The Apollo Theater at 90 years old

On Wednesday nights, Harlem’s Apollo Theater is one of the city’s most popular venues. But there is no A-list star. It’s fans’ night! And the public is here to choose the NEXT star.

“I know how tough the crowds 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 performance of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Others… weren’t so lucky. Marion Caffey, long-time producer of Apollo’s iconic Amateur 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,’ ‘America’s Got Talent,’ ‘American Idol,’ and ‘Star Search,’ we’re the great-granddaddy of all 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 H.E.R.

And if you’re wondering why every artist rubs that tree stump, according to Caffey, “That stump used to be a whole tree. And it stood outside the Lafayette Theater. And they would pull the leaves off the tree to wear 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 it’s not such good luck if you lose,” Caffey said.

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

What did his victory bring him? “Well, first of all, we were pretty good,” Warwick said. “And we won $50!”

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

But it wasn’t always welcoming. Before the Apollo, it was a whites-only burlesque theater. In 1934, under a new owner 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, this is New York and the black community was growing. And so, it was basically a business model decision. to allow black citizens to enter.

Ramsey says the story of Apollo and the story of America are closely intertwined. “It was a representative of everything that was happening in America, you could see the Apollo Theater reflecting that,” he said. “It’s our whole story. We all have a stake in it.”

During the civil rights movement, the Apollo became more than just a performance space. The great Smokey Robinson of Motown said: “Sitting and walking and doing all that, and going to restaurants and they wouldn’t serve us, and all that, we couldn’t stay in any hotel – it was a tough time, you know?”

But the Apollo was like a beacon. “It was THE tag,” Robinson said. “It was the staple of black music. That’s precisely, you know, what the Black people did happened. 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 at the Apollo Theater,” he said. “If we hadn’t put out a record and been so-called ‘professional’ at the time, the guy with the hook would have come and kicked us off the stage, because we were terrible!” he laughed. “We were just amateurs, we were so terrible, until Mr. Schiffman, the guy who owned the Apollo at the time, called Berry Gordy, who was our manager and all that at the time- there, and told him he wanted his money back!”

In the decades that followed, as more and more venues integrated, the Apollo struggled financially and closed its doors several times. “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, then had the chance to perform here — and later became a guest host on “It’s Showtime at the Apollo,” the television version of Amateur Night.

Moore says this theater is something to cherish.

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

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

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

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Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Publisher: Remington Korper.