Apollo Theater at 90

On Wednesday nights, the Apollo Theater in Harlem is one of the hottest tickets in town. But there is no celebrity headliner. It’s amateur night! And the audience is there to pick the next breakout star.

“I know how tough the crowd can be,” said singer Kyle Parks, 23, from Yonkers, New York. “I know that’s what makes this place legendary, what’s done in it.”

Parks won over the crowd with her performance of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Others… weren’t so lucky. Marion Keefe, longtime producer of Apollo’s famous Amateur Night, said, “They’re brutally honest. And sometimes just brutal, not necessarily honest!”

Keefe says it is the longest-running singing contest in history. “Well, ‘The Voice,’ and ‘America’s Got Talent,’ and ‘American Idol,’ and ‘Star Search,’ we’re the great-grandfather of them all. “That was the blueprint.”

The theater’s motto is “where stars are born and legends are made”… and it has launched many of them, from James Brown and Ella Fitzgerald to Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill and HER.

And if you’re wondering why every actor rubs the stump of that tree, according to Keefe, “This stump used to be a whole tree. And it stood outside the Lafayette Theater. And they used leaves from the tree for good luck.” used to draw. And now everybody comes here and rubs the tree of hope for good luck.”

Does it work? “Well, I think it’s good luck if you win, and not so good luck if you lose,” Keefe said.

But it did work for award-winning singer Dionne Warwick, whose career skyrocketed when she and her gospel group won Amateur Night in 1958.

What did the win prove to him? “Well, that we were pretty good, at first,” said Warwick. “And that we won $50!”

Warwick said that going to the 1,500-seat theater was like going to school and taking a crash course in performing: “The old saying is true, it’s so true: ‘If you can make it at the Apollo, you can make it anywhere.’ ‘ Every time I play the Apollo they bring out the best in you, and I mean I’m at home.”

But it wasn’t always welcome. Before the Apollo, it was a whites-only burlesque theater. In 1934, under new ownership and a new name, it opened its doors to the public. Music historian Guthrie Ramsey said, “It was one of the first to allow black and white patrons to enjoy music together. This is New York City, after all, and the black community was growing. And so, it was basically a business model decision to allow black citizens in.”

Ramsey says the story of Apollo and the story of America are intertwined. “It was representative of everything that was happening in America, you could see the Apollo Theater reflecting that,” he said. “This is all our history. We all have a part in it.”

During the Civil Rights Movement, the Apollo became more than just a performance venue. Motown great Smokey Robinson said, “Sitting and marching and doing all that, and going to restaurants and they wouldn’t serve us, and all that, we couldn’t stay in a hotel — it was a tough time, you know. are?”

But Apollo was like a light. “It was. gave Bacon, said Robinson. “It was a staple of black music. It was just, you know, where black acts came in. Can’t play anywhere else!”

Robinson says the first time he and The Miracles performed here, he was a nervous wreck. They bombed! “I was scared to death at the Apollo Theatre,” he said. “If we didn’t have a record at the time and were supposed to be ‘professionals’ the hook guy would come and kick us off the stage, because we were terrible!” He laughed. “We were just amateurs, we were so terrible, that even Mr. Sheffman, who owned the Apollo at the time, called Barry Gordy, who was our manager and equipment at the time, and told him he wanted his money back. !”

In the decades that followed, as more locations were integrated, the Apollo struggled financially, and closed its doors more than once. “We could have lost the Apollo, but we’re still here,” said actress and singer Melba Moore. She says she grew up watching shows at the theater, and then got the chance to perform here — and later became a guest host on the TV version of Amateur Night, “It’s Showtime at the Apollo.”

Moore says the theater is a treasure.

Tonight, the Apollo Theater is being honored with the Kennedy Center’s prestigious honor in a ceremony that we’ll see later this month on CBS.

Michelle Ebanks, the theater’s president and CEO, says it’s the first time an organization (rather than an individual) has received such recognition. “The idea of ​​Apollo opened up that whole universe, so everybody could see that this was American culture, too,” Ebanks said. “This is the magic of art, the power of art.”

This is also the year the theater begins its 90th season. And to Smokey Robinson, Apollo is still a force to be reckoned with. “You know, this is the beginning. This is the place to prove it. This is Apollo!”

For more information:

Story by Robin McFadden. Editor: Remington Corporation.