One feature I see again and again from the 1930s to the 1950s is the Gentlemanly Library. In so many cases, I imagine a permanent set at MGM or Warner’s where actors would sit down for their LIFE feature about Errol Flynn the Distinguished Scholar (or something). Or at least Errol the scholar when he wasn’t statutorily raping young ladies on his yacht, the Sirrocco. The Gentlemanly Library was simply a meme:
One thing that elevates this shot of Jean Hersholt and wife Via is that this does look like a real library. That award on the upper-right looks real. It looks…Danish (Hersholt was a Dane). And then there’s that book dead-center in the picture laying horizontally. Finally, those curtains look so weirdly arranged, they have to be real. Hersholt was a rarity in Hollywood, an authentically humanitarian guy who helped found the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills.
Apparently, Pabst Blue Ribbon wasn’t yet the darling brand of pretentious downwardly-mobile art-types, because this advertising segment tries to put some gloss on the product. Notice the touch-up of the PBR bottles.
