Missouri State Library – Hottest Spot in Town (1968) [RG005_MSL_003]

Color | Sound | runtime = 29:38 Depicts the development of libraries through the centuries and covers censorship of books and ideas. The narrator asserts that libraries are places of revolution and ideas. (Note: the film contains graphic footage, which has been redacted in this copy. Contact the Archives with access questions.) Keywords: “If You Don’t Like My Peaches, Don’t You Shake My Tree,” song; jazz singer; atomic bombs; nuclear weapons; public library; Linda Hall Library; Kansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets; Egypt; papyrus scrolls; Pharaoh Echnaton (Akhenaten); Bust of Nefertiti; Hanging Gardens of Babylon; Library of Alexandria; Monastic libraries; Renaissance; Galileo; tyrants; book burning; Fidel Castro; Cuba; firing squad; John F. Kennedy; Karl Marx; Communism; free libraries; World War II; Pearl Harbor; China; Great Wall of China; book bans, book banning; diversity; diverse views; the Constitution; KKK; Harriet Beecher Stowe; United States Civil War; Andrew Carnegie; Carnegie Library; Charleston dance; Stock Market Crash; Great Depression; reel-to-reel tapes; Xerox; microfilm; St. Louis County Bookmobile; IBM punch cards; pigs; Kansas City, MO; rest home; riots; dancing; religion. (Missouri State Library and the Missouri Library Association; narrated by Barry Sullivan; a Calvin Production; written by Hansford Martin; produced and directed by Peter V. DeMitri) Rights: Public domain. Required credit: Missouri State Archives RG005 Secretary of State Missouri State Library Collection. Digitization courtesy of the Friends of the Missouri State Archives.