For more than a century, Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater has launched the careers of black performers from James Brown to Michael Jackson.
William Gottlieb/Underwood Archives/Getty Images Legendary jazz singer and piano player Nat King Cole performs at the Apollo with his orchestra in 1950.Eric Schwab/AFP/Getty Images Blues god B.B. King performs on stage with his Gibson hollow-body electric guitar dubbed "Lucille" and back-up dancers in 1963.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images It's Amateur Night at the Apollo, which means that inspired kids like these can take a shot at performing on stage. Here they are practicing before their big show in 1952.Bettmann/Getty Images Miles Davis himself graced the stages of the Apollo and got lost in the music.Herb Snitzer/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Nat King Cole and his wife Maria Hawkins hang back before the show. What exactly has garnered their attention in Ebony magazine is a mystery to this day.Eric Schwab/AFP/Getty Images From left to right: Bobby Lester, Harvey Fuqua, Prentiss Barnes, and Pete Graves of the doo wop group, The Moonglows. Photographers took this opportunity to snap a few portrait before their 1955 show.PoPsie Randolph/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images From left to right: Paul Williams, David Ruffin, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, and Eddie Kendricks of the legendary R&B group The Temptations.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images GAB Archive/Redferns The Four Tops rehearse in the basement of the Apollo Theatre in 1964.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Gladys Knight and the Pips pose for a backstage photo before transforming the night's audience into a swooning, happy crowd.Don Paulson/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images James Brown was a superstar after his live album recorded at the Apollo became a national hit. Here he is seemingly reluctantly answering reporters' questions backstage at the Apollo in 1968.Magnum Photos Joe Tex kicks the mic stand for extra flare in this 1964 performance. Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images The late great Marvin Gaye poses for a portrait with R&B group Martha and the Vandellas before jumping on stage.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images James Brown and his world-renowned cape are led off stage by the night's MC, Danny Ray, only for Brown to throw the cape off and return for an encore.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Otis Redding performing at the Apollo in 1963.Larry Fink/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images American Rock 'n' Roll icon Chuck Berry is interviewed by Jim Delehant (left) backstage at the Apollo.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images After a long night's work entertaining the Apollo's audience, The Supremes take a rest in one of the upstairs rooms.Magnum Photos The "Godfather of Soul" himself, James Brown, relaxes shirtless backstage in slippers and jewelry. This was a mere year after his album recorded at the Apollo spent 66 weeks on the Billboard charts.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Smokey Robinson rehearses a song with The Temptations in their dressing room. Robinson saw Michael Jackson at an amateur night pay very close attention to James Brown's performance a few years later.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Members of The Temptations let off some nervous tension by play-fighting backstage before the show.Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images From left to right: Jimmy Rushing, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry, Muddy Waters, and Brownie McGhee, with James Cotton at the front. Nothing but smiles backstage at the Apollo.Don Paulsen/VIP Photo/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Floyd B. McKissick, joins the 1966 "Black Mothers Enraged" protest against the Vietnam War draft. The Apollo was the focal point of social and cultural movements like this.Bettmann/Getty Images Count Basie and his orchestra during a one-week engagement at the Apollo. He and Duke Ellington were largely responsible for popularizing swing music, in part by participating in the Apollo's radio broadcasts.CBS/Getty Images Marlon Brando speaks at the 1974 Ramsey Clark Benefit at the Apollo Theater. He had won an Oscar for Best Actor two years prior for his role in The Godfather.Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images William Hart (center), Wilbert Hart (right), and Randy Cain (left) of The Delfonics perform at the Apollo with their new three-pronged microphone stand. Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Tina Turner with her husband, Ike, backstage.Art Zelin/Getty Images An aerial view of the traffic around the Apollo Theater, Loew's Victoria Theater, and various Harlem movie theaters on a busy afternoon on 125th street.Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images The Supremes prepare for a show backstage at the Apollo.Magnum Photos The incomparable Ella Fitzgerald in a 1950 performance.Magnum Photos Diana Ross enjoys the comforts of her own room above the Apollo Theater.Magnum Photos The body of James Brown was laid in an open casket for all of Harlem to pay their respects to and say goodbye. There was arguably no place more suitable for the occasion than the Apollo, where Brown performed more often than any other headliner in its history.Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
106 Years Of Showtime At The Apollo, From Vaudeville To Motown In 33 Vintage Photos View GalleryWhen James Brown, "The Godfather of Soul," died his body was driven to Harlem's Apollo Theater. He was touted in a white carriage pulled by two equally white horses and his body was entombed in a casket lined with white satin.
