The Apollo Theater at 90

On Wednesday nights, Harlem’s Apollo Theater is one of the hottest tickets in town. But there is no celebrity headliner. It’s Fan Night! And the public is there to choose the NEXT rising star.

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

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

Caffey says it’s the longest-running singing competition in history. “Well, ‘The Voice’ and ‘America’s Got Talent’ and ‘American Idol’ and ‘Star Search,’ we’re the great-grandfather of all of that,” he said. “That was the plan.”

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

And if you’re wondering why all the performers rub this tree stump, according to Caffey, “This stump used to be a full tree. And it was outside the Lafayette Theater. And they would take leaves off the tree for luck. And now. everyone 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 much luck if you lose,” Caffey said.

But it worked for award-winning singer Dionne Warwick, whose career took off after she and her gospel group won Amateur Night in 1958.

What did winning prove to him? “Well, we were good enough, first of all,” said Warwick. “And we won $50!”

Warwick said going to the 1,500-seat theater was like going to school and taking a crash course in acting: “The old saying is true, it’s so true: ‘If you can do it at the Apollo, you can – it anywhere. ‘ They brought out the best in you Every time I played at the Apollo, I got better and better and I felt at home.

But it wasn’t always welcoming. Before it was the Apollo, it was a burlesque theater for whites only. In 1934, with new ownership and a new name, it opened its doors to everyone. Music historian Guthrie Ramsey said: “It was one of the first to allow black and white patrons to enjoy music together. After all, it’s New York City and the black community was growing. So it was basically a business model decision. allow black citizens to enter.”

Ramsey says the history of Apollo and the history of America are intertwined. “It was representative of whatever was happening in America, you could see the Apollo Theater reflecting that,” he said. “They are all our stories. We all have a part in them.”

During the civil rights movement, the Apollo became more than a performance space. The great Smokey Robinson of Motown 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 any hotels—it was a tough time, you know? “

But Apollo was like a beacon. “It was the beacon,” Robinson said. “It was the staple of black music. It was just, you know, where the black acts came. I couldn’t play anywhere else!”

Robinson says the first time he and The Miracles performed here, he was nervous. They bombed! “I was scared to death to be in the Apollo theater,” he said. “If we hadn’t had a record and were supposed to be ‘pros’ at the time, the hook guy would have come and pulled us off the stage, because we were terrible!” he laughed “We were just fans, we were so terrible, until Mr. Schiffman, the guy who owned the Apollo at the time, called Berry Gordy, who was our manager and stuff at the time, and said I wanted her money back!”

In the following decades, as more locations were added, Apollo struggled financially and closed its doors more than once. “We might 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 had the opportunity to perform here, later becoming a guest host on “It’s Showtime at the Apollo,” the television version of Amateur Night.

Moore says this theater is something to treasure.

Tonight, the Apollo Theater receives a prestigious Kennedy Center Honor in a ceremony we’ll see later this month on CBS.

Michelle Ebanks, the theater’s president and CEO, says it’s the first time an institution (rather than an individual) has received this recognition. “The idea of ​​Apollo opened up this whole universe, so that everybody could see that this is 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 for Smokey Robinson, Apollo is still a force to be reckoned with. “You know, it’s the beginning. It’s the proving ground. It’s Apollo!”

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Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Publisher: Remington Korper.