We’ve had several requests to investigate the story behind the pictures of captivating black women with afros in Kubrick’s The Shining. These pictures hang in Dick Hallorann’s (Scatman Corothers) Florida apartment: One above the TV and the other behind his bed.

Overlookhotel.com (all praise be to them) have identified one of these pieces. The picture which sits symmetrically between two table lamps and directly above the TV of the naked woman with afro and an unusual necklace is a photo taken of model Azizi Johari in the early 1970s. This photograph was originally taken for a calendar which never came to light but this image was later sold as a general release poster entitled “Supernatural Dream”. 

She also appears on an album cover by Sun called Live On, Dream On (1976).

Album cover for Live On, Dream On by Sun Halloran on his bed in The Shining

Interestingly, the Korova bar entrance in A Clockwork Orange which is covered with posters, also has an image of a black woman with large afro which is similar to that in The Shining.