Librarians in the Movies

Inspired by Rebecca's comment about the movie, Party Girl--this blog is about Librarians in the movies.

I have a story about my all time favorite librarian movie, Party Girl...

I had worked about a month in my new job as medical librarian at Via Christi, when my co-workers and I had an opportunity to go to the Hutchinson Salt Mines where we had many of our older journals stored. The Salt Mines also stores Hollywood movie reels for preservation and safekeeping. (To learn more about the Salt Mines Storage Facility in Kansas, check out this web site: http://www.undergroundvaults.com/aboutus/hutchinson.cfm)

After a lengthy tour of the mines, we were brought to the area where items in the mines are destroyed by request. A pile of film reels lay in a corner and our tour guide said we were free to take one. He said that people often cleaned them and used them to carry cookies. We took a look at the reels and the first layer of them had the label "Party Girl" on them. I practically squealed with delight as I recognized my favorite movie title. I grabbed one and proceeded to show my co-workers my happy find. They, having never heard of the movie, were starting to wonder exactly what kind of movie "Party Girl" was and why I would have an interest in it... I quickly explained that the movie was about a girl who parties all of the time and after doing some "soul searching"...decides to become a librarian. They were relieved....and actually took home their own film reel. (I never found out why they were destroying the movie!)

Party Girl
Here is an excerpt of the movie, provided by YouTube. I wasn't able to find my favorite scene in the movie where our heroine, who finally understands the Dewey Decimal System, dances on the library tables...but, this is still pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzbDdgWiaS0

Your Life Work: The Librarian
Do you like people? Do people like you? Then you might want to be a librarian!
Filmed in 1946 at Iowa State College (now Iowa State University) this is a black and white reel about librarianship--more than likely shown to elemetary kids. It's a hoot! If you can stomach it, try to make it to the skit about the hospital librarian--it's sure to give you a chuckle...
Provided by YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smrrZpbvI20

Librarian Movie List
Here is a list of movies where librarians appear as characters, provided by a Wikipedia's entry on Librarians in Popular Culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarians_in_popular_culture

A wretched alternate fate is revealed for Mary Hatch Bailey (played by Donna Reed) in the movie It's a Wonderful Life' (1946)': "She's just about to close up the library!"

“Do you want me to draw you a map?!” barks a staggeringly rude and unhelpful librarian (John Rothman) at Sophie Zawistowski (Meryl Streep) in Sophie’s Choice (1982).

Librarian Bunny Watson (played by Katharine Hepburn) teaches Richard Sumner (played by Spencer Tracy) a few things about modern research methods in the movie Desk Set (1957).

Shirley Jones stars as the no-nonsense "Marian the Librarian" in the movie The Music Man.

In No Man of Her Own (1932), Clark Gable is a big city con man who falls for a local librarian (Carole Lombard) while on the lam.

Virginia Mayo plays a librarian in Wonder Man (film) (1945), but the great quote is from Danny Kaye who plays the bookworm Edwin Dingle: "I enjoy it here very much ... uh, I love the smell of leather bindings."

As a librarian in a small town, Alicia Hull (Bette Davis) befriends Freddie Slater (Kevin Coughlin) – while being ostracised for refusing to remove a book on Communism from the public library during the height of the Red Scare – in Storm Center (1956).

Ingrid Pitt plays a "nymphomaniac librarian" (as she described it) in the classic British movie
The Wicker Man (1973), who is found naked by Edward Woodward's virginal Christian policeman.

Debbie gets friendly with a librarian in Debbie Does Dallas (1978).

Goldie Hawn dons cat-eyed glasses when she plays San Francisco librarian Gloria Mundy who helps Chevy Chase solve an assassination plot in the comedy Foul Play (1978).

Alice Drummond plays the librarian in Ghostbusters (1984) who first encounters the book-stacking ghost of a former librarian in the famous New York Public Library.

"Weird Al" Yankovic plays Conan the Librarian, in a brief segment of the 1989 film UHF.

“Books are my life now,” explains librarian Lynn Weslin (Rene Russo) to her ex-boyfriend and baseball player Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) in Major League (1989).

Circulation desk worker Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell) breaks the rules and lets his fair-weathered friend George Willis, Jr. (Philip Seymour Hoffman) take a reserve book out of the library. From Scent of a Woman (1992).

In Philadelphia (1993), a librarian (Tracey Walter) encourages an ailing Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) to use a private study room.

A librarian assists Thora Birch's character in the 1994 film Monkey Trouble with information on a monkey she has found.

Richard Tyler (Macaulay Culkin) is led on a fantastical adventure through a library by Mr. Dewey (Christopher Lloyd), AKA The Pagemaster (1994).

Mary (played by Parker Posey) is the ultimate Party Girl (1995) who discovers, "I want to be a librarian!" in an exception to the prim librarian stereotype.[1]

In A Very Brady Sequel (1996), Roy Martin (Tim Matheson) informs Greg Brady (Christopher Daniel Barnes) that he should date someone more of his "own speed", suggesting a librarian as an example.

Jet Li's character in the movie Black Mask (film) (1996) works as a librarian.

Evelyn Carnahan is proud to be a librarian in the movies The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns.

Heather Stephens plays Jill, the awkward librarian (and closet dominatrix), in the movie Tomcats (2001).

Vox (played by Orlando Jones), a holographic entity possessing a "compendium of all human knowledge", works at a futuristic New York Public Library in the movie The Time Machine (2002).

Jocasta Nu is an archivist in the film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002).

Last Life in the Universe (2003) is an intriguing tale about a male Japanese librarian.[9]

Michelle Williams plays a small part as a young, blonde, out-of-wedlock-pregnant, love-torn local librarian in The Station Agent (2003).

Noah Wyle's character in the television movie The Librarian: Quest for The Spear (2004) and The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines. His mother: "Sixteen years of college and they've got you putting books on shelves?"

Librarian Action Figure

I want everyone to know that I was able to purchase the "Deluxe Librarian Action Figure" in Omaha last weekend. I am so happy! She has shushing action as well as book cart, reference desk, computer and a library back drop.

Check her out!

http://www.mcphee.com/items/11548.html

Kristin