It Should Happen to You

Gladys is an ordinary woman in New York who cannot find work. One day she takes her entire savings, rents a large billboard at Columbus Circle and has only her own name put on it: Gladys Glover. No product, no message, just the name. The result is unexpected: people start recognising the name, newspapers start asking, television shows start inviting her. Gladys becomes famous without doing anything. The film is from 1954 and sets up the relation between advertising and fame long before the arguments we now have about social media, which is why it is still discussed. Judy Holliday plays Gladys. Opposite her, in his first film, Jack Lemmon plays a documentary filmmaker. George Cukor directed, from a script by Garson Kanin. Its best quality is refusing to treat Gladys as a fool: she knows what she is doing and wants fame itself. Exactly right for anyone who loves classical Hollywood comedy and Judy Holliday. Parts of it are slow now and the romance settles into a familiar shape; the value is in the central idea.