Placemat advertising Harlem Song designed by Gail Anderson
date: label: Date
content: 1997
name: label: Designed by
content: Gail Anderson, American, born 1962
label: Printed by
content: McDonald's Corporation, American, founded 1955
label: Subject of
content: Apollo Theater, American, founded 1934
notes: label: Caption
content: Gail Anderson is a New York based designer and partner at Anderson Newton Design. Since 1987, Anderson has worked in the field of design at design firms, advertising agencies, and publications. Her work has received awards from major design organizations, including the Society of Publication Designers and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). In 2008 she received a Lifetime Achievement Medal from the AIGA. Anderson currently works as Creative Director at the School of Visual Arts Press and is on the Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee for the US Post Office. In 2013, the US Postal Service commissioned Anderson to design the commemorative stamp for the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. Anderson was only the second African American designer tapped to design a commemorative stamp, the first being Georg Olden who designed the Proclamation’s 100th anniversary stamp in 1963.
label: Description
content: This is a paper placemat from McDonald’s with an advertisement for the show Harlem Song on the front. This advertisement features small black script along the top margin text that reads “George C. Wolfe’s.” Large block text across the top half of the sheet in red and black letters read “HARLEM / SONG /COME TO WHERE / THE STREETS ARE / PAVED / WITH / RHYTHM.” To the left of this line is a rectangle that reads “A New Musical/Live on Stage / at the / World-Famous / APOLLO / THEATER.” Between the worlds ‘Harlem Song’ is a small female figure in photographic black and white. She wears a showgirl costume with feathers and sequins and a headdress with three large feathers sprouting from the top. She waves her arms in the air as the fringe on her costume twirls around her. In the bottom left corner of the advertisement is a black and white image of a man holding a microphone. Wearing dark pants and long-sleeved silky shirt, he is turned to the side and pulls the microphone off the floor at an angle as he sings into it. In the bottom right hand corner is black and white image of a woman in a dark dress. She holds her hands under her chin as she sings. There is a wide brown strip along the bottom margin of the page below the advertisement. In this brown area is ticket information, theater information, performance dates, and sponsor information. The back of the placemat has a McDonalds’s activity sheet for children, populated with McDonald’s characters. The activities include a maze and a coloring sheet.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Advertising
label: Topic
content: Cooking and dining
label: Topic
content: Design
label: Topic
content: Graphic design
label: Topic
content: Musical Theatre
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design
label: Classification
content: Memorabilia and Ephemera - Advertisements
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Gail Anderson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2020.11.2
objectType: label: Type
content: placemats
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © SpotCo and © McDonalds Corp.
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: ink on paper (fiber product)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm)