While watching a movie or TV show, have you ever noticed a familiar set of stairs, a branded sweatshirt or a certain town mentioned in passing which starts with a P and rhymes with bitsy? Did you rush to the internet, or for the weaker of us, Fizz, for answers or validation? I certainly have, and since coming to Vassar, I am continuously impressed by the number of actors that have graced our sidewalks and the volume of movie and TV projects that have featured our campus, ranging from overhead shots to building interiors—see “Frances Ha,” below. While more references than you might expect come from well-known productions like those of the hallowed halls of Studio 8H or the set of “Friends,” some are slightly more niche—“The Muppets Take Manhattan,” anyone?—and may remain unknown to the Vassar community. Now, thanks to a donation and over 20 years of work from alumnus David Ezer ’95, almost a century of Vassar’s history on film, TV, music and even in literature and cartoons, can be found in one place: the website, Vassar On Screen.
Over the weekend, I watched upcoming commencement speaker Noah Baumbach ’91’s “Frances Ha” and was struck by the magic that comes with recognizing interiors I frequent on the daily. The film features a title card with a Poughkeepsie PO Box number (does anyone have Box #59968?) and the interior of a dorm and hallway on Main House’s fifth floor, as well as the exterior of Lathrop House for an unnamed upstate college’s summer program. Stepping down the everyday set of stairs leading out from my dorm had suddenly become a little more special. I also remember Netflix’s “The Four Seasons” filming over the 2024 October break of my first year and, when the show was released, watching Steve Carell play frisbee on the Nircle (Noyes Circle) and Tina Fey take a seat on the library steps. I immediately showed these moments off to whoever would watch.
Associate Professor and Chair of Film Erica Stein explained, in written correspondence with The Miscellany News, how Ezer put together these and many more examples of Vassar’s representation in the media to create Vassar On Screen. “David initially reached out to see if there was a student who might like to work with him on updating and maintaining the site in the future […] He had developed a sophisticated tagging system, digitized and uploaded hundreds of clips, and added commentary for each post,” wrote Stein. “In order to publish the site for Vassar, we worked with CIS (Computing and Information Services) and with David to import everything to our servers, and then reformatted everything for the new site.” And it truly took the help of a community to get the site ready to be shared with the community. Stein shared that additional site maintenance was done with the help of the Film Department’s screening technician, Geri Cosenza, as well as administrative assistant Peter Rednour. Ezer also donated more of his time recently to update the tagging system and commentary, which sit alongside each entry.
Although these Vassar cameos are certainly special to see and flaunt, why take the time to create such an extensive database? Stein explained that these references are more than just pop culture easter eggs, and there are already plans to further incorporate the site into the Film Department’s curriculum. She shared that students in classes like FILM-175: “Introduction to Screen Arts” and FILM-209: “World Cinema” can use the database to learn how to build visual associations and do research on film.
In the fall semester, just before the site’s official launch, Theo Rollet ’29, who has plans to major in film, was chosen to begin working with Ezer in his campus job as a film shop assistant. Each week, Rollet sorts through and classifies entries to make it easier for users to navigate the site.
“That means sorting through a lot of clips from the early days of cinema onwards. I’ve now reached the end of the 90s, and have been looking through a bunch of sitcoms,” wrote Rollet.
Navigating the site myself, I was intrigued by the alternative media and literature sections. Reading Donna Tartt’s novel “The Secret History” just before first-year move-in surprised me with one of my favorite—though admittedly unsettling when considering the similarities between the fictional Hampden and our campus—Vassar references to date. So I wondered about the possibility of collaboration across disciplines to expand the site even beyond the scope of the Film Department, and how they might plan to expand those non-film-related sections. Stein explained that although the departments have not yet collaborated, they do have plans for the Film Majors’ Committee and other students to continue developing the different categories.
As for Stein’s favorite entries from the database, she expressed, “I’ve personally always loved the running gag about Vassar on BoJack Horseman, which becomes a way of tracking a director’s waning fame and reputation. One of the best known ones is from ‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959), which I particularly love because it’s an older film, but the joke—Marilyn Monroe’s character is lying to impress someone who’s also got something to hide—still works perfectly well today. If you look at the 1920s-30s section of the site, there are also a lot of fascinating invocations of the college, as well as a 1931 film, ‘She Goes to Vassar,’ that was actually shot on location by a former student and contains a lot of footage of what daily life on campus was like at the time.”
So even if you are not taking courses in the Film Department or using the database for research, it can be rewarding to scroll through all the years of listings—you might not know what you will find—or simply use the search function to find the episode where that one character makes a Vassar reference that you just cannot quite remember.
One of my favorites I found while exploring? A video sent with acceptance letters in 1990 and 1991, which describes “One Night at Vassar.” Though the size of the computer the “student” narrator uses would surely not fit on my desk today, and the name “AC/DC” has fallen out of style, it is nice to know the charm of late-night debriefs with friends and Gordon Commons “talk fests” have remained staples of student life for 30 years and counting. And, if you find a reference not already included on the site, Stein said students are encouraged to send tips to the Film Department email, film@vassar.edu. You could help document another piece of Vassar history, and maybe find some magic for yourself, too.