POPPY Norma Talmadge Lobby Card with African American Actors Silent Film Melodrama (1917)

POPPY Norma Talmadge Lobby Card with African American Actors Silent Film Melodrama (1917)

This rare lobby card from the 1917 silent film POPPY, starring Norma Talmadge, represents an early depiction of African American actors in a motion picture lobby card from a major studio release.

It wasn't until 1920 that the Norman Studios was founded in the Arlington district of Jacksonville, Florida by Richard Norman who, between 1920 and 1928, made six feature films and scores of shorts starring African American characters in positive, non-stereotypical roles, contrasting the derogatory roles offered by the era’s mainstream filmmakers.