read ahead for Victoria Myers on the party-within-a-party sequence in George Cukor’s Holiday.
WRITER AND FILMMAKER VICTORIA MYERS ON SECRET REVELRY IN GEORGE CUKOR’S HOLIDAY (1938)
My biggest childhood influence was Lucille Ball and it was through her that I discovered Katharine Hepburn and Holiday. I love The Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby, but I find myself thinking about the New Year’s Eve party sequence in Holiday the way some people think about The Rules of the Game.
There's always been something magical to me about this sequence: the upstairs room full of toys and the way that it marries the aesthetic of a British country house with Hollywood's version of 1930s Manhattan; Katharine Hepburn looking so unbelievably elegant and her diamond necklace catching every available beam of light; Hepburn and Cary Grant bounding over the floral sofa into their acrobatic routine, and later how they're framed in the open window at midnight. But what I really love about this sequence is how it recenters the idea of the event in the storytelling and what’s really important.
Before Holiday was a film, it was a play, and in a play if there’s a party scene, practically, it makes sense to find a way to do it that doesn't involve actually showing a big party. But on film there aren’t the same limitations (bring in the extras! bring in the potted plants!), and that’s why it’s exciting that George Cukor still chose to keep so much of the action away from the main party. Because the thing that's really happening–the real event–isn't the party, but the character's reaction to it and, to a larger extent, a reaction to the circumstances of this family and their world. A number of films do this (and, to be fair, Hepburn's character, Linda, not going to the party is a major part of the plot), but for me Holiday was the first film that crystallized this, and over the years, this is something I've thought about a lot in my own work.
The other thing that impresses me about this sequence is how much movement happens in this one room. There are so many fabulous group tableaus in this sequence. And then later–for the wistful scene between Linda and Johnny (Cary Grant) and the scene between Linda and her alcoholic brother, Ned (Lew Ayres)– the room changes tone. The great floral sofa that Hepburn and Cary Grant joyously topple over looks like a ruin by the time Linda finally goes downstairs to the real party.
Speaking of, this section of Holiday also has a great coda. When Linda does eventually go to the official party, rather than cutting to all the people downstairs, Cukor shows Hepburn's solitary walk through the empty house and down the marble staircase. It really pushes the highs and lows right up against each other.
VICTORIA MYERS RECOMMENDS
Nina May Fowler’s Hollywood art.
Victoria says: I discovered Nina through her "Evolution of Elizabeth" napkins, which, yes, are napkins depicting Elizabeth Taylor at various stages (and, honestly, shouldn't we all think of life as phases of Elizabeth Taylor? When you're feeling down, instead of describing yourself as “depressed,” why not describe yourself as "stuck in a marriage to sixth husband John Warner"?). The Elizabeth napkins are sold out, but you can still get her Judy Garland napkins (I'm hoping Liza is next). Or just browse through her website and look at her many pieces that integrate the mythology of old Hollywood.Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers (2022), by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green.
Victoria says: I love a "New York City of yesteryear" memoir and Shy is incredibly fun, but also unusually self-reflective. Composer/writer/philanthropist Mary Rodgers lived a colorful life, experienced a lot, and had an opinion on it all. This memoir’s unique form fits its subject and really makes you wish you had been there. Plus, I saw the recent revival of Once Upon a Mattress (music by Mary Rodgers!) four times and it made me feel enchanted with Broadway again.Writing letters on vacation.
Victoria says: I really wish letter writing would come back in style. Texts just aren't the same as a letter (and I say this as someone who keeps screenshots of texts in a folder on my phone). I think people are often daunted by the thought of what to write, and summer vacations offer an easy entry point. Get some postcards! Use hotel stationary!
Judy Garland movies as antidepressants.
Victoria says: I tend to get depressed in the summer and I’ve found the best cure for this (at least temporarily) is to take to my bed and watch Judy Garland movies. The trifecta I'd recommend for this are Presenting Lily Mars, The Clock, and, of course, Summer Stock. And for a bonus non-Judy but in the Judy Garland universe: Bells Are Ringing.Lear deBessonet at Lincoln Center Theater.
Victoria says: The theatre thing I’m most excited about is Lear deBessonet becoming Artistic Director of LCT. Lear is super smart and a fascinating person. She’s a true New York character—the type that encapsulates the energy and promise of the city–and I think that makes for a thrilling match with LCT. She also said one of my favorite things about the theatre (that applies to the arts in general, I think) which is that on the plane of the imagination people from all different backgrounds can meet as equals. (Nat’s note: I recommend reading Victoria’s in-depth 2019 profile on deBessonet for The Interval here.)
I’m going to do something a little different in this outro and, taking a cue from Victoria’s excellent selection, recommend a trio of films about triangular set-ups you should check out that are same-same-but-different from Holiday (which you can rent and stream here or here).
Sabrina (directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, 1954) — My favorite Audrey Hepburn movie. It explores class differences, weighing what feels natural to you over convention, and the age-old question: Love or money, baby? Hepburn floats through moneyed Long Island like delicate perfume.
Arthur (directed and written by Steve Gordon, 1981) —
Wherein multimillionaire manchild Arthur (Dudley Moore) faces a tough decision: going through with an arranged marriage to a staid and hairsprayed heiress (Jill Eikenberry), or kicking it in Astoria with the pixied good-time girl (Liza with a Z). The film asks whether love can survive without a trust fund, then answers with Arthur’s signature cackle.Materialists (directed and written by Celine Song, 2025) — Out for a week and already stirring up tedious discourse on Letterboxd, Song’s follow-up to Past Lives invokes Jane Austen and James L. Brooks in its crisp exploration of the mathematics of modern romance, noting at every beat just how keenly aware we are of our value (financial, sexual, emotional) when navigating love.
That’s it for now! Thank you for reading and thanks to Victoria Myers for her excellent selection(s) and thoughts. You can (and should!) subscribe to Victoria’s Substack here and follow her on Instagram here.
Until the next!
I love Lew Ayres in Holiday so much. Ned is such a great character, an Ayres slowly reveals so many interior layers as he interacts with Linda and Johnny. That whole movie has not one underdeveloped character. Would be a great one for more screenwriters/filmmakers to study today.