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Home , Art Tatum, Bill Graham (musician), Gene Chandler, Richard Pryor, Roy Hamilton, Timeless (radio network)

EARLY INFLUENCES

NAT KING COLE DID others, copied the group’s style. The trio signed plenty to justify his nick­ to Decca in 1940, then moved to Capitol in name. He was a true super- 1943, and through films, recordings and con­ star (even before the word certs, Cole’s popularity increased. When he was coined) whose enor­ began to sing as well, his reputation grew with mous appeal transcended each new warm, personable vocal perfor­ boundaries of race, age, gender and musical mance. Soft, but possessed of backbone, Cole’s preference. Landing eighty-six singles and airy baritone was easy on ballads, ebullient but seventeen albums in the Top Forty between controlled on uptempo numbers, the diction 1943 and 1964, he recorded ballads, always precise, the phrasing smart. He so instrumentals, foreign language songs, stamped material with his signature reading Christmas carols, pop standards and what that it’s impossible to imagine any contempo­ might now be termed pop rock. But Cole’s rary singer being able to work meaningful legacy is far more substantial than is sug­ changes on Cole’s songs. gested by his impressive sales figures or by his For all of his success and notoriety, however, imposing reputation as a vocalist nonpareil. Cole’s life was rimed with tragedy. His decision Those who know him only by “Nature Boy,” to abandon his status as a jazz instrumentalist to “Mona Lisa,” “The Christmas Song” and pursue a career as a pop star resulted in derision “Ramblin’ Rose” have no concept of how truly by rivals and colleagues jealous of his ability to regal Cole was. A child prodigy on piano, Cole reach a mass audience. But Jackie Robinson followed in the footsteps of the great Earl was applauded for breaking the color barrier in “Fatha” Hines to become one of the greatest major-league baseball, why did Cole have to face jazz in history. He was also an extra­ ridicule for becoming the first African-American ordinary , penning such classics as television star? Cole’s TV stardom was met with “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” vicious, well-organized opposition from a racist Cole was born in 1919 in Montgomery, corporate establishment: Despite the critical Alabama, and his family moved to approval and high ratings that met his NBC when he was four. He started out singing and television show (1956-57), a boycott by adver­ playing organ and piano in his father’s church. tisers bent on stopping a black man from star­ In 1936 he began performing as the key­ ring on television persuaded the network to boardist in Eddie Cole’s Solid Swingers, led by cancel the program. brother Eddie and also featuring two other An international star who had another Cole brothers, Fred and Isaac. twenty years of potential, Cole died from lung Eventually resettling in , Cole cancer at the age of forty-five in 1965. No one formed a highly influential drummerless trio knows what his final legacy could have been, with guitarist and bassist Wesley considering how much he accomplished in the (later replaced by Johnny Miller). The short time he was here. What is certain is that King Cole Trio proved so popular that jazz he remains one of the greatest popular-music giants and , among vocalists of the Twentieth Century. s m

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WITHIN AFRICAN-AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE, THEY were the highest musical peaks an entertainer could attain. They towered above all else, Olympian in reputation and influence, and they brought forth gods and legends. Their names still resonate with mythic and imperial import. For over a half century, these theaters united black , providing a cultural lifeline in an age when all doo-wop groups; gospel choirs and theatrical was separated geographically and segregated racially. They troupes; tap dancers and . were home to generations of brilliant performers and haven That same license of expression extended to the perform­ to the most demanding - and appreciative - audiences. In ers. gently swinging, “Bill Bailey won’t you please , that haven was the go home?” for a white, supper-club audience at the Copa was c h ic k w eb b Apollo Theatre; in Chicago, the Regal, one thing. belting out “Please, please, please, band a n d ella and in Washington, D.C., the Howard. please, please ...” while falling on his knees at the Apollo? f it z g e r a l d , Baltimore had the Royal, in Detroit iti Now that was a chorus of a different color. 