Film poster for The Five Heartbeats: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Movie poster with five (5) men featured in the center. Each man wears a different color and is seen posed in various positions around each other. Poster has a light blue background. At the top is purple text with the movie tag line [THEY WERE JUST FIVE GUYS FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD,/BUT TOGETHER THEY CREATED A SOUND THAT ROCKED AMERICA]. In the lower half of the poster is a large graphic that incorporates the title of the film [the/FIVE HEARBEATS]. The graphic includes a large heart with five (5) men wearing identical suits. Below the title is the billing block in purple text.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1991
• Commissioned by: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, American, founded 1935
• Subject of: Robert Townsend, American, born 1957
• Subject of: Michael Wright, American, born 1956
• Subject of: Leon Robinson, American, born 1962
• Subject of: Harry Lennix, American, born 1964
• Subject of: Tico Wells, American
• Subject of: Harold Nicholas, American, 1921 - 2000
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 40 × 27 in. (101.6 × 68.6 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Hollywood (Film)
• Object number: 2014.35.28
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from the Personal Collection of Bill Ivory Larson
• 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: © 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.