In 1980 I got a great little book called Who’s Who in American Film Now, by James Monaco, which can be best described as My First IMDB. It was a (semi-)comprehensive reference book with chapters devoted to actors, directors, writers, producers, etc., each with an alphabetical list of names and the work they’ve done (see sample here). Between that book and this one, I was in a constant state of cross-referencing in my teen years. As indispensible then as the internet is now.
As you can imagine, it’s a dry book, occasionally peppered with captioned photographs. For example, in the Actors’ section, there’s a picture of John Lithgow, captioned as “John Lithgow”; in the Writers’ section, there’s a picture of Paul Schrader that says “Paul Schrader” below it; and so on. Out of nowhere, however, in the Directors’ section, there’s one that’s the Coolest Cast & Crew Picture Ever, with the Coolest Caption Ever:
Even at 11 years old, I got it, since, man, even though this pictue was for All the President’s Men, those guys were everywhere in the 70s. I think at least one of those actors was in every film made between 1965 and 1979. (Jack Warden was in 19 films in 1972 alone. Crazy.)
Peel Slowly 
do you remember where you were when you found out alan pakula was dead? i was outside the adr stage at todd-ao. i think paul zydell was the one who told me…
That’s intense…and very similar to my experience. I was supervising a mix of film at Sound One and the word was spreading. Turns out the director of the film we were mixing was Pakula’s assistant years earlier. It was a weird omen for him to hear while mixing his first feature.