Word: apollo
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...with me," Cruz remarked while they were waiting. "Three hundred and sixty-five days of the year I'm plain old Steve Cruz, the guy who drives his truck up to construction sites. But tonight I'm going to be the One and Only Steve Cruz, Live at the Apollo. Winning would be nice, but being out there and singing, that's good enough...
...anyone with dreams not daubed in greasepaint, the Apollo's peculiar magic can be a little hard to fathom. That night's first-place winner -- an honor determined solely by the applause -- would pocket just $200. And, of course, there is that infamous Apollo audience, an orchestra and two balconies bursting with folks who give no quarter. Ella Fitzgerald's hazing is a legend. She managed no more than a few off-key notes before Master of Ceremonies Ralph Cooper came out to save her. Stilling the jeers, he won her a reprieve and she started again. On the second...
Swapping greetings with the regulars who drift in and out at will, Cooper has to be prodded before he'll explain just how he does it. "The Apollo is a very sophisticated audience, but that doesn't mean they're fair, least not all the time. If I wasn't here to keep control, it wouldn't matter how good some kid was. They'd just tear the act to pieces, never give the ones who deserve it a chance. But you know what? The ones that are going to make it, they'll always be back. If they...
...most of nine sad years, up until 1985, the Apollo was a shuttered reminder of Harlem's faded grandeur. The problem was simple economics. By the mid-'70s, big-name acts wanted so much money that it was impossible to squeeze a worthwhile profit out of the "small" 1,500-seat auditorium. Until the theater's closing, Cooper's amateurs still packed 'em in, but on most other evenings, the place was dead and empty...
Thanks to an in-house video complex that captures the star turns -- George Benson, the Whispers and others -- for television syndication, the Apