From Wall Street to Hollywood: The Enduring Symbolism of the Banker's Lamp
Just as programmers carry Swiss Army backpacks and rappers wear big gold chains, American bankers are standardly equipped with gold-rimmed glasses and banker's lamps.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, in rural American bars, one could always see unemployed workers drinking cheap beer during the day, speaking with a Southern accent and cursing Wall Street bankers: "Those Jewish tycoons are conspiring under that banker's lamp to make which company go bankrupt."
It is a symbol of the American elite. Legal and financial workers would find it hard to gain the trust of their clients without a banker's lamp, just as one would feel distrust and unease when visiting a law firm without seeing the lawyer's robe and badge, or visiting a doctor's clinic without seeing the doctor's license and professional certification.
In "Breaking Bad," the shyster lawyer Goodman also uses a yellow banker's lamp to add to the atmosphere.
Although bankers are often labeled as greedy, cunning, and stingy, the banker's lamp also symbolizes erudition and power. It often appears in Hollywood movies in the offices or studies of scholars and professionals, just as in American TV dramas, an ordinary baseball cap often appears on the heads of blue-collar workers or farmers, representing the spirit of simplicity and hard work.
In the library of "Se7en."
On the desk of the Bank of England in "Sherlock."
"Stand by Me."
"Legally Blonde."
When you see this lamp in the movies, you should realize that it illuminates the heads of the wise.
Its scientific name is Emeralite Lamp (enamel lamp). Although Edison invented the light bulb, he did not invent the lampshade. In 1909, an American designed this green hat lamp according to the emerald shape of the British royal household's lamps, which was wildly pursued by bankers, so people prefer to call it the banker's lamp.
"There is no color more vibrant and intellectually charming than emerald green."
On the desk of former British Prime Minister Cameron.
And Putin, the archenemy of successive British Prime Ministers.
Modern scientific research shows that green is the most eye-friendly color, and green can also stimulate creativity. This is also an important reason why elites from different times and spaces choose the banker's lamp.
