Entrance to Bop City, San Francisco, CA, c. 1951: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This black and white photograph depicts the exterior of a building on an urban street. The first floor entrance is a storefront with a large plate glass window and double glass doors. Above the doors is text that reads "Bob City" in large letters written against a musical staph. The words "Known the World Over" are written beneath. At each end of the staph is a black silhouette of a figure playing the saxophone? Hanging above the door is a large electric sign that protrudes perpendicularly from the building. The top part of the sign is text running vertically that reads "JIMBO'S." Underneath is text that reads "Chicken Basket." Underneath is a second sign with larger lettering that reads "Bop City." Perpendicular to this is a triangular with text that reads " the house/ that BOP/ BUILT/ Chicken / Hot or Cold/ as Good as GOLD/ Here [illegible] King Cole/ I like it here [illegible] Mr. B/ The Food and Music." There are several cars in front of the building, and a man in a light colored coat and hat passing along the sidewalk in front. On the back of the image is a green sticker with "#2" handwritten on it.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1951
• Photograph by: Steve Jackson Jr., 1923 - 1999
• Subject of: Jimbo's Bop City, American, 1950 - 1965
• Type: gelatin silver prints
• Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 9 7/16 × 7 7/16 in. (24 × 18.9 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 10 × 7 15/16 in. (25.4 × 20.2 cm)
• Place depicted: Fillmore, San Francisco, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Bebop (Music)
• Topic: Communities
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Photography
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2016.117.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Mary E. Jackson, Posthumously and Linda A. Jackson
• 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: © Linda A. Jackson Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.