Showtime at the Apollo

For close to 60 years the Apollo Theatre in the heart of Harlem has been one of America's foremost cultural institutions, a top showcase for black entertainers and a launching pad for some of the greatest talents of our time: Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughan, and Richard Pryor are just a few. Ted Fox has written a history of the special combination of people and atmosphere at the Apollo; he lets the theatre's stars tell a large part of the story through personal anecdotes, augmented by a splendid array of rare pictures. The author also discusses the evolution of black cultural forms in music and comedy, and in so doing, preserves routines, Apollo trademarks, and backstage lore that might otherwise be lost.

A night out at the Apollo was something special and enjoyable and more – the Apollo was home. Nearly every black performer interviewed for Ted Fox's "Showtime at the Apollo: The Story of Harlem's World Famous Theatre" used the word "home" to describe what the Apollo meant to them. It was home to all the performers who along with the audience comprised the Apollo family. It was a family that often scrapped, a family of sibling love and rivalry, but one bound together by shared experiences, hopes and ambitions. Although for performers the work was terribly difficult, and the theatre, like Harlem itself, was always rough, everyone looked forward to coming home to the Apollo. As Dionne Warwick says in the book, "The theatre was terrible: drafty, dirty, smelly – awful; and we loved every minute of it."

While the Apollo is now re-inventing itself and once again burnishing the legend – it nearly died in the 1970s and was forced to close its doors. As the civil rights movement began to alter the nation’s consciousness, other areas of opportunity became available at last to black performers. The system the Apollo was forced to work within for so many years began to collapse. The general acceptance of black culture into American popular culture was the beginning of something brand new, but it was also the beginning of the end for the Apollo Theatre. For it is the final irony that the ultimate casualty of this revolution was the Apollo itself.

Today, the Apollo Theatre remains at the heart of the African-American community – the place that legends still call home – as it’s been since 1934... James Brown, Smokey Robinson and George Clinton come back ...Top black pop stars including Mary J. Blige and P.Diddy, trod the Apollo stage, following in the footsteps of Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis and Dionne Warwick ... Hip-hop group, The Roots, bring the sounds of the street into the theatre like the Orioles in their day... The Apollo’s "Latin Nites" series continues the vibrant tradition of Tito Puente and Mongo Santamaria ...Wynton Marsalis carries the jazz standard of Dizzy Gillespie ...On his 1999 HBO special, Chris Rock shocked and slayed the Apollo crowd summoning memories of Redd Foxx ... Debuting her first tour in a decade at the theatre, Whoopi Goldberg, after enjoying mass stardom, paid homage to the Apollo much as Bill Cosby once did... Anxious neophytes continue flocking to Amateur Night in hopes of making it big by touching The Tree of Hope ...Through good times and bad, changes in time, taste and technologies it will always be Showtime at the Apollo.