Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing | Atlanta, GA

“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment” examines the rich history and cultural significance of the legendary Harlem theater, tracing the story from its origins as a segregated burlesque hall to its starring role at the epicenter of African American entertainment and American popular culture.

The first exhibition to explore the Apollo Theater’s seminal impact on American entertainment, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing yields incredible insight into the flux of African American life in the 20th century—from the great migration to the urban north, through two world wars and into the civil rights movement.

The exhibition features historic and contemporary costumes, playbills, music scores, graphic images and recorded music to document Apollo’s history, including memorable performances by the emerging artists and living legends who graced its stage. Among the one-of-a-kind and rarely displayed artifacts in the exhibition are: James Brown’s cape and jumpsuit, Michael Jackson’s fedora, Cab Calloway’s baton, Sammy Davis’ childhood tap shoes, Duke Ellington’s score for Black and Tan Fantasy, Ella Fitzgerald’s dress, and Miles Davis’ flugelhorn.

Initially on view in the National Museum of African American History and Culture gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the exhibition is now on a national tour. It is currently on view at the Atlanta History Center through March 3, 2012. Visit the Center’s web site for a calendar of events.

An exhibition companion book, with a foreword by Smokey Robinson, Motown singer, songwriter and producer, features historic photographs and essays by 23 historians, musicologists and critics, including Princeton University scholar Kandia Crazy Horse, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Levering Lewis, author of W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography and Robert O’Meally, founder of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University.