KC Public Library Blog
The Mysterious Mind behind Lemony Snicket
Program Notes: It Happened One Night (1934)
Watching it today, it’s impossible to imagine It Happened One Night starring anyone but Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Yet director Frank Capra originally had in mind totally different actors.
Tripping the Light Fantastic, and Then Some
Program Notes: Blazing Saddles (1974)
Blazing Saddles isn’t really a movie. It’s a bunch of funny ideas on a particular topic – in this case the classic Hollywood Western – spun out by the anarchistic mind of Mel Brooks.
Words in Air: the Complete Correspondence of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, ed. Thomas Travisano and Saskia Hamilton
In his poem, "To Sir Henry Wotton," John Donne observes: "Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls, For thus, friends absent speak. This ease controls The tediousness of my life; but for these I could ideate nothing which could please…" This is a sentiment Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell would heartily endorse.
Program Notes: Duck Soup (1933)
Duck Soup is the Marx Brothers' masterpiece, acclaimed not only for its brilliant comic routines but for its satire of nationalism, jingoism, and saber-rattling. There’s no plot to speak of here...mostly the setup provides a framework for some of their most memorable routines.
Heeding the Call
Staff Reading Picks for May
Program Notes: Annie Hall (1977)
For a film that even its makers were sure was headed for disaster, Annie Hall did just fine. The movie won the Oscar for best picture, while Keaton was named best actress. Allen won statuettes for direction and screenplay.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Earlier this year, the final book came out of a series that I have been reading most of my adult life. Its author never lived to see the final books published. The Wheel of Time is a master work and is a treatment of the Epic in prose form for the modern age.
The Case of the Forgotten Canvas and the Third Man - Part 2
"Her inspiration certainly came from heaven"
Program Notes: Some Like It Hot (1959)
Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot is such a beloved movie – in 2000 it was named the best Hollywood comedy ever in an American Film Institute poll – that few remember that the critics disliked it and that the studio didn’t want to make it.
America's Music at the Library
Preserving Kansas City Women’s History
As part of Preservation Week, we are highlighting one of the recent projects here at the Kansas City Public Library: the preservation of the Athenaeum Collection.






