1940s: Philly Story

Screening + Discussion
Our pick for the 1940s

For our second stop in film history, we screened The Philadelphia Story—a sparkling 1940 classic full of wit, longing, and social performance. It felt right for the 1940s: post-screwball but still sharp, glamorous, and quietly subversive.

After the film, we stayed to talk about:
— Pools as spaces of transformation and magic
— The restrictions and clever workarounds of the Hays Code
— Who Tracy should have ended up with (and why we think so)
— Class, romance, and the performance of perfection
— How wealth can function like magic, concealing flaws and conjuring possibility
— What makes a good Jimmy Stewart impression

It was a night of champagne, questions, and connection—the kind of conversation that reminds us why we do this in the first place.