Boy! What A Girl: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A 16mm release print of the feature film Boy! What A Girl!. It consists of two reels of positive, black-and-white, 16mm acetate film with variable-area optical sound. The first scene opens with a street view of New York City. At one point, a street sign at the intersection of 138th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue comes into focus on the screen. The footage then quickly jumps to a man playing a double base as four other individuals listen. At the end of his performance, Bumpsie (Tim Moore), who is one of the four and wears a long dress, falls to the floor and the other listeners laugh. The rest of the film follows two musical producers, Jim Walton (Elwood Smith) and Harry Diggs (Duke Williams), who struggle to find investors to finance their latest show. Mr. Cummings (Alan Jackson), the father of Jim Walton’s love interest, agrees to invest in their enterprise on one condition: the two producers must convince a Parisian impresario, Madame Deborah (Sybil Lewis), to finance the film as well. The producers convince Bumpsie to pose as Madame Deborah. Everything goes as planned, until the real Madame Deborah shows up.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1947
• Directed by: Arthur H. Leonard, American, 1904 - 1956
• Written by: Vincent Andrew Valentini, American, 1895 - 1948
• Produced by: Arthur H. Leonard, American, 1904 - 1956
• Produced by: Jack Goldberg, ca. 1889 - 1959
• Edited by: Jack Kemp
• Subject of: Tim Moore, American, 1887 - 1958
• Subject of: Slam Stewart, American, 1914 - 1987
• Subject of: Sidney Catlett, American, 1910 - 1951
• Type: sound films
• Type: black-and-white films (visual works)
• Type: release prints (motion pictures)
• Type: feature films
• Type: 16mm (photographic film size)
• Medium: acetate film
• Dimensions: Duration: 1 hr., 9 min., 53 sec.
• Dimensions: Physical extent (film): 1200 ft
• Dimensions: Physical extent (film): 1200 ft
• Place depicted: New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Place filmed: New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Comedy
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Race films
• Object number: 2015.167.1.1ab
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Randall and Sam Nieman
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Unknown - Restrictions Possible Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.