On this day in New York · January 26, 1934
The Apollo Reopens for Harlem
A burlesque house on 125th Street shed its old name and its old audience, and reopened as the stage where Black New York would headline instead of just watch from the balcony.
The facts
- Reopened
- January 26, 1934, as the 125th Street Apollo Theatre
- Address
- 253 West 125th Street, Harlem
- New management
- Sidney Cohen as owner, Morris Sussman as manager, Clarence Robinson as producer
- Previous life
- Ran as Hurtig & Seamon's burlesque house until it lost its license in 1933
On January 26, 1934, the theater at 253 West 125th Street reopened as the 125th Street Apollo Theatre, built this time around Black performers for Harlem's Black audiences. The building had spent years as Hurtig and Seamon's burlesque house before losing its license amid Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's citywide crackdown on burlesque, and it sat dark for months before one last burlesque run in December 1933. Sidney Cohen, who already owned other theaters nearby, took the lease, brought in Morris Sussman as manager and Clarence Robinson as producer, and staffed the house with Black employees for the first time in its history. The new bill dropped burlesque for family-friendly variety, and Sussman soon added Wednesday night amateur competitions that would grow into the theater's signature.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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Though advertised as a "resort for the better people", the theater quickly attracted working-class, unemployed, and young audiences.
Wikipedia's account of the Apollo's 1934 relaunch under Sidney Cohen
Source: Wikipedia -
the only theatre in the country where Negro performers are predominantly featured
The New York Amsterdam News, on the Apollo's standing by 1939, as quoted on Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The Apollo's 1934 relaunch built the stage that would define Black performance in America for the rest of the century, from amateur night discoveries to the acts that carried Harlem's sound out to the world.
Sources
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