On the Apollo's stage, Black America's greatest musicians proved themselves. The Apollo Theater on West 125th Street opened to Black audiences in 1934, in the heart of the Harlem Renaissance. Previous theaters in Harlem had refused to book Black performers or sell tickets to Black customers; the Apollo changed all of that.
Its Amateur Night, which began in 1934, became the most famous talent contest in American history: a seventeen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald won it in 1934, a fifteen-year-old James Brown won it in 1956, and countless others were discovered or launched here. The tradition of the Tree of Hope, a piece of an old tree believed to bring good luck to performers who touch it, survives at the side of the stage. Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Aretha Franklin all played the Apollo.
Stand at the entrance on 125th Street and look at the marquee; inside, a piece of every tradition in American popular music was shaped on that stage.