Film poster for Lady Sings the Blues: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Poster for the film Lady Sings the Blues. The poster has a white background with a silver rectangle in the middle. Within the silver rectangle is an illustration of a woman's disembodied arm reaching up to grasp a microphone. The arm wears beaded bracelets and has a pair of handcuffs clasped around it, the other side of the cuffs open and empty. The microphone stand turns into the top of the L of [LADY / SINGS / THE / BLUES]. Across the top of the silver rectangle, in pink letters is [DIANA ROSS IS BILLIE HOLIDAY], the "is" appears both underlined and italicized. Beneath the silver rectangle is black text reading [PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION and BERRY GORDY present / DIANA ROSS IN "LADY SINGS THE BLUES" / also starring BILLY DEE WILLIAMS]. Additional billing information continues below. At the very bottom left corner is a copyright notice: [Copyright 1972 by Jobete Music Company Inc. Motown Productions. Weston Asssociates Inc. Furie Productions Inc. All rights reserved.].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1972
• Created by: Paramount Pictures, American, founded 1912
• Created by: de Passe Entertainment, founded 1968
• Subject of: Diana Ross, American, born 1944
• Subject of: Sidney J. Furie, Canadian, born 1933
• Subject of: Billy Dee Williams, American, born 1937
• Subject of: Billie Holiday, American, 1915 - 1959
• Type: posters
• Medium: lithographic ink on paper (fiber product)
• Dimensions: H x W: 41 1/16 x 27 1/8 in. (104.3 x 68.9 cm)
• Place used: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Motown (Music)
• Topic: Musical films
• Topic: Rhythm and blues (Music)
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2010.7.85.1
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Leith Adams
• 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: © 1972 by Motown-Weston-Furie Productions Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.