Several authors slated for recent library fundraising dinners have big-time film and TV credits.
They include “Outlander” author Diana Gabaldon, actor-writer John Lithgow and TV executive-turned-novelist Lee Child. (His 2015 appearance at the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation event was derailed by bad weather.)
Those crossovers are not surprising, since so many scripts are based on books.
The library executive director who shared the microphone with best-selling author and television host Brad Meltzer earlier this fall has some TV work on her résumé as well.
But Amelia Shelley’s job in Hollywood didn’t have anything to do with the transition of books to scripts. Before she ever thought about becoming a librarian, Shelley helped make TV commercials.
A random meeting with a casting director led to Shelley’s job as her assistant.
“I dropped out of college and went to Hollywood,” said Shelley, in her second year as executive director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District.
Actors she worked with included Heather Locklear, Steve Guttenberg, Morgan Fairchild and Molly Ringwald.
“She was busy. I saw her all the time,” Shelley said.
She also worked with a lot of prominent voice-over talent.
They didn’t appear in the commercials because they were too recognizable: Viewers would focus on the actors, not the products.
The job influenced the way Shelley and her colleagues watched TV: “You stop talking when the commercial comes on and you watch the commercial.”
After 18 months, “I realized quickly that I needed to finish college.”
She isn’t concerned that films intrude on literature’s role as a teller of stories.
“As a librarian, I’m glad to see so many books become films; the same with television,” she said.
After watching films such as “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” people often want to see the source material. They go to the library.
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