The 1957 romantic comedy “Desk Set” stars Katharine Hepburn as the head of research at a TV network. Bunny Watson and her deeply knowledgeable three-member team do the work the old-fashioned way: When a query comes in, they either recall the information from memory, look it up in a reference book, or pick up the phone to track down the appropriate expert. But the department’s future is threatened by a new technology in the form of a massive room-size IBM computer, introduced by Spencer Tracy’s “methods engineer” Richard Sumner, an outside consultant who is there to improve the “work/man-hour relationship” by selling companies on the idea of automating tasks currently performed by humans.
From screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron (parents of Nora Ephron), the premise is a backdrop against which Hepburn and Tracy can flirt and banter and fall in love on screen. Even so, I’m struck by how accurately the movie anticipates internet search engines and artificial intelligence. Research departments used to be commonplace.
Newspapers had them too, and called them the morgue, which kept track of print and photo archives. But it was also a resource center. Reporters could call the morgue and ask, “What year did XYZ happen?” or “What was the average CEO compensation in 1973?” The staff would track down the answer, using not only back issues of the paper, but any resource that would provide the information.
The morgue wound down at the Tribune in the first decad.