A Letter from Your Friendly MLC Archivist

Miranda Vaughn

Reference/Archives Librarian

Dear Reader,

Don’t you just love when your favorite hobbies and interests collide? Today’s letter is all about two of my favorite things: libraries and film.

Movie poster for
The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag

The state of Mississippi is famous for birthing some of the world’s great artists and entertainers, but did you know that our beautiful landscape has been featured in a number of films over the years? One of those films is The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag (1992). This movie stars Penelope Ann Miller, who has been in dozens of movies over the years, but who I will always affectionately remember as the teacher and love interest of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop. Miller plays the title character, Betty Lou Perkins, a small-town librarian who finds herself caught up in a murder mystery adventure after she and her loyal Boston terrier discover a gun near the river. This screwball comedy also features well-known actresses Julianne Moore and Alfre Woodard. 

Front page news for The Greenwood Commonwealth

The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag was filmed in Oxford, Greenwood, Clarksdale, and parts of Louisiana. Filming in these areas provided a great opportunity for locals to work in character roles and as extras, as well as work behind-the-scenes. It also provided a great opportunity for the Mississippi Library Commission to feature some our assets as props for the movie. According to an agreement between then Library Services Director, Sharman Smith, and Set Director, Meredith Charbonnet, we loaned the production 

Check out this movie
stationary from our archives.

• 14 busts of authors
  
• 3 dark wood tables
• 4 metal book trucks
• 3 wooden book trucks
• 1 atlas stand
• 1 CBI stand
• 1 library ladder
• 3 kick stools
• 5 single-faced shelving – 5 sections
• 1 AV projection stand
• 8 double-faced wood shelving – 8 sections
• 2 USPS corrugated plastic mail containers
• 3 metal rolodexes
• 3 metal card-size file boxes
• 10-15 brown cardboard film boxes
  

 

 

In return, In the Bag Productions donated $3,000 worth of microfilm cabinets to the Library Commission. 

Same author busts, same microfilm cabinets? We think so!

To watch the trailer for The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag, click here.

All the best,

Your friendly MLC archivist