Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing

To celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is proud to be opening a new exhibition on April 23: Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment.

Organized by the Museum in collaboration with the Apollo Theater Foundation, this fascinating, multi-media exhibition draws on wide-ranging materials including historic photographs, film, recordings, costumes, instruments, and artist interviews. It will trace the evolution of the Apollo from its birth as a whites-only burlesque theater to its years as a premier entertainment venue and magnet for audiences from around the world.

Louis Armstrong

Nearly all forms of entertainment — comedy, dance, swing, jazz, rock and roll, soul, hip hop, and more — found a home on the Apollo stage. It became a place where African American entertainers could launch or advance their careers, and it hosted many of the best-known and best loved names in show business: Sammy Davis, Jr., Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Redd Foxx, James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, and many more. Latin music was represented brilliantly by top flight artists including Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. The roster of young contemporary artists glittered with the names of Savion Glover and LL Cool J.

The exhibition will be on view from April 23-August 29, 2010, in our Museum’s gallery on level two at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Following its showing here in the nation’s capital, the exhibition travels to Detroit and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History where it will run from October 2010 through January 2011. From there the Apollo exhibition goes to the Museum of the City of New York and will be on view from January 2011 through May 2011.

Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s exhibition and programs web page for more details about “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment.”