# Why "Mr. Goodbar" in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642 "2011-12-01T01:19:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/1 "2011-12-01T01:19:40Z")
The novel and movie of the 70s titled “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” seem to have no connection that I can see to a Hershey chocolate confection. I haven’t read the novel or seen the film, so maybe the reference is made clear there, but in reading about the novel and film I don’t get the Mr. Goodbar reference. Can anyone explain? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/2 "2011-12-01T01:51:41Z")
Mr. Goodbar is one of the places she hangs out looking for sex, at least in the book. It was a comfortable place with old gumball-machines for table lamps and one wall covered entirely with a shellacked montage of candy wrappers. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/3 "2011-12-01T01:54:12Z")
I never knew about this movie until now. It looks great. I’m going to have to watch it now. Thanks, OP. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/4 "2011-12-01T02:00:29Z")
Consider also the phallic suggestiveness of “good bar” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/5 "2011-12-01T02:15:21Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Consider also the phallic suggestiveness of “good bar” One should also consider that Mr. Goodbar has nuts. ---
**Author:** ![charmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@charmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charmstr)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/6 "2011-12-01T02:36:39Z")
I remember seeing the film in the '70s and thinking it was just awful. Hope you enjoy it more. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/7 "2011-12-01T02:48:02Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > One should also consider that Mr. Goodbar has nuts. 😃 Very true! ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/8 "2011-12-01T03:05:56Z")
The name also tied in to her body issues. I was about 11 when I read it. It may have gotten me started on my love of A&E’s Cold Case Files. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/9 "2011-12-01T04:01:06Z")
Thanks, all. I wonder if Hershey was ever bothered by the reference. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/10 "2011-12-01T04:33:31Z")
You’re a kid. It’s Halloween. The lady down the street holds out a bowl with a variety of Hershey’s products (the tiny ones) and invites you to take one. Won’t it be a Mr. Goodbar? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/11 "2011-12-01T04:33:52Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I never knew about this movie until now. It looks great. I’m going to have to watch it now. Thanks, OP. You may have a tough time on that. I don’t believe it was ever legally released on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/12 "2011-12-01T04:35:56Z")
Fortunately, one of my DVD players also has a VCR, and I still use it sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/13 "2011-12-01T14:17:12Z")
It was something of a triple pun. The place, of course. The candy bar and she was looking in the bars of the time for a good man to be her “Mr,” although claiming all the time she was above all that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/14 "2011-12-01T15:43:09Z")
This was based on the real life murder of Roseann Quinn in 1973. A school teacher that lead a double life picking up violent guys in seedy bars. > **[Murder of Roseann Quinn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roseann_Quinn)** > > Roseann Quinn (November 17, 1944 – January 2, 1973) was an American schoolteacher in New York City who was stabbed to death in 1973 by a man she had met at a bar. Her murder inspired Judith Rossner's best-selling 1975 novel Looking for Mr. Goodbar, which was adapted as a 1977 film directed by Richard Brooks and starring Diane Keaton, and its follow-up fact-based semi-sequel for TV, Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer, released six years later in 1983. Quinn's murder also inspired the 1977 accou... ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/15 "2011-12-01T16:33:02Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Thanks, all. I wonder if Hershey was ever bothered by the reference. Nah. I hear their CEO rides the Hershey highway every morning on the way to work. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/16 "2011-12-02T03:46:56Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I never knew about this movie until now. It looks great. I’m going to have to watch it now. Thanks, OP. It is great, I think. It’s pretty faithful to the book if my memory serves me. I went through a brief fascination with the book, movie, soundtrack and the true story it was based on. Besides the movie as a whole being good, IMO, Diane Keaton is at her most beautiful (or maybe second to Reds from a few years later), the young Richard Gere is fun to watch, a young Tom Berenger is terrifying to watch, a young William Atherton is interesting to watch, TUESDAY WELD is in it! and the soundtrack is absolutely killer. At that time I thought I hated “disco” and was firmly in the “DISCO SUCKS” camp, yet I owned the soundtrack (on 8-track because my car had an 8-track player) and listened to it over and over. They really did use the cream of the crop of songs. I like the scene where Theresa (Keaton) is sitting at the bar reading **The Godfather** when she first meets Tony (Gere) and he riffs on it a bit, saying something like “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.” Of course, Keaton had already starred in The Godfather Pts 1 & 2 by that time. I can’t remember now if Theresa was reading it in the book or not, or if the filmmakers threw that in as an in-joke. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/17 "2011-12-02T04:00:52Z")
I was already quite familiar with young William Atherton from the great miniseries _Centennial._ Everyone should watch this, it’s fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/18 "2011-12-02T04:11:24Z")
The real murder, book and movie was a powerful reminder of the dangers of singles bars in the 70’s. Those were the great days before Aids and the pill made casual sex possible. STD’s were around but a shot in the ass cured them. The Singles scene was really big in the 70’s. At least that’s what I heard while I was stuck in elementary school. 😉 Time I got old enough for hooking up the Aids scare had hit. Another good movie about the 70’s single scene is _An Unmarried Woman_. A recent divorcee enters the singles scene and the movie does a good job showing how shallow and artificial it was. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/19 "2011-12-02T05:19:52Z")
It was an ugly, depressing, deeply anti-sexual film, kind of of a piece with Joel Shumaker’s “Hardcore” from 1979, showing sex as something that drives you from one ugly, nasty situation to another. If this is the nature of your sex life, I feel for you. And if sex was really as bad as portrayed in these films, the population problem would consist of people having sex often enough to have a population. And the name? A pun. “Looking for Mr. Good Bar.” Looking for Mr. Right (i.e., Good) in a bar. Gimme a wholesome porn flick any day. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642/20 "2011-12-02T05:59:26Z")
_Hardcore_ is a great movie, even if the premise is somewhat flawed. It has great aesthetics, and also - ironically - contains probably the most detailed explanation of Calvinism in any movie ever made. Anything with George C. Scott is worth seeing at least once. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mr-goodbar-in-looking-for-mr-goodbar/604642.md?page=2)