Film poster for Uptown Saturday Night: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A promotional poster for the film Uptown Saturday Night. The poster lists cast members and the characters they play on the right-hand side in black text on a purple background. A black and white image accompanies each name. The tagline and title of the film are in black text at the top right of the poster and reads “They get funny when you / mess with their money. / UPTOWN / SATURDAY / NIGHT.” A caricature of Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, and Harry Belafonte is under the title. Various buildings, a water tower, street signs, and three women wearing short dresses are in the background of the image. Below the caricature written in black text is “A First Artists Production.” The billing block is at the bottom in black text. The NSS number is 74/152 and appears in the bottom right corner.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1974
• Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, American, founded 1923
• Subject of: Sidney Poitier, Bahamian American, 1927 - 2022
• Subject of: Bill Cosby, American, born 1937
• Subject of: Harry Belafonte Jr., American, 1927 - 2023
• Subject of: Richard Pryor, American, 1940 - 2005
• Subject of: Flip Wilson, American, 1933 - 1998
• Subject of: Rosalind Cash, American, 1938 - 1995
• Subject of: Paula Kelly, American, born 1943
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 41 × 27 1/16 in. (104.1 × 68.7 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Comedy
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Hollywood (Film)
• Object number: 2014.35.10
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, A 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: © Warner Bros Inc Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.