Popular Entertainment - Overview
This Museum's popular entertainment collections hold some of the Smithsonian's most beloved artifacts. The ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz reside here, along with the Muppet character Kermit the Frog, and props from popular television series such as M*A*S*H and All in the Family. But as in many of the Museum's collections, the best-known objects are a small part of the story.
The collection also encompasses many other artifacts of 19th- and 20th-century commercial theater, film, radio, and TV—some 50,000 sound recordings dating back to 1903; posters, publicity stills, and programs from films and performances; puppets; numerous items from World's Fairs from 1851 to 1992; and audiovisual materials on Groucho Marx, to name only a few.
"Popular Entertainment - Overview" showing 5 items.
Microphone
- Description
- WANN represents a significant moment in American cultural history—the rise of black-oriented broadcasting. Although blacks constituted 10 percent of the population, black interest in broadcasting on any scale, didn't begin until 1948. That year WDIA in Memphis became the first station to go to a format with exclusively black on-air personnel. Shortly after, a handful of stations committed to black interests. WANN was one of the first half-dozen. The station went on the air in 1948, and by 1950 owner and manager Morris Blum had directed his station to the black community in Annapolis and the surrounding area.
- A 1000-watt daytime station, WANN was among the pioneering stations that were central to black life in the pre-Civil Rights era. Morris Blum, a Jew who came of age in the New Deal, conceived of the station while in the service during WWII. He explicitly rejected the segregation he saw in the armed forces, especially after he saw that death did not discriminate. While he initially tried a conventional format for his station, he quickly refocused it to serve the black community. Blum's programming mixture of community service, black interest news, music, and religion developed through his dealings with African American public figures—preachers, businessmen and his own staff. Hoppy Adams, WANN's star personality, and Blum enjoyed a 30-year collaboration that reflected the interracial collaboration that was the heart of black radio in its formative years.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- late 1940s
- related person
- Blum, Morris H.
- Adams, Hoppy
- ID Number
- 2000.0165.7776
- catalog number
- 2000.0165.7776
- accession number
- 2000.0165
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Prince's Yellow Cloud Electric Guitar
- Description
- Custom-made in 1989 by the Minneapolis, Minn., firm of Knut-Koupee Enterprises, this Yellow-cloud electric guitar was designed and used by Prince. The musician's distinctive personal symbol adorns both the top and the side of the fingerboard. Custom work for famous instrumentalists and musicians provides an important marketing tool for small-scale guitar makers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1989
- maker
- Haugen, Barry
- Rusan, David
- Knut-Koupee Enterprises, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1993.0435.01
- catalog number
- 1993.0435.01
- accession number
- 1993.0435
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: Southern Exposure; Uncle Sam Says
- Description (Brief)
- Joshua White. side 1: SOUTHERN EXPOSURE; side 2: UNCLE SAM SAYS (Keynote K 514). from the album, "Southern Exposure - An Album of Jim Crow Blues" (Keynote K 107)
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- White, Joshua
- maker
- Keynote Recordings
- ID Number
- 1996.0320.05324
- maker number
- K514
- K 107
- accession number
- 1996.0320
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: Jim Crow Train; Bad Housing Blues
- Description (Brief)
- Joshua White. side 1: JIM CROWE TRAIN; side 2: BAD HOUSING BLUES (Keynote K 515). from the album, "Southern Exposure - An Album of Jim Crow Blues" (Keynote K 107)
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- White, Joshua
- maker
- Keynote Recordings
- ID Number
- 1996.0320.05325
- maker number
- K 515
- K 107
- accession number
- 1996.0320
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
sound recording: Hard Times Blues; Defense Factory Blues
- Description (Brief)
- Joshua White. side 1: HARD TIME BLUES; side 2: DEFENSE FACTORY BLUES (Keynote K 516). from the album, "Southern Exposure - An Album of Jim Crow Blues" (Keynote K 107)
- 78 rpm
- Location
- Currently not on view
- recording artist
- White, Joshua
- maker
- Keynote Recordings
- ID Number
- 1996.0320.05326
- maker number
- K 516
- K 107
- accession number
- 1996.0320
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center