Photograph of a theater marquee promoting Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A color photograph captured by Melvin Van Peebles of a movie theater marquee promoting its showing of Van Peebles' film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The image depicts the front of the Loew's Baldwin Theater in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Captured from across the street, the image depicts the theater's unique facade of a low, single-story building supported by two large, blue arches that rise above the roof of the structure to hold the large sign that reads "Loew's" horizontally and "BALDWIN" vertically. The marquee appears in the center of the arches and reads [PREMIERE ENGAGEMENT / "SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAADASSSSS SONG" / A FILM OF MELVIN VAN PEEBLES - RATED X BY AN ALL-WHITE JURY]. The blue ticket booth is located under the marquee and slightly to the left, with the theater entrance further to the left behind the ticket booth. Several individuals can be seen on the sidewalk in front of the theater, with palm trees behind it. On the verso is a handwritten inscription reading [Baldwin].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1971
• Subject of: Loews Cineplex Entertainment, American, 1904 - 2006
• Photograph by: Melvin Van Peebles, American, 1932 - 2021
• Type: photographs
• Medium: dye and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (8.9 x 8.9 cm)
• Place depicted: Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Blaxploitation films
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Independent films
• Topic: Photography
• Object number: 2012.82.9.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• 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.