Desk Set

The title referred to the staff of the Research and Reference Department of a major television network. Miss Booth (and later, Miss Hepburn) starred as head librarian, Bunny Watson, who suddenly finds her happy existence threatened by the computer age.



While the storyline itself was fictional, everyone in 1950s broadcasting knew that the character of Bunny Watson was based on Agnes Law. Beginning in the early 1950s, Dorothy recalled, a young man from Philadelphia kept coming to the library, asking to use our research facilities. Agnes allowed him to come in and was later a little surprised to learn that it was our staff and Agnes herself that he was researching. The young man turned out to be William Marchant, author of The Desk Set. When Agnes found out, she was thrilled.