Lobby card for Porgy and Bess: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A lobby card for the movie Porgy and Bess" The card features a color image of a man (Sidney Poitier) and woman (Dorothy Dandridge) singing and looking at each other. Poitier is wearing a yellow shirt and has his hands around her waist while Dandridge, wearing white, has her hands on his arms. In the background you can see a jar and some flowers. In the lower proper right corner there is a box with text that reads [SAMUEL GOLDWYN / PRESENTS / THE MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION / PORGY / and / BESS / Starring / SIDNEY POITIER.DOROTHY DANDRIDGE. SAMMY DAVIS JR. PEARL BAILEY]. Along the bottom is a copyright notice [Copyright 1959 Columbia Pictures Corp. Country of Origin U.S.A.] and a licensing notice from National Screen Service Corp. At the bottom right corner is [59/218].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1959
• Issued by: Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., founded 1919
• Subject of: Dorothy Dandridge, American, 1922 - 1965
• Subject of: Sidney Poitier, Bahamian American, 1927 - 2022
• Type: lobby cards
• Medium: ink on poster board
• Dimensions: H x W: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
• Place used: United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Musical films
• Object number: 2011.41.6.1
• 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: © 1959 Columbia Pictures Corp. Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.