ALA Applauds Sen. Leahy for Donating Movie Earnings to Library
Contact:
Andy Bridges
Media Relations, ALA Washington
202-628-8410
abridges@alawash.org
For Immediate Release
August 27, 2007
ALA Applauds Sen. Leahy for Donating Movie Earnings to Library
WASHINGTON - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) will have a role in next summer's Batman movie, The Dark Knight, earnings from which the Senator will be donating to the children's wing of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier, VT, where Leahy got his first library card.
The American Library Association thanks and applauds Sen. Leahy for his generosity and hopes he sets an example for other legislators to follow, in giving to one of America's most beloved and vital resources: the local library.
"I got my first library card there when I was about four years old," Leahy recalled. "Mrs. Jean Holbrook was the librarian then, and she would always pick out books for me to read. By the time I finished third grade I had read most of Robert Louis Stevenson along with other classics she had selected, as well as the usual Hardy Boys fare. I loved going there, and I'm delighted that my grandchildren use the library now."
Sen. Leahy has actually had cameo roles in two prior Batman feature films, and donates all of his fees from these films to the children's wing of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. The library also receives all of the royalty checks from residual showings of the films.
"Senator Leahy donating his Batman earnings to the Children's Library in Montpelier illustrates just how formative and important libraries can be to a young person," said ALA President Loriene Roy. "That the Senator still feels such gratitude for the library after so many years is a wonderful thing."
"As other legislators on Capitol Hill pursue similar ventures, if only a few of them considered the route that Senator Leahy has followed, countless children and other library patrons would benefit."
#
Leahy enjoys a lifelong affinity for the Batman legend that dates back to summertime reading at home and at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library in Montpelier. He wrote the preface for a book about the Batman saga several years ago and he supplied his voice for a brief scene in the Batman animated TV series, and he also wrote the introduction to a Batman graphic novel about the horrors of landmines, which has also been a crusade of his.
