Holiday 1

Holiday Study Guide

Philip Barry: Playwright 6

Consumer Culture 8

Prohibition 10

Dramaturg’s Note 11

Bibliography 12

Bianca Morrison Dillard, dramaturg

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Holiday 32 Department of Theatre and Media Arts

The future looked bright, and Barry would prove to be a success.

He was a prolific playwright with a career spanning nearly 30 years (1921–1949). He wrote and had 24 plays produced professionally—nearly one play a year. In fact, the play he wrote the year he died was finished and produced two years after his death.

With Barry’s success as a Broadway playwright he and his family did quite well financially—the fact that Ellen’s father was not only wealthy but generous certainly didn’t hurt their situation. They led a comfortable life with multiple homes. They owned a villa (a gift from Ellen’s father) in Cannes, France, and they would generally spend five months of every year there. Many of Barry’s plays were written here. The rest of the year was spent in

one of their New York homes or in an apartment in New York City proper (when one of his plays was being produced). His wife, Ellen, and their two sons would generally travel together as they migrated from home to home during the year.

Holiday Original ProductionBarry largely wrote to and about the upper class. His message was this: “What the world needs is more leisure ’n’ fewer alarm-clocks—less do-as-you’re told ’n’ more do-as-you-please.”

Originally titled The Dollar.Opened at the Plymouth Theatre November 26, 1928.Barry’s eighth Broadway play.Loved by audiences and critics alike.229 performances in eight weeks; grossing $539,000 ($7,200,000 today).Ranked one of the ten best plays of 1928–1929.Movie rights were purchased for $35,000 ($470,000 today).Barry often built his stories around a strong female actress. He wrote the play to star Hope Williams, with Katharine Hepburn as her understudy. Hepburn would later star in the 1938 film version of Holiday.

Philip Barry: Playwright Philip Barry was born and raised in New York by a family of Irish Catholic immigrants who owned a successful marble and tile business. His family may not have been considered rich, but by all accounts they did well financially.

Always a WriterBarry’s was first published in 1905, when he was not quite nine years old. His short story, “Tab the Cat,” debuted in The Junior Express magazine (the children’s supplement to a national magazine). He went on to write his first play at the age of 13. He graduated from Yale in 1922.

Writing was his only real ambition. He would turn down the opportunity to work with his brothers and eventually take over the family business, ensuring a steady income, to attend Yale University and pursue a career in writing. He also turned down a well-paying and promising career as a copywriter for a marketing company to continue writing plays.

Marriage and MoneyBarry met Ellen Semple, daughter of wealthy lawyer Lorenzo Semple in 1921.Though their future was uncertain, the young couple married in July 1922.

“I don’t suppose anyone would believe it if you put it into a play, but this is the way it began. I had written a play, taken a wife, and gone to Europe on a wonderful holiday, not counting the cost, not worrying about the future. I had no idea what we were going to do when we got back to NY, but everything worked out. The day before we landed, there was a cable under the door with the good news. The play had been optioned by Richard Herndon. We were on our way!” Philip Barry (P.B. 36)

Holiday 54 Department of Theatre and Media Arts

Played into the Rise of Popular CultureWith the advent of cars and radios, people were able keep up with current events as well as popular trends, even in isolated or rural areas. Not only that, but with newfound leisure time, people were looking for things to do with it. Movies and magazines became big sellers. Along with popular media came a new wave of marketing complete with a built-in audience. Advertisements were very good at telling American families what they could and should be doing with their newfound spending cash. And spend they did.

Culminating in Heightened Pressure to Get Rich QuickWhile most Americans were making more money than they had in previous decades, most of them didn’t have quite enough to keep up with the glamorous lifestyle they were seeing in movies and magazines. Suddenly, the income that had been su!cient for their needs no longer proved enough to keep up with their wants. People began to invest heavily in stocks, which created a boom in the market and drove profits up. So, while people were making money in the stock market for a time, it would later prove only to be creating an unsustainable market “bubble.” For the first time, people had access to payment plans and credit lines that allowed them to own things they hadn’t yet paid for.

Second Industrial Revolution: the Rise of Consumer Culture

Model-Ts weren’t the only thing being manufactured on an assembly line. Things like radios, vacuum cleaners, irons, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and toasters were all being produced and available for consumption at a record pace.

Created an Economic BoomWith all these things being produced faster and cheaper, companies were making more money and so was the average American. Unemployment was down to 3.2%, leaving most Americans with a bit of expendable income.

Led to More Leisure TimeWith all the new timesaving gadgets being produced, the average American found himself with more leisure time than he had seen in previous generations.

Consumer CultureWith more money to buy more things, industrial production continued to grow, which facilitated the cycle of consumer culture.

Holiday 76 Department of Theatre and Media Arts

Dramaturg’s Note“During the season of Holiday the big boom was still on; money was still America’s god, and anyone who possessed it in su!cient quantity was to be admired, especially if he had acquired it through such respectable channels as Big Business.” (Lippman, 1956)

Perhaps the most striking component of Holiday is the historical context that now, in hindsight, seems almost prophetic. I’m talking about the fact that Holiday was first produced November of 1928, just eleven months before the stock market crash of 1929 that would bring an end to the roaring ’20s and usher in the Great Depression.

As the production team and cast discussed the play, we all had one big question: What might have happened to Edward and Johnny during the Great Depression? While we will never “know” what happened to them (they are, after all, fictional characters), we can find clues from history to speculate on Edward Seton’s and Johnny Cases’s respective futures.

