The Library of Congress collects and preserves films and television broadcasts, but over the years it has also played a role on the big and small screen.
In addition to “National Treasure” and “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” several movies dating back to the silent film era have included exterior and interior shots of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.
A short, silent film titled “Filial Love” (1912) shows a young boy disembarking at Union Station and walking up to the Neptune Fountain in front of the Jefferson Building to wash and refresh himself before continuing his search for President Taft (purported to be his father). The film was made just 15 years after the Jefferson Building opened in 1897.
“Born Yesterday” (1951), starring Judy Holliday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford, and the 1993 remake of this comedy, with Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson and John Goodman, feature the Great Hall and Main Reading Room. Griffith reads from de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” gets confused by the vocabulary and is directed to an unabridged dictionary in the reading room. She exclaims that her first apartment was smaller than that book.
While Griffith came to the Library to film her scenes, actress Reese Witherspoon was edited into “Legally Blonde II” (2003). Through the wonders of technology, her character, attorney Elle Woods, appears in a scene set in the Main Reading Room, where she is seen furiously researching the legislative process.
“The Thief” (1952), starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, is an intriguing film with no dialogue, just background sounds and music. Milland plays a scientist filming top secret documents at the Atomic Energy Commission and passing them to the enemy at a drop point in the Main Reading Room. In one scene, he hides the miniature microfilm behind Library reference books; in another scene, he stashes it in the old card catalog (later replaced by an online computer catalog).
Arguably the most famous film with scenes set in the Main Reading Room is the 1976 film, “All the President’s Men,” starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Hot on the Watergate trail, they come to the Library to find what books the White House has requested. (In reality, the Library does not give out that information). They are shown sitting at a desk, plowing through massive stacks of slips as the camera pans up to the dome of the reading room, showing the vast expanse of the circular room, making everyone below look like distant specks.
The Library, its staff and collections routinely appear on the small screen, on television news and in documentaries. However, in recent years the Library has made the foray into television popular culture, including game and reality shows.
The Library has been the answer on quiz shows such as “The Millionaire” and “Jeopardy.” On April 24, 2000, the Library’s 200th birthday, the Library of Congress was a category on “Jeopardy,” with all questions in the group pertaining to the Library.
The penultimate episode of NBC’s “Treasure Hunters,” which aired in August 2006, prominently featured the Jefferson Building. The show tracked several teams as they traveled to historically significant locations in their quest for hidden treasure. Participants were filmed entering the Great Hall on the way to the Main Reading Room and its massive card catalog. They then searched the public stacks for one of three books, which in turn led to more clues and ultimately to the printing of a “treasure map” of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. When confronted with the task of navigating through the Library’s vast resources, one contestant remarked, “I wished I had used my library more.”
