Two iconic lions guard the main branch of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Mayor LaGuardia named them Patience and Fortitude as encouragement to his citizens during the Great Depression. The library, as a building and as an idea, is a tribute to knowledge and culture and boundless human endeavor. We decided to celebrate National Library Week by highlighting a classic cinematic library scene and paying tribute to one fine example of human endeavor. GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, opens with an external shot of the famous lions and then reveals the strange phenomena happening in the stacks. It’s Doctors Venkman, Stantz and Spengler to the rescue.
Below are four pages from the third draft, dated September 30, 1983. The guys encounter the ghost of an older female librarian who turns into a demon and scares them off. But they are inspired to become the Ghostbusters, much to the delight and happiness of audiences worldwide.
While we are not as big as the NYPL (and we don’t have cool marble lions), the WGF Library is the largest library dedicated to screenwriting and we want to share what we have with you. So come and celebrate libraries with us!