We learn from the text that Edward is a bank owner who invested heavily in stock—likely both his personal money as well as the bank’s assets (this was and is a common practice). The trouble arose because there were no institutional regulations and there was no insurance, so he would have been personally liable for much of the loss su"ered by his bank. Still, you probably wouldn’t have seen him manning a hot dog stand or greeting customers at the local Macey’s; the good news for Edward was that not very many of the truly rich were sentenced to actually enter the workforce.

Now, Johnny had a choice to make—and, because I’m not going to give away the ending of the play and because the future consequences of his choices seem all the more pressing when we know what lay ahead for the country, I’ll lay out both of his options:

1. He could follow his free spirit, cashing out his $35,000–40,000 in stocks and live for “as long as it would last.” How long would that be? One source suggests that you could “live like a king in Europe for $5,000 a year.” That would give him 7–8 years before he would have to find a job, which wouldn’t have been quite long enough to wait out the Depression. Since it may have been di!cult for Johnny to find a job in the midst of the Depression, he would likely need to stretch his money all the way through 1941 (12 years) when it finally ended and the unemployment rate fell from 32% back to a more reasonable 9.9%. Do you think they could have lived frugally enough to make his money stretch, especially when he didn’t know from the start that he would need to make it last that long?

2. He could do as Julia asks and work for 2–3 years and watch his money grow. The thing is, while he may have had a job, in less than a year his stock investments would likely have been all but worthless, leaving him on an equal playing field with the rest of the working sti"s. But would he have had a job? Unemployment rose from 3.4% during the ’20s to 32% in the ’30s. Do you think Johnny’s love for Julia could make him come around to Julia and Edward’s way of thinking about the world for the long haul?

(continued on next page)

But Wait, Wasn’t Alcohol Illegal in 1928?Drinking alcohol was not illegal under the 18th Amendment. Simply “the sale, manufacture or transportation of intoxicating liquors.”

Americans had one year before the amendment went into enforcement. That means one year to buy and transport as much liquor as one could get their hands on to store in their private residences. The wealthy had not only the money to compile large stores of liquor, but the room to store it.

The law was also not largely enforced among the very wealthy. If you ran out you could often replenish your stock without much risk of being prosecuted—that is, if you had enough cash or political power.

Prohibition

“A rich family could have a cellar-full of liquor, but if a poor family had a bottle of home-brew, there would be trouble.” —Historian Lizabeth Cohen

8 Department of Theatre and Media Arts

Full-time FacultyAmy Petersen JensenChairTom LeflerAssociate ChairJulia Ashworth Brad Barber Stephanie Breinholt Dean Duncan Mary Farahnakian Eric Fielding Barta Lee Heiner Wade Hollingshaus Megan Sanborn Jones Michael Kraczek Darl Larsen Kelly Loosli David Morgan George Nelson Je! Parkin Tom Russell Rory Scanlon Janet L. Swenson Sharon L. Swenson Benjamin Thievenin Tim Threlfall

Adjunct Faculty & Part-time FacultyTravis Allen Dane Allred Wendy Aston Lisa Bean Sam Bilodeau Whitney Call Matt Carlin Carson Center Michael Chadbourne Brandon Christenson Dan Clark Travis Cline Travis Coyne* Deanne DeWitt* Richard Duke Lisa Elzey Stephanie Freeman Kristin Gerdy Matt Goebel Michael G. Handley* Erika Hill Katie Hill Jennine Hollingshaus Ben Hopkin

Wynn Hougaard Tim Irwin Ruston Jones Melissa Larsen Nathan Lee Lindsay Livingston Teresa Love Je!rey Martin* Shirene McKay Jaynanne Meads Kee Miller Mikel Minor Kurt Mortensen Bradley Moss Shawnda Moss Kyle Nielson* Marianne Ohran* Donnette Perkins* Karen Peterson Jason Purdie Stephen Purdy Reese Purser Gayanne Ramsden Emily Ray Jennifer Reed* Nathaniel Reed Lauren Roundy

Courtney Russell Diena Simmons Joyce Skidmore Janine Sobeck Jerry Stayner Troy Streeter* Bruce Sundstrom Anne Sward-Hansen Christine Tanner Ben Unguren Teisha Vest Mary Jane Wadley* Becky Wallin Brian Wilcox Ron Wilkinson Elain Witt Mark Woodru!Ward Wright*Administrative Sta"Jennie Brown Elizabeth Funk Rene Helfert Thaylene Rogers Kyle Stapley*BYU Arts Production

Department of Theatre and Media Arts

Bianca Morrison Dillard, dramaturg

As I’ve studied this play and worked on this particular production, I’ve not only been impressed by the almost prophetic nature of Philip Barry’s writing, given the historical events just on the horizon, but I’ve also been surprised by how immediate the play feels to me, though written 84 years ago. I can’t help but see the power literature and performance can have as they give us a glimpse into the past and help us make sense of the present. Have you had any experiences with literature or performance from another time period that has resonated in your life?

For a full bibliography and resource guide, scan the QR code or go here: >>http://4thwalldramaturgy.byu.edu/holiday-bibliography

Special thanks to Dr. Brian Cannon, associate professor, BYU Department of History.

Bibliography on The 4th WALL

Dramaturg’s Note, Cont.