1937; a po ll o was the Paradise. Philadelphians went The litany of names that drew the crowds to these fabled c h o r u s , 1938 to the Earle, and later, the Uptown; halls is staggering in terms of magnitude and importance: W atts residents frequented the , , , Duke Lincoln, and Memphis music fans convened at the Daisy. Ellington, , , , Dizzy While Jim Crow reigned outside, - or Big Joe Gillespie, , , Dinah Washington, Nat Turner or - trucked, rocked and funked inside. King Cole, , , , the With an uncommon freedom, black audiences could cheer Drifters, , the Miracles, , Marvin and jeer, scream and laugh at the vast variety of talent: Gaye, , , Sam and Dave, the Swinging big bands and small-group jazz musicians; south­ Jackson 3, the O’Jays, A1 Green and the list goes on. In the end, ern soul singers and ’s finest; Chicago bluesmen and with the music these acts engendered and the generations of musicians they influenced, they proved to be so much more than names on historic marquees. To black and white America alike, they became our lives, our shared cul­ tural bloodstream and our common musi­ cal history. That cultural timeline began down South. TOBA (Theatre Owners’ Booking Association, or alternatively, Tough On Black Asses) had evolved from a loose col­ lection of traveling minstrel shows at the turn of the Oast) century. TOBA led black artists out of a rough beginning of tent shows and into the theaters and dance- halls of larger, Northern cities. White - and black - showbiz men woke up to the lucrative possibilities of estab­ lishing venues that staged black enter- tainment; box-office revenue started to flow, as black - and But the “Uptown Met” - as it was soon dubbed - was bom white - patrons began pouring through of these into hard times. Founded by a real-estate man with little flair first experiments in social integration. In Harlem, for exam­ for showbiz in the midst of the Depression, the Apollo was ple, the white habit of “slumming” uptown reached its zenith bought out within a year by a white Jewish family who ran it during the Twenties, creating small fortunes for the owners of with an all-black crew, one of the first theaters to do so. the Cotton Club, Small’s Paradise and the Apollo’s progenitor, With a creative booking policy and tight box-office control the Lafayette Theatre. But there was economic safely in num­ that would have schooled even Bill Graham, Frank bers, which led to the push for 1,500-seat (like the Apollo and Schiffman - and later his son Bobby - ensured that the the Royal) to 3,500-seat (the Regal) houses and a grander, Apollo rose above all competition. By 1935, “the Apollo more elegant chain of theaters presenting bigger and better changed its billing to ‘the Only Stage Show in Harlem’ . . . known stars. By the after Schiffman vanquished the other black theaters,” histo­ 1930s, almost every city rian Ted Fox pointed out in his with a healthy middle- book Showtime at the Apollo. t o p : t h e 1941 class black community Schiffman juggled headliners APOLLO c h o r u s ; boasted a high-quality with savvy and timing, allowing l e f t : BILLIE HOLI­ venue presenting the their respective audiences to DAY ENTHRALLS top tier of national tal­ gather the financial means for the THE APOLLO, 1937 ent in a safe and race- next big show. Smooth, sepia- friendly environment. toned crooner would headline one week, draw­ The grand old man of ing one type of crowd, followed by R&B queen Dinah the black theater circuit Washington, bringing in her own followers. Then the Soul was - and still is - New Stirrers would arrive, filling the seats with a more sanctified York’s Apollo Theatre. audience than either singer would ever pull. Its story is representative of that once-vibrant family. The Apollo - with a winning formula in hand - soon Bom at the tail end of the Harlem Renaissance, the Apollo reached out to its sister venues in other cities in developing an has remained a monument on 125th Street since It first A-level of black entertainment. “From the TOBA circuit, opened on January 26,1934. Formerly Hurtig and Seamon’s black performers moved up to the big league in black enter­ Music Hall, the Apollo drew its name from a nearby burlesque tainment,” noted Fox, “which included... the Royal Theatre house, which referenced the Greek god of music in an effort to in Baltimore, the Howard in Washington, D.C., and the Earle