Which Woody Allen films mention saving string?

November 30, 2010 8:02 AM

Which Woody Allen movies mention 'saving string'? Definitely Zelig and Love and Death, but are there others? This question has been bothering me for years, and has been reawakened (but not answered) by this Mefi post. I'm also interested in earlier (but not later) references to saving string by other people.
posted by beniamino to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

http://www.subzin.com/ see if the line is there?
posted by Freedomboy at 8:27 AM on November 30, 2010

I saw "Midsummers Night Sex Comedy" not too long ago, and I'm pretty sure there was a mention in there...
posted by OneMonkeysUncle at 8:51 AM on November 30, 2010

Seems like a "See you next Wednesday" type thing again.
posted by Freedomboy at 9:05 AM on November 30, 2010

(woody allen mentions saving string on his book Getting Even in the Viva Vargas! story)

This reminds me of a Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge McDuck story: Scrooge and some rival were competing on everything money related and they came out tied. So they started competing on who could save most string and they go around the planet with huge balls of string that get into accidents and plagues of insects and the like. Oh, I found it on wikipedia.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 9:16 AM on November 30, 2010

I think for people of his generation it's a real symbol of their parents' Depression-era (and before) thrift, something anyone from that time would recognize - just as my grandparents also saved tinfoil and sugar packets. Early references abound on Google Books. Since at least the 1800s, sailors also saved string rather obsessively, even little pieces, because it was so useful aboard ship - any piece of string less than about six inches was called "small stuff' and was saved in a little pouch or rolled into a ball.
posted by Miko at 9:59 AM on November 30, 2010