Boy! What A Girl

Directed by: Leonard, Arthur H., American, 1904 - 1956
Written by: Valentini, Vincent Andrew, American, 1895 - 1948
Produced by: Leonard, Arthur H., American, 1904 - 1956; Goldberg, Jack, ca. 1889 - 1959
Edited by: Kemp, Jack
Subject of: Moore, Tim, American, 1887 - 1958; Stewart, Slam, American, 1914 - 1987; Catlett, Sidney, American, 1910 - 1951; Smith, Elwood, American, 1913 - 1992; Williams, Duke; Jackson, Alan; Guyse, Sheila, American, 1925 - 2013; Betti Mays, American, 1923 - 2014; Lewis, Sybil, American, 1919 - 1988; Patterson, Warren; Wood, Milton
Composed by: Williams, Mary Lou, American, 1910 - 1981; Bishop McCollough, Walter, American, 1915 - 1991

Medium: acetate film
Dimensions: Duration: 73 Minutes; Length (Film Reel 1): 1200 Feet; Length (Film Reel 2): 1200 Feet

Description: A 16mm release print of the feature film Boy! What A Girl!. It consists of two reels of positive, black-and-white, 16mm acetate film with variable-area optical sound. The first scene opens with a street view of New York City. At one point, a street sign at the intersection of 138th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue comes into focus on the screen. The footage then quickly jumps to a man playing a double base as four other individuals listen. At the end of his performance, Bumpsie (Tim Moore), who is one of the four and wears a long dress, falls to the floor and the other listeners laugh. The rest of the film follows two musical producers, Jim Walton (Elwood Smith) and Harry Diggs (Duke Williams), who struggle to find investors to finance their latest show. Mr. Cummings (Alan Jackson), the father of Jim Walton’s love interest, agrees to invest in their enterprise on one condition: the two producers must convince a Parisian impresario, Madame Deborah (Sybil Lewis), to finance the film as well. The producers convince Bumpsie to pose as Madame Deborah. Everything goes as planned, until the real Madame Deborah shows up.

Place depicted: New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
Place filmed: New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America

Type: sound films; black-and-white films (visual works); release prints (motion pictures); feature films; 16mm (photographic film size)

Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Randall and Sam Nieman

National Museum of African American History & Culture