[Dixielandjazz] Apollo Theater exhibit reviewed

[Robert Ringwald]

No Myth: The Apollo's Power
by Will Friedwald
Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2011
On Wednesday nights at the Apollo, amateurs traditionally rub the theater's famous
"Tree of Hope" as they go on. As it happens, this good-luck talisman hardly qualifies
as an actual tree, but is merely a preserved piece of a stump. And it didn't originate
at the Apollo at all, but at the Lafayette, six blocks uptown. Still, the rather
fanciful idea that this chunk of timber can magically help someone win a $10,000
prize and a shot at stardom speaks to the transformative power of African-American
culture. Since 1934, not only has the Apollo represented the most famous black community
in the Western world, but performers and styles from all over the country and the
world have come to the Apollo to make their mark.
In an exhibit titled "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing" (through May 1), the Museum
of the City of New York celebrates the three-quarters of a century that this iconic
theater on 125th Street in Harlem has "shaped American entertainment." As dancer
Honi Coles said in a 1983 interview, "If you could make it at the Apollo, you could
make it anywhere. The history of black theater wouldn't have been the same without
it."
The entrance to the exhibit replicates the experience of entering the theater itself:
The famous Apollo logo, with its red neon letters, is placed next to a life-size
photo of patrons waiting to enter the theater. One of the first displays deals with
the theater's early history: The structure was built in 1914 as a burlesque house
and changed hands four times in 20 years.
Finally, in 1934, the theater became a venue for the black community featuring what
was billed as "the only stage show in Harlem." The following year it was taken over
by Frank Schiffman, a Jewish owner-manager who seems to have been genuinely loved
by the artists he booked. (Louis Jordan called him "a great manager," and the exhibit
features personal notes to Schiffman from both Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Martin
Luther King Jr.)
>From that point onward, the theater has been associated with what were then billed
as "America's Smartest Colored Shows." You'd be hard-pressed to find a major African-American
entertainer, singer, bandleader, dancer or comic who didn't appear there. There's
an undated playbill (probably from 1936) advertising the dance-comedy team of Buck
and Bubbles, headlining a show with W.C. Handy "and his St. Louis Blues Band," blues
empress Bessie Smith (in what must have been one of her final New York appearances),
and a half-dozen other acts.
The displays on the four walls and the exhibits in the center are all built around
various topics, like "Counterculture and Assimilation," which offers Miles Davis's
inscribed flugelhorn, Dizzy Gillespie's bejeweled fez and a well-worn, road-decorated
steamer trunk from Pearl Bailey; elsewhere, there's Count Basie's sporty yachting
cap. But the single most amazing artifact on display is an actual peg leg from the
legendary one-legged dancer Peg Leg Bates. Throughout, the eras and styles of music
(from minstrelsy to hip-hop) are given equal time, as are the different species of
performers -- due attention is paid both to hoofers and to comedians (often with
carnivorous monikers like "Pigmeat" and "Hamtree").
Nor are the amateurs ignored: The Apollo is not only famous for the heights scaled
by some of its contest winners, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, but also
for the humiliation that losers are subjected to: They are booed by the crowd, ridiculed
by the band, and marched off the stage by a costumed figure known as "the executioner."
(Lord knows, if Simon Cowell were to walk on that stage, he'd surely get the hook
-- at the Apollo, that's much more than just a figure of speech.)
One point that isn't mentioned in the exhibit is that the theater, for most of the
1930s and '40s, included a movie along with a very full stage show of six or seven
acts. Also left unsaid is that white people were always welcome. As Schiffman's son
Jack wrote, the Apollo was "color blind" both in the audience and on stage -- and
nonblack bandleaders like Louis Prima and Charlie Barnet felt a particular accomplishment
in being accepted by uptown patrons.
As Billy Eckstine said at the start of each of his shows at the Apollo, "It's good
to be home." Jack Schiffman has noted that the need for the Apollo decreased as show
business became more integrated -- when black talent was no longer restricted to
a single neighborhood. Yet the Apollo was the last theater in the city presenting
prewar-style live stage shows, up through the mid-'70s.
The exhibit paints a rosy picture of the theater's current state, even though the
Apollo today, aside from the continuing amateur nights, is mainly used for special
events, benefits and television shows, and no longer enjoys the same unique connection
with the local community. But these are different times. And the Apollo, as rock
star Elvis Costello -- who has taped episodes of his program "Spectacle" there --
puts it, "is a living, breathing theater, not just a mythic address."
-30


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
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916/ 806-9551 Cell
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