On Wednesday nights, the Apollo Theater in Harlem is one of the hottest tickets in town. However, the wrong celebrity is the headliner. It’s Newbie Evening! And the target audience is there to select the next breakout megastar.
“I know how tough the crowd can be,” said singer Kyle Terrence, 23, of Yonkers, Untapped York. “I know that’s what makes this place famous, what’s included.”
Terrence wins over the community with his mastery of “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. Others…were not so lucky. Marion Caffey, longtime producer of the Apollo’s prestigious Newbie Evening, noted, “They are extremely honest. And sometimes just brutal, not necessarily honest!”
cbs information
Kaifi says it is the longest running song contest in historical past. “Well, ‘The Voice’ and ‘America’s Got Talent’ and ‘American Idol’ and ‘Star Search,’ we’re the great-grandfather of all of those,” he noted. “This was the blueprint.”
The theater’s motto is “Where stars are born and legends are made”… and it has featured many of them, from James Brown and Ella Fitzgerald to Stevie Miracle, Lauryn Hill, and HER.
Apollo Theater
And if you’re wondering why every cast member rubs that tree trunk, according to Caffey, “This stump used to be a whole tree. And it stood outside the Lafayette Theatre. And they took leaves from the tree for good luck. Used to pull. And now everyone comes here and rubs the tree of hope for good luck.”
Does it do painting? Caffey noted, “Well, I guess it’s good luck if you win, and not so much good luck if you lose.”
cbs information
However it worked for award-winning singer Dionne Warwick, whose career skyrocketed after winning Newbie Night in 1958.
What ultimately benefited him? “Well, at first we were pretty good,” Warwick noted. “And we won $50!”
Warwick noted that committing to a 1,500-seat theater was like going to college and succeeding in acting: “The old adage is true, it’s absolutely true: ‘If you can make it at the Apollo, you can make it. Anywhere.’ He brings out the best in you. Every time I played Apollo, it got better and better and I felt like I was at home.”
However this was not always welcome. Before there was the Apollo, it was a white-only burlesque theater. In 1934, under new ownership and a new title, it opened its doors to all. Music historian Guthrie Ramsey noted, “It was one of the first to allow black and white patrons to enjoy music together. After all, this is New York City, and the black community was growing. And so, it “It was basically a business model decision to allow black citizens to come in.”
Ramsey says the story of Apollo and the story of the United States are intertwined. He said, “It was representative of what was going on in America, you could see it reflected in the Apollo Theatre.” “This is all our history. We all have a stake in it.”
During the Civil Rights Movement, Apollo was more than just an efficiency period. Motown’s flamboyant Smokey Robinson noted, “Sitting in and marching and doing all that, and going into restaurants and they wouldn’t want to serve us, and all that, we couldn’t stay in any hotels – it was a hard time. , you know?”
Although Apollo used to be like a lighthouse. “it was Beacon,’ Robinson mentioned. ‘It was a major center for black music. You know, it was just, where the dark acts came from. Can’t play anywhere else!”
Robinson says that the first moment he and The Miracles performed here, he was anxious and shattered. They bombed! “I was so scared to come to the Apollo Theatre,” he said. “If we didn’t have a record and we weren’t the so-called ‘professionals’ at that time, the man with the hook would have come and taken us off the stage. Would have gone, because we were terrible!” He laughed. “We were just newbies, we were terrible, until Mr. Shiffman, who owned Apollo at the time, called Berry Gordy, who was our manager at the time and stuff, and told him he wanted his money back. !”
In the decades that followed, as more playgrounds were built, Apollo struggled financially and closed its doors more than once. Actress and singer Melba Moore said, “We may have lost Apollo, but we’re still here.” She says she grew up watching shows at the theater, and then she got a chance to work here – and she was a guest host on Newbie Night’s TV model “It’s Showtime at the Apollo.”
Moore says this theater is something to be valued.
cbs information
Tonight, the Apollo Theater is being honored with the prestigious Kennedy Hart Honor in a ceremony that we will see in an upcoming program on CBS.
Michelle Ebanks, the theater’s president and CEO, says it is the first time an establishment (rather than an individual) has achieved such prestige. Ebanks noted, “The idea of Apollo opened up this whole universe, so everyone could see that this is American culture, too.” “This is the magic of art, the power of art.”
This may be the year the theater begins its ninetieth season. And the Apollo pressure is on for Smokey Robinson. “You know, this is the beginning. This is the proving ground. This is Apollo!”
cbs information
For more information:
Story produced by Robin McFadden. Scribbler: Remington Korper.