When he was propped up on the Apollo Theater's red-carpeted stage, thousands queued up to say their final goodbyes. Among those masses were A Tribe Called Quest's co-founder Phife Dawg, Kanye West, KRS-One, Dave Chapelle, Chuck D, and Grandmaster Flash.
As acknowledged by Vanity Fair, James Brown's 1962 album James Brown Live at the Apollo shot the theater's name-brand recognition into the stratosphere. Director Lee Daniels recalled every black household he knew owned a copy — "along with the Bible."
Indeed, the Apollo Theater played a colossal role for Black America throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Its '80s variety show ran for 20 years. The theater undoubtedly served as a haven and cultural space for African Americans living in a racially divided country. This year, it will turn 106.
The Birth Of The Apollo Theater
When the Apollo opened its doors in 1913, according to the theater's website, it was originally designed by George Keister. The famed architect was already renowned for his work on the Astor Theatre, Belasco Theatre, and the Bronx Opera House.
In its early days, the neo-classic venue primarily featured burlesque when producers Benjamin Hurtig and Harry Seamon secured a 30-year lease on the property in 1914. According to the BBC, it would take nearly 20 years for someone to buy and own the property.
That purchase came from theater impresario Sidney S. Cohen in 1933. From then on, the venue's identity evolved. Formerly known as Hurting and Seamon's New Burlesque Theater, the venue — which had been restricted exclusively to white patrons — fell into disrepair when New York's mayor Fiorello La Guardia banned burlesque in 1932.
Cohen, inspired by the Greek God of music, took on the lease and named the building the 125th Street Apollo Theatre.
Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesPerformers try to win the audience over at Amateur Night at The Apollo in 1944.
It would take another half-century for the Apollo to amass enough historical credit to garner the city and state's landmark status. The sheer amount of talent that graced the theater's stage during those decades, however, has arguably never been equaled elsewhere.
It all began with Cohen's new direction of actively including Harlem's growing African American community in the patronage and programming of the venue. He and his manager, Morris Sussman, primarily shifted from burlesque to variety revues and welcomed black people equally.
Only two years later, Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher took over. They operated the venue until the late 1970s.
The mid-1930s saw the Harlem Renaissance, a period of explosive success in the arts for African American communities, come to a close. The period was rooted in an early iteration of the mid-20th century's Civil Rights movement and it laid fertile ground for New York's black community to carve out a bountiful creative space for itself.
This was done in large part via the Apollo.
According to Sandra L. West and historian Aberjhani's Encyclopedia Of The Harlem Renaissance, the Harlem Riot of 1935 dramatically reduced the number of white visitors to the theater and Schiffman and Brecher's business was already the only major theater to hire black people. The Apollo thus became the epicenter of arts for the black community in New York.
The 1940s And '50s On 125th
Another major riot in 1943 only further reduced the number of whites making their way to the Apollo. By this point, the theater's eclectic output ranged from stand-up comedy and tap-dancing performances to jazz and blues shows, to movie screenings and play productions.
Though some critics argued that the theater was stuck in the era of vaudeville as some performers still used blackface or were egregiously sexual onstage, the Apollo only continued to draw audiences.
This growth spurt was in part fueled by Schiffman's campaign to integrate the theater into its surrounding community. The theater thus held fundraisers for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League.
The rise of swing in the 1940s was arguably boosted extensively by the Apollo's decision to broadcast these types of performances on the radio. From Duke Ellington to Count Basie, this created a fervor for swing only comparable to the jazz craze which had dominated the U.S. decades before.
