The Daily Feather — Steal Something Casual

Arthur: “Hobson, do you know the worst part, the WORST part of being me?”

Hobson: “I should imagine your breath.”

Until the Great Recession unseated it, 1981 held the indistinction of featuring the worst recession since the Great Depression. It was thus welcome when that July of that year, the beginning of the 17-month double-dip recession began, also brought “Arthur” to movie theaters across America. The plot might have been lost on audiences needing an escape – Peter-Pan-syndrome-suffering filthy rich alcoholic Manhattanite being forced to marry an heiress he doesn’t love falls in love with a waitress from Queens shoplifting a tie for her father’s birthday, which Arthur witnesses with his valet while splurging at Bergdorf-Goodman. The secret to the fourth-best box office performer of 1981 was the casting. Lead Dudley Moore’s British accent would have been a mystery if not for the father-son bond between Arthur Bach and Hobson, his exceedingly British valet played to Oscar-winning perfection by Sir John Gielgud. Few can forget Hobson’s suggestion when Arthur asks Linda Marolla, brilliantly portrayed by Liza Minnelli, out later that night. Upon demurring with, “Oh, I have plans for tonight. What should I wear?” Hobson dryly retorts, “Steal something casual.”

Great memories of “Arthur” came flooding back yesterday in QI PRO’s Bloomberg chatroom. I’d pasted a graph showing California job creation had been revised down in the year ended September 2023 to 50,000 from an originally reported 325,000. Of the 275,000 total downward revision, 200,000 were high-paying, white-collar jobs.