Lobby card for The Duke is Tops: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A lobby card for the movie The Duke is Tops. The card features a color image of a woman (Lena Horne) and a man (Ralph Cooper) facing each other. The woman is wearing a red dress and has a yellow scarf tied around her neck. She is wearing a large corsage of purple and yellow flowers. The man is dressed in a suit and tie and is holding a piece of paper in his left hand and holding her hand with his right. The background is a light green. There is a large circle in the bottom left corner with text that reads [HARRY M. POPKIN / PRESENTS / Ralph / Cooper / the DUKE is TOPS / Swing Musical Sensation]. The text is red, yellow, and green and at the bottom of the circle is an illustration in blue of female dancer figures on a stage with a staff of musical notes. In small red letters in the bottom left corner of the image is [MADE IN U.S.A.]. The verso of the poster has a stamp in black ink for [DUNCAN POSTER SERVICE].

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1938
• Issued by: Million Dollar Productions, American, 1937 - 1940
• Subject of: Lena Horne, American, 1917 - 2010
• Subject of: Ralph Cooper, American, 1908 - 1992
• 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: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Musical films
• Topic: Race films
• Object number: 2011.41.5
• 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 displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.