Photograph of a theater marquee promoting Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A color photograph captured by Melvin Van Peebles of a movie theater marquee promoting its showing of Van Peebles' film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The image depicts the front of the Loew's Baldwin Theater in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Captured from across the street, the image depicts the theater's unique facade of a low, single-story building supported by two large, blue arches that rise above the roof of the structure to hold the large sign that reads "Loew's" horizontally and "BALDWIN" vertically. The marquee appears in the center of the arches and reads [PREMIERE ENGAGEMENT / "SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAADASSSSS SONG" / A FILM OF MELVIN VAN PEEBLES - RATED X BY AN ALL-WHITE JURY]. The blue ticket booth is located under the marquee and slightly to the left, with the theater entrance further to the left behind the ticket booth.

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