Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993 TAG: 9309160004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Duke Ellington. Billie Holiday. Ella Fitzgerald. Miles Davis. Nat King Cole. James Brown. Aretha Franklin. Michael Jackson.
No other theater in America has such a history.
It is the place black entertainers have come for five decades to measure themselves against the best. It is where great careers have been launched - and dreams shattered.
Perhaps its most celebrated legacy has been Amateur Night. At the Apollo Theatre in New York City, nothing else is held in such high regard.
Opened in 1914, the Apollo was first known as Hurtig and Seamon's New Burlesque Theatre and was open to white audiences only, when Harlem was the playground for the rich and famous.
Fanny Brice played there, and Fats Waller.
Twenty years later, the theater was bought by Sidney Cohen, who opened the new Apollo Theatre as a black vaudeville house.
In 1935, Ralph Cooper launched Amateur Night as a way to fill seats on Wednesday nights, traditionally a slow night for the theater.
But Amateur Night quickly became an important launching ground for black performers and music. From swing to beebop to doo-wop to soul, Motown, funk and rap, the Apollo always stayed up with the times.
Ella Fitzgerald debuted there at the age of 15. She planned originally to do a dance number, but changed her mind at the last minute and sang instead.
James Brown won Amateur Night wearing all borrowed clothes.
Ed Sullivan routinely scouted the Apollo for new talent. When Elvis Presley first performed on the "Ed Sullivan Show," one of first places he visited in New York was the Apollo.
In 1963, Stevie Wonder, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Mary Wells and The Four Tops all played the Apollo - on the same night.
In 1966, Harlem rioted, but the Apollo went unscathed. In 1969, The Jacksons won Amateur Night with a 9-year-old Michael Jackson out front.
But in the mid-1970s, the theater fell into bankruptcy and closed. For a time, it operated as a movie house. Then in 1985, the theater was renovated and bought by a nonprofit foundation. It is recognized as a national landmark.
Amateur Night also returned.
Today, Amateur Night is going strong. Fox Television now airs "Showtime at the Apollo," a weekly show centered around the Amateur Night tradition.
by CNB