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The Broken Violin
A young musician, a drunkard father, and a director financing his own pictures theatre by theatre.
What
A 1923 poster for the Micheaux Film Corporation production, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux.
Why
Micheaux was the most prolific Black filmmaker of the silent era, raising money by selling his films directly to exhibitors and often carrying the prints himself. Almost none of his silent work survives; The Broken Violin is lost, and its advertising is the record.
Notice
The landscape orientation, unusual for the period — this is a display piece designed to sit above a lobby door rather than in a standard frame.
“An independent cinema that had to build its own circuit.”
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Size
$29.00
Provenance
- Film
- The Broken Violin (1923), dir. Oscar Micheaux
- Country / studio
- United States · Micheaux Film Corporation
- Format
- Other
- Poster published
- U.S. poster, 1923
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (poster published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year, never the film’s. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
From Silent Hollywood
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