Comments on: One of the Invisible Professions on Screen

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:13:45 +0000

will the movie called “goodmorning Miss Dove” with Jennifer Jones & Robert Stack be shown on TMC soon?

By: TCM’s Classic Movie Blog

TCM’s Classic Movie Blog — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:17:19 +0000

[...] previously touched on in a posting about librarians in this blog , if the movies were to be believed, a disproportionate number of people in the United States from [...]

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:33:51 +0000

UPDATE: I've just noticed that the rarely seen film about free speech in American society mentioned in this blog, Storm Center, with Bette Davis & Brian Keith is scheduled on TCM on Friday, Nov. 28, 2008 at 7:30AM ET. I hope that you'll have a chance to see it and comment on it. Thank you.

By: srijita

srijita — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:15:44 +0000

Really I enjoyed your pie presentation . My favorite film is librarian.I feel this is a GREAT movie!

By: Ken Loar

Ken Loar — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:40:22 +0000

Not wanting to take anything from your look at an often ignored profession, what about that most forgotten of profession. The oldest profession. Or is it the second oldest? Regardless, it seems, THE FARMER gets the short-end of the stick, yet again. Without them, would there have been a FIELD OF DREAMS, PLACES IN THE HEART, OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (hey, he was plowing at the beginning and if not for the raid on his farm, he might have been one of those nameless inductees from some city or quite possible let the war go by without joining in). So often it is the farmer who is the victim that gets the lawyer or the cowboy motivated to make a worthwhile stand. Or turning their back on their farm for other pursuits (floozies are often the targets).

So the next time TOBACCO ROAD comes on, you will see life would have been so much better if the Lester’s had put as much INTO their farming as they did AVOIDING the farming.

By: Kyle In Hollywood

Kyle In Hollywood — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:14:45 +0000

Bill Bendix, Bill Frawley, “Beaney” Bacon and me? Not a bad quartet of “beer pullers”, I guess. But I’ll have to bone-up on bar tricks involving olives to reach their greatness.

Great job on the division of film-lore labor.

As to the guardians of the stacks, I have to add the helpful librarian Macauley Connor meets in “The Philadelphia Story”.

“What is thee wish?”

Kyle (“Dost thou have a Washroom?”) In Hollywood

By: jadeam

jadeam — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:18:36 +0000

One of my favorite films involving librarians is the 1978 comedy Foul Play. Goldie Hawn is a ’shy San Francisco librarian’ and some of the action takes place in the library. In addition to Goldie and a wacky co-worker, there is an older,stereotypical librarian whose research finds the clue to solving the plot’s main mystery, a picture of main members of the ‘tax the churches league,’ if I remember correctly.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:22:02 +0000

Marvelous summary of librarians in classic films, Moira!

By: Jenny the Nipper

Jenny the Nipper — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:31:52 +0000

Brilliant graph. Gigolos and kept women seem to be over-represented in film as opposed to real-life.

My favorite film librarian is at the beginning of Ghostbusters. She is the stereotypical old lady with a bun but she makes a sincere effort to answer Bill Murray’s completely impertinent and rude questions. It’s not without humor that she tells him that “she had an uncle who thought was St. Jerome.”

By: moirafinnie

moirafinnie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:48:48 +0000

Hey Al, Michael, Vincent, Tess, and Mari, Thanks for the reminders of all those librarian moments in films, especially those describing the modern film era heroes and heroines looking at the stereotype through contemporary eyes, (and, one hopes, sometimes a more realistic characterization). Since I was primarily looking at the way films that might be described as "classic" and reflective of the studio era saw "information scientists", I pretty much chose to stick to those films for the main part of this article. I thought that the flawed but interesting Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) ought to be included because of the quality of Bradbury's story and depiction of libraries, Robards' performance, and the hairpin turn for Disney that this movie represented in that studio's history. Btw, Vincent, I do recall that scene on the ladder that you describe in the library in No Man of Her Own (1932). Interestingly--and perhaps this quality was as disturbing to the PCA and Legion of Decency as the innuendo in the movie--Lombard's feisty librarian, while not immune to the youthful charms of Gable, ignored the disdain of her co-workers, to become involved with him. However, over the course of the movie, it was she who really kept the con man in line throughout the film, and, by the climax, he'd learned to appreciate it and respect her brains as well as her beauty. Now that was an affront to public decency--at least then. Thanks very much for all your responses. Appreciatively, Moira