Mantan Moreland and Nipsey Russell perform their two-hand comedy routine live at the Apollo in 1955.Popularizing swing resulted in the same talent becoming all the more employable at venues across the country. Following this phase was the rise of bebop music, spearheaded by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
Unfortunately, with the influx of a wider patronage and the resultant flow of cash came an interest from the seedier parts of New York. While the mob took over the nearby Cotton Club, it had left the Apollo alone — but Schiffman and his sons did have to pay gangsters a regular fee.
Nonetheless, the Apollo Theater had firmly established itself as a litmus test for performers to know if they were worth their salt. It became glaringly apparent that anyone who could satisfy an audience at the Apollo could make it anywhere.
Conversely, those who had already become national successes were tested to see if they truly had what it took — or had simply been riding the coattails of success this whole time. Josephine Baker, for instance, was already a household name by the time she performed at the Apollo in the 1950s.
The Apollo, however, allowed her to cement that legendary status.
The Motown Revue At The Apollo
There has never been a more frequent headliner at the Apollo than James Brown. Rolling Stone credited his 1963 album recorded at the theater for establishing him as "an R&B superstar and a sales force to be reckoned with."
The Apollo had become a beacon for any and all rising stars, from the Jackson Five and the Four Tops to the Bluebelles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and Stevie Wonder. Michael Jackson and his brothers won an Amateur Night contest there in 1967 after traveling all the way from Gary, Indiana.
Instead of celebrating with his siblings, Jackson waited in the wings and marveled at those on stage; James Brown and Jackie Wilson. It was this kind of environment, and the talent it amassed, that allowed someone like Jackson to study, obsess, focus, and refine his talents.
James Brown performs 'I Got The Feelin'' live at the Apollo in 1968."Michael watched each and every act until it was time for him to go on," said the legendary Smokey Robinson. "Then, after his shows, he'd go back and watch again."
It wasn't just the King of Pop who started his career at the Apollo, however. The list is staggering and seemingly endless: Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, The Supremes, Parliament-Funkadelic, Patti LaBelle, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, The Isley Brothers, Aretha Franklin, and more.
"The Apollo is a sanctuary for black music, a place where a lot of magical moments happened. The evolution of black music over the last 50, 60, 70 years has just been amazing. Rhythm and blues and soul and gospel has just been such a strong force. Not only for black culture but American culture and global culture and a lot of it started, and was centered on, the Apollo. Even if the music was being made in Mississippi or Alabama or Detroit...they would all come to the Apollo." — Pharrell Williams
The late 1960s and early 1970s, however, saw the Apollo's status as the go-to for black entertainment begin to wane. With an increase in integration came a decline of the theater's primary audience. Those who started there would return for a show or two out of a sense of loyalty, but things were never the same.
To combat this unnerving fluctuation, the Apollo began screening more movies. It was the 1970s and exploitation cinema was at the forefront of urban centers like New York City. Tragically, the theater simply failed to make ends meet — and Schiffman closed it in January 1976.
The Apollo Ever After
After a brief reopening in 1978 that lasted only a year, the Apollo remained dormant until 1981 when lawyer, politician, and media executive Percy Sutton purchased the theater and made it a full-fledged recording and television studio.
The theater received city and state landmark status two years later and soon produced the world-famous television program, Showtime at the Apollo which aired until 2008.
The Apollo Theater Foundation, Inc. was established in 1991 and continues to serve as a non-profit organization to this day. James Brown's open casket lay on stage after his death in 2006, while then-Senator Barack Obama hosted a fundraiser for his presidential campaign a year later.
Though the Apollo remains a fully-functioning venue to this day, the theater was one of the most important, supportive, and creatively fertile grounds for American artists in the 20th century.
After learning about the birth and history of Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, read about the Harlem Hellfighters — the overlooked African-American heroes of World War I. Then, take an amazing photographic tour of New York in the 1920s.
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