Hooray for Hollywood

New Year’s Day is a new beginning.  “New Year, New You”, say all the email subject lines from my spam mail.  I agree a new year does offer prospects of a new beginning, a clean slate, a new me.  But this year for me, New Year’s Day marks an ending.  It is my last day of my Christmas vacation.

One of the best perks of working for a university is having an extended Christmas vacation.  This year my last official day of work was December 20, and I return on January 2.  Over the years I have used this downtime to finish my Christmas preparations and catch up on housework.  But in between my dutiful tasks I take the time to recharge by watching as many classic movies as possible.

I use the word classic loosely.  By classic I mean old.  I don’t mind a few Technicolor or films made after 1949 thrown in here and there, but my mainstays are black and white.  My Christmas vacation would not be complete without a healthy dose of Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Judy Garland, Jimmy Stewart, Ginger Rogers, Irene Dunn, and Jean Arthur.  I have admired Grant and Stewart since I ever knew they existed, but it is the women in my list who made acting look like child’s play.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the words coming out of their mouths were scripted or if they improvised every word and action.  To me they embody the essence of what it means to act.  

These movies were filmed in a time when life was less cluttered and there was a defined line between right and wrong.  The values of the times were mirrored on the screen.  I watch and I am transported to a place where the homes are stylish yet cozy, cars are curvy, a full lunch costs a quarter, and the clothing is to die for.  Main characters are either writers (newspaper reporters, mostly), heiresses, tycoons, or trying to get their big break in show business.  And New York is the most popular setting of the day.  New York and its drool-worthy architecture and automats.  Why am I so obsessed with automats?

It is also humorous to me to contrast the lifestyle then to today’s world.  In black and white cigarettes are consumed like candy and alcohol flows like water.  The words, “surgery” or “pneumonia” usually mean a death sentence.  Today we are wise to the dangers of smoking, most operations are done on an out-patient basis, and pneumonia is serious but more of an inconvenience.  Alcohol, on the other hand, still flows like water.  Some things never change.

Sadly, today is the last day of my vacation and Technicolor has taken over at TCM.  That must be a sign for me to get out of my chair and get something done before my time at home is wasted.  I need to finish packing away the decorations and start on the New Year, New Me.  (HA!).  

Whatever the new year holds one thing is for certain.  I will always find time to steal away to the land of black and white where the nights are filled with cigarettes and champagne and the days are spent pounding away at a typewriter, only breaking for lunch at an automat where a cup of coffee is a nickel.