[African Americana]

[Group of Four Programs Advertising Hollywood Movies Screened at an African-American Movie Theater in Midcentury Virginia]

Alexandria, Va. [1950s]. Four programs, each a single sheet folded to make [4]pp., each printed in a different monotone color. Only two folded, minor ink notations to one example, minor even toning. Very good. Item #3773

A small but notable collection of advertising ephemera from the segregated Carver Theater in Alexandria, Virginia. The Carver Theater opened in 1948 as the second movie theater in Alexandria catering to African Americans. Recreation was segregated in the Jim Crow South, and movie theaters were no exception. Those theaters catering to African-American audiences paid tribute to Black heroes in their names or decor; this Carver theater, for instance, was named for George Washington Carver, and portrayed scenes from the life of the great inventor in murals painted on its auditorium walls (Smith, African American Theater Buildings: An Illustrated Historical Directory, 1900-1955, p.3). The present leaflets advertise popular Hollywood films of the era alongside advertisements for businesses catering to the African-American community, mostly owned by Jewish proprietors.

Price: $350.00