Everywhere you look, it seems a new celebrity has sprouted up. With the rise of social media, people have found new ways to gain notoriety and fortune. While not exactly household names, stars on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and OnlyFans are famous enough within certain groups to be considered “influencers,” a ubiquitous title which basically means someone has a lot of social media followers. Unfortunately, few influencers have done anything meaningful to earn their positions of influence.
Today’s Moment of Movie Wisdom is from “It Should Happen to You” from 1954. The scene takes place 37 minutes into the 87-minute film. Small-town girl Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) has decided to make a name for herself by putting her name on a huge billboard in New York City, which turned into six billboards around the city, because a soap company bribed her for that prime location. In this scene, Gladys is happily rambling about her signs while making lunch, but her beau, Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon), tries to convince her that just making a name for yourself is meaningless unless you make your name stand for something worthwhile.
The movie starts as Gladys Glover walks through Central Park one day. She’s depressed because she just got fired from her modeling job. She’s minding her own business when a grouch (Joe Schmo) picks a fight with her because she’s feeding the pigeons too close to him. Roving cameraman Pete Sheppard films their fight and then tells her he’s an independent filmmaker currently working on a documentary about Central Park. They form an immediate bond, and he tries to convince her life is still worth living. Right after they part ways, Gladys sees a huge billboard for rent above Columbus Circle. She envisions her name emblazoned across it, so she spends her savings to rent the sign.
The Scene
Right after Gladys accepts the six signs from Adams Soap Company, we see her preparing lunch for herself and Pete in her apartment. She talks incessantly about her signs while Pete tries to change the subject to restaurants, her cooking, or anything else besides billboards. His efforts are completely futile, so he finally has to tell her what he thinks.
In response to her exclamation that she’s probably the only cook with her name on six signs, Pete says, “But what’s the point of it? Where is it getting you? No place!” Gladys incredulously replies, “No place? First I got no signs, so then I got one sign, so then I got six! So where do you get no place?” Pete laments that he can’t seem to get through to her and bring her back down to earth.
Its Significance
Pete’s wise words make no impact on Gladys in this scene, since she ends the conversation by inviting him to go look at one of her signs. Although she doesn’t seem to be listening at the time, his words don’t go in one ear and out the other. She ends up echoing Peter’s advice in a later scene in an important moment of realization for her.A major turning point for Gladys comes later in the film, when she is giving an address to the Military Air Transport Service. As she tries to recite a speech, a man with a camera reminds her of Pete, who has left by this point because he thinks he no longer has a place in her life. At that moment, however, she realizes how much she loves Pete and how empty her life as a celebrity has become. She runs to a locker room for some privacy, but Clinton is right behind her.
A Good Name
If there’s one piece of advice young people today desperately need to hear, it’s the importance of making a good name for oneself. We always hear “follow your heart,” “you do you,” or “live your truth,” but we never hear “earn others’ respect,” “build a good reputation,” or “make a good name for yourself.” While we shouldn’t be easily swayed by what other people think of us, developing a good reputation as someone of high moral and ethical caliber is a worthy goal.“It Should Happen to You” shows how empty fame can be when it’s based on doing something strange rather than something meaningful, important, or worthwhile. People who just make a name for themselves end up being nothing more than a well-known sideshow attraction, like Gladys Glover.
