Ain’T Nothing Like the Real Thing: The Apollo Theater and American Entertainment

Since its transformation in 1934 from a whites only burlesque theater to a showplace of African American music, dance, and comedy, the Apollo Theater has exerted an unprecedented influence upon American popular culture. Jazz, Jump, and Jive traces the history of the Apollo Theater, charting the rise and fall of musical and entertainment genres featured at the Apollo as they intersect with larger social and political issues within the Harlem community and the nation. Jazz, Jump, and Jive brims with stories and photographs of famous entertainers who performed there-Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughn, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, James Brown, The Jackson Five, Redd Foxx, and Honi Coles to name a few-as well as those whose careers began at the Apollo’s world-famous Amateur Night. Objects and ephemera related to the performers, the theater, and its owners bring to life career-altering performances and evoke the excitement of a nation on the brink of change.
Jazz, Jump, and Jive brings into high relief the ebb and flow of African American entertainment and highlights the developments that indisputably shaped the contour of American culture, from the Harlem Renaissance to the present.