Imitation of Life (1934 film)
E495609
Imitation of Life (1934 film) is a classic American drama that explores race, class, and motherhood through the intertwined lives of a white businesswoman and her Black housekeeper and their daughters.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Imitation of Life (1934 film) canonical | 7 |
| Imitation of Life | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5139544 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Imitation of Life (1934 film) Context triple: [Claudette Colbert, notableWork, Imitation of Life (1934 film)]
-
A.
The Divorcee (1930)
The Divorcee (1930) is a pre-Code American drama film, produced at MGM, that became notable for its frank treatment of marriage and infidelity and earned Norma Shearer an Academy Award for Best Actress.
-
B.
Mildred Pierce (1945 film)
Mildred Pierce (1945 film) is a classic American film noir–melodrama that revitalized Joan Crawford’s career, featuring her Oscar-winning performance as a self-sacrificing mother entangled in crime and family betrayal.
-
C.
The Lady Is a Tramp
"The Lady Is a Tramp" is a popular show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical "Babes in Arms," later becoming a jazz and pop standard widely recorded by major artists.
-
D.
Smilin’ Through (1932)
Smilin’ Through (1932) is a romantic drama film from Hollywood’s early sound era, best known as a prestige MGM production featuring themes of love, loss, and spiritual reunion.
-
E.
Hollywood Revue of 1929
Hollywood Revue of 1929 is an early MGM musical revue film notable for its all-star cast, lavish song-and-dance numbers, and use of early sound technology during the transition from silent movies.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Imitation of Life (1934 film) Target entity description: Imitation of Life (1934 film) is a classic American drama that explores race, class, and motherhood through the intertwined lives of a white businesswoman and her Black housekeeper and their daughters.
-
A.
The Divorcee (1930)
The Divorcee (1930) is a pre-Code American drama film, produced at MGM, that became notable for its frank treatment of marriage and infidelity and earned Norma Shearer an Academy Award for Best Actress.
-
B.
Mildred Pierce (1945 film)
Mildred Pierce (1945 film) is a classic American film noir–melodrama that revitalized Joan Crawford’s career, featuring her Oscar-winning performance as a self-sacrificing mother entangled in crime and family betrayal.
-
C.
The Lady Is a Tramp
"The Lady Is a Tramp" is a popular show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical "Babes in Arms," later becoming a jazz and pop standard widely recorded by major artists.
-
D.
Smilin’ Through (1932)
Smilin’ Through (1932) is a romantic drama film from Hollywood’s early sound era, best known as a prestige MGM production featuring themes of love, loss, and spiritual reunion.
-
E.
Hollywood Revue of 1929
Hollywood Revue of 1929 is an early MGM musical revue film notable for its all-star cast, lavish song-and-dance numbers, and use of early sound technology during the transition from silent movies.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | film ⓘ |
| academyAwardsCeremony | 7th Academy Awards NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| authorOfSourceWork | Fannie Hurst NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOn | Imitation of Life (novel) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| blackAndWhite | true ⓘ |
| character |
Bea Pullman
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Delilah Johnson NERFINISHED ⓘ Jessie Pullman NERFINISHED ⓘ Peola Johnson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| director | John M. Stahl NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| distributedInFormat | theatrical release ⓘ |
| distributor | Universal Pictures ⓘ |
| era | Pre-Code Hollywood NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre |
drama film
ⓘ
melodrama film ⓘ |
| hasRemake | Imitation of Life (1959 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| includedIn | National Film Registry NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| narrativeFocus |
intertwined lives of a white businesswoman and her Black housekeeper
ⓘ
relationships between mothers and daughters ⓘ |
| nominatedFor |
Academy Award for Best Picture
ⓘ
Academy Award for Best Sound Recording NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor |
early Hollywood depiction of African American characters
ⓘ
portrayal of racial passing in 1930s American cinema ⓘ |
| producer | Carl Laemmle Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| productionCompany | Universal Pictures ⓘ |
| publicationYearOfSourceWork | 1933 ⓘ |
| registrySelectionYear | 2005 ⓘ |
| releaseDate | November 26, 1934 ⓘ |
| releaseYear | 1934 ⓘ |
| remakeDirector | Douglas Sirk NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| runtime | 111 minutes ⓘ |
| screenwriter |
Clara Beranger
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
William Hurlbut NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setIn | New York City ⓘ |
| soundRecordingNominee | Theodore Soderberg NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| starring |
Claudette Colbert
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Fredi Washington NERFINISHED ⓘ Louise Beavers NERFINISHED ⓘ Ned Sparks NERFINISHED ⓘ Rochelle Hudson NERFINISHED ⓘ Warren William NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| theme |
class
ⓘ
entrepreneurship ⓘ friendship between women ⓘ motherhood ⓘ passing (racial identity) ⓘ race ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Imitation of Life (1934 film) Description of subject: Imitation of Life (1934 film) is a classic American drama that explores race, class, and motherhood through the intertwined lives of a white businesswoman and her Black housekeeper and their daughters.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Imitation of Life
this entity surface form:
Imitation of Life
this entity surface form:
Imitation of Life