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  • Poster GalleryComing Attractions
  • Mary K. Huelsbeck

This issue of Black Camera features a poster and eight lobby cards for the film Bronze Venus starring Lena Horne. The film, originally released in June 1938 under the title The Duke is Tops, was re-released in 1944 as Bronze Venus to capitalize on Horne’s growing popularity and success in such films as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather which were both released in 1943.

Bronze Venus/The Duke is Tops tells the story of Duke Davis, played by Ralph Cooper, and Ethel Andrews, played by Lena Horne. Davis is Andrews’s manager, producer, and sweetheart. A booking agent offers to take Andrews to New York City to make her a big star, but without Davis. When Andrews doesn’t want to leave Davis behind for her big chance at stardom, Davis intentionally angers Andrews so that she will leave. Andrews experiences early success while Davis falls on hard times. A year later, and after the truth of Davis’s intentions are revealed, the couple is reunited in show business and love.

The film was premiered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 18, 1938, at the New Granada Theatre. Pittsburgh was selected for the premier since Horne was from Pittsburgh and had become a stage star there. The premier was also part of a larger initiative called the Greater Negro Movie month organized by Million Dollar Productions, the studio which produced the film, to raise awareness and support for “high class all-sepia movies.” The premier, however, was not without controversy. Horne was in Pittsburgh, but did not attend the premier of her first movie; she went to see a white movie instead. Speculation as to why she did not attend centered on money—some contended she refused to appear because she wasn’t paid for her work in the film or because she wasn’t being paid to attend the premiere. Regardless of the reason, the Pittsburgh Courier did not give Horne or the film a rave review; the newspaper called the film “as plotless as a 1908 vaudeville show” and its only redeeming qualities were “the acting of Ralph Cooper and the singing of Lena.” The newspaper asserted that Horne should “stick to her soloing before an orchestra. As an actress, she is no [End Page 137] Myrna Loy!” Other reviewers were much kinder to Horne and the film. Earl J. Morris raved about both the film and Horne’s performance and declared it was “the best colored motion picture I have ever seen.” William G. Nunn praised the film and Horne while at the same time acknowledging its faults and scolding Horne for not attending the premiere.

The poster and lobby cards featured in this issue are from the collection of the Black Film Center/Archive which comprises over 700 posters and lobby cards dating from 1915 to the present. Highlights of the collection include posters and lobby cards for all-black-cast films produced by Richard Norman in the 1920s, blaxploitation films from the 1960s and 1970s, and nearly 300 African movie posters, constituting the largest and most diverse collection of African movie posters in the United States. The collection is open to faculty, students, and the general public for educational purposes. Each issue of Black Camera will highlight posters and lobby cards from the collection focusing on specific films, actors, or geographic areas of the African diaspora. [End Page 138]


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Mary K. Huelsbeck
Archivist
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