{"id":134628,"date":"2025-12-31T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=134628"},"modified":"2025-12-30T09:24:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T14:24:33","slug":"my-ideal-new-years-eve-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=134628","title":{"rendered":"My Ideal New Year’s Eve Party … Is Fictional"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not much for New Year’s Eve (I have already covered this<\/a>), and I’m not much for big parties anymore, nor am I into people who can’t hold their liquor. My friend Ann Marie calls New Years Eve “open mic night for alcoholics.”<\/p>\n

But there is a New Year’s Eve party I would like to go to. It’s the one from Penny Serenade<\/i> (1941), starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, where Dunne’s realistically cramped New York apartment is filled with carousing people, the rugs rolled up for dancing, with people making out in corners of every room. Hostess Irene Dunne waits anxiously for her boyfriend to show up, but she’s also waiting for the bootlegger to arrive because she’s running out of illegal booze.<\/p>\n

Then comes an excited tete a tete on the snowy fire escape with her boyfriend Johnny (Grant), a semi-aimless young guy who wants to do big things in his life, he’s just not sure what. He’s got news for her. He’s gotten a great job offer, very exciting, but the bad news is he needs to leave for Japan THAT NIGHT, like RIGHT NOW. Time is of the essence, so he asks her to marry her then and there on the fire escape. Of course she says Yes.<\/p>\n

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The happy couple make their way through the partiers in the apartment, and they race off into the night with two excited friends (to be witnesses) to find a justice of the peace who can do the deed. At one o’clock in the morning. <\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThere is a hurried wedding, with the judge in his pajamas, and then the two race to the train station so he can head off to his new job. <\/p>\n

They both get on the train, him to settle in, and her to say goodbye before the train leaves. They stand in his little sleeping compartment, still out of breath from their whirlwind. They’re married now. He’s leaving. What do they do now? He takes her in his arms. At that moment, the train chugs, blows its whistle, and slowly starts to move. She murmurs anxiously, “The train’s leaving!” He reaches out to close the door of his compartment, saying, “We’ll get you off.” (Nobody on any censorship board noticed this super hot double entendre.)<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThen director George Stevens cuts away from the scene, showing a snow-covered sign saying NEW HAVEN 120 MILES. He cuts again, showing another sign: NEW HAVEN, with the train pulling into that station. This is a perfect cut. A model of efficiency and innuendo. 120 miles is plenty of time to get off, to put it crudely. <\/p>\n

She stands on the empty platform, and he leans out the window waving to her as the train pulls away. She waves, and weeps, with snowflakes on her face. It’s a beautiful sequence.<\/p>\n

Before all this happens, however, the two of them – engaged just moments ago – stand on the fire escape (and just like the apartment, it’s a realistic New York fire escape, it’s not a Hollywood-ized version), embracing as the snow falls around them. The clocks ring midnight, and you can hear people singing “Auld Lang Syne” from other apartments on the block, as well as from the partiers inside her apartment. People on another fire escape, across the way, call out “Happy New Year” to the happy young couple and Irene and Cary call “Happy New Year” back, exhilarated.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nThis is so much what it’s like in New York at New Year’s, at least outside the mania of Times Square. <\/p>\n

I’d like to be at that party. <\/p>\n

I’d like to roll up the rugs. <\/p>\n

I’d nurse my drink until the bootlegger got there.<\/p>\n

Waiting for my boyfriend to arrive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not much for New Year’s Eve (I have already covered this), and I’m not much for big parties anymore, nor am I into people who can’t hold their liquor. My friend Ann Marie calls New Years Eve “open mic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,3],"tags":[120,2546,493,491],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134628"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134631,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134628\/revisions\/134631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}