Poster for Pinky: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This movie poster depicts two women, on opposite corners of the field. The upper right corner shows a woman (Ethel Waters) from the chest up, wearing a white shirt under a red outer layer, and a yellow turban. She frowns towards the opposite lower left corner, depicting a young woman with red hair (Jeanne Crain), wearing a ruffled top and a strand of pearls. Between them is the title "Pinky" in large red letters on a slight diagonal. Under the title is the phrase "She passed for white!" Across the top margin in black and yellow text are the words "THE BEST FILM OF THE YEAR IS / DARRYL F. ZANUCK'S." In the bottom right quadrant in yellow text are the words "Starring / JEANNE CRAIN-ETHEL BARRYMORE / ETHEL WATERS-WILLIAM LUNDIGAN / Produced by DARRYL F. ZANUCK / Directed by ELIA KAZAN / Screen play by Philip Dunne / and Dudley Nichols. Based / on a novel by Cid Ricketts Sumner / 20th/ Century Fox." The poster background is a dark black at the edges that fades to a pale grey at the center. In the border below the bottom left corner of the image is [PRINTED IN ENGLAND] and below the bottom right corner is [STAFFORD & Co., LTD., NETHERFIELD, NOTTINGHAM; and LONDON].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1949
• Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, American, founded 1935
• Subject of: Cid Ricketts Sumner, American, 1890 - 1970
• Subject of: Philip Dunne, American, 1908 - 1992
• Subject of: Dudley Nichols, American, 1895 - 1960
• Subject of: Elia Kazan, Greek American, 1909 - 2003
• Subject of: Darryl F. Zanuck, American, 1902 - 1979
• Subject of: Jeanne Crain, American, 1925 - 2003
• Subject of: Ethel Barrymore, American, 1879 - 1959
• Type: posters
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 29 3/4 × 39 7/8 in. (75.6 × 101.3 cm)
• Place used: England, Europe
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Race films
• Topic: Race relations
• Object number: 2013.118.73
• 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.