pose striptease as a respectable, “artistic” pursuit. Seeking a in Philadelphia.” But there was only one theater leading the new, full-family approach, the Apollo Theatre’s opening night pack, as singer Ernestine Allen recalled: “You could make it sparkled with multimedia promise. There was a jazz lineup at the Howard or the Royal, but you never, never, never really ( and seven other acts), a feature film (Criminal made it until you made it at the Apollo.” at Large), the debut of a new PA. system from RCA and the Years flew by and musical fashions changed. The Apollo pledge of establishing “an entertainment edifice that Harlem choms line shuffled offstage never to return. Swing and big will take pride in showing off to neighborhood communities. bands segued into boogie-woogie and . Jump and jive iìa^ haéLe m i mi APOLLO I l H i ______I25»h ST., near 8th AVE. Tal, UHWwtlty* 4%490 DARNELL WILLIAMS ONE WEEK ONLY BEG. FRIDAY OCT. 20th “Mr. Ice Man” CHUBBY ¿&-NEWSOME h t p— i

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Contours, and Stevie Wonder. Beale Street tourists and a new generation of audiences. As usual, other theaters followed the Apollo pattern. Baltimore’s Royal and Philadelphia’s Uptown are both history, Recorded live at Chicago’s Regal Theater in 1963, Little Stevie with a small plaque marking the former’s past triumphs. But himself first pounced up the charts with the exuberant when these great theaters were in operation - selling out “Fingertips (Part 2).” The Regal similarly provided a launch shows nightly - they fulfilled an point for Gene Chandler’s plaintive “Rainbow ’65,” as well as essential role in the creation of mod- fans su r r o u n d B.B. King’s legendary Live at the Regal album of the same em-day rock & roll. clyde m cph a t- year. Brown chose Baltimore’s Royal as his 1963 Apollo fol­ Ted Fox opened Showtime at the t e r and b illy lowup, Pure Dynamite! A decade and a half later, in 1978, the Apollo with a prophetic moment: It w ard o f t h e Brides of Funkenstein opted to record the landing of the was 1955, and the theater’s mar- d o m in o e s , 1952 Mothership at Washington, D.C.’s Howard Theater. quee promised a panoply of R&B The days of were not kind to the black theater circuit. talent on one bill - , Bill Doggett, , “The Apollo is, of course, the crown jewel of the chitlin’ cir­ Dakota Staton, Willis Jackson, the Flamingos, the cuit,” Teddy Pendergrass recalled in his memoir, Truly Harptones, the Four Jacks and Howlin’ Wolf. , Blessed, but added: “By the early , the Apollo’s better recently signed to RCA and seeing New York City for the days were long behind it.” There were a number of reasons: first time, made the pilgrimage to 125th Street by taxi. “He Economic devastation in the inner cities reduced a once- drew little notice from the predominantly black crowd proud urban middle class. Box offices were hard hit, and hanging around.. .there were plenty of other white young­ decreasing interest in older musical styles only added to the sters about, and even his perfectly sculpted, slicked-back injury. With the advent of TV’s and the ascent of pompadour, black pants and pink shirt did not set him disco, fewer people wanted to pay for live entertainment. apart.” One can almost see him, slightly nervous, buying his Only a handful of the great black theaters survived the ticket, finding a seat and then settling in for a joyous ride. Seventies. Though it hit bankruptcy in ’79 (after a brief As did Presley, so did white America - slowly, eventually, incarnation as a movie house) and continues to be embroiled proverbially - take that trip uptown to embrace and draw §S financial controversies, today the refurbished Apollo inspiration from a rich African-American heritage. On the reaches for its past glory under new ownership, with Apollo stage, a message of integration and respect accom­ Amateur Night still inviting tomorrow’s stars to the stage on panied the decades of great, timeless music that flowed Wednesday nights. forth. Today, in the culture-hopping, genre-defying, post­ As for the other theaters, Chicago’s original Regal was tom modern maelstrom that finds room on the same stages for down, its name adorning a smaller, 2,300-seat replacement Lauryn Hill, Lenny Kravitz and Eminem, that truth since ’87. Detroit’s Paradise was remodeled and renamed remains self-evident-: Anyone can get a front row seat and Orchestra Hall. The Daisy in Memphis has been reopened to any deserving performer can get top billing.