Apollo Theater

Origins

The building that became the Apollo Theater was an Irish music hall in the years after it was built in 1913. A few years later, it was Hurtig and Seamon's Burlesque Theater, where mostly white females, including most notably comedienne and musical star Fanny Brice, performed for an audience that excluded African Americans. In 1932, reformers closed burlesque theaters. Sidney Cohen bought the building in 1934 and reopened it as the Apollo Theater. Cohen's Apollo Theater was the first to provide entertainment by African American artists for an African American audience.

Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher took over the Apollo in 1935. The Schiffman and Brecher families operated the theater until the late 1970s. During these years, African American legends and rising stars entertained Apollo audiences. In 1935, Bessie Smith, known as the Empress of the Blues, appeared for four weeks; they were her only live performances that year. Count Basie made his first appearance in 1937, but he regularly returned, entertaining Apollo audiences several times a year. In 1946, Lionel Hampton's band proved so popular that they played seven shows a day for seven days. In 1962, Berry Gordy brought the Motown Revue to the Apollo, with emerging stars like Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Little Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, and Martha and the Vandellas. Aretha Franklin performed in 1971 for a series of sold-out concerts, and, in 1977, Parliament-Funkadelic, the funk music collective, became the last artists to appear under the Schiffman management of the Apollo.

Not all the stars were musicians. Comedians from Jackie “Moms” Mabley (the first female comic to play there) to Bill Cosby to Whoopi Goldberg to Chris Rock appeared on the Apollo stage, as did dancers such as Bill “Bojangles” Robinson and Maurice and Gregory Hines. The Apollo's own chorus line was considered the best [Page 261]in the city. The theater was also the first, and for a time the only, theater in New York City to hire African Americans in backstage positions.

Amateur Night

But it is the theater's Amateur Night for which it is most widely known. Ralph Cooper is credited with starting the talent contest. He also served as the first master of ceremonies. It was his idea to use comedy to move the less talented offstage. Norman Miller was the first to don a costume and with a hook chase offstage contestants who earned the disapproval of the audience. Later, Bob Collins and Howard “Sandman” Sims took on the part. In the 1980s, C. P. Lacey, dubbed the Executioner by Cooper, assumed the role that he still held in 2012. Amateur Night at the Apollo became a Harlem institution. Broadcast by radio station WMCA early on, it was soon syndicated in 21 cities. The Apollo had a national audience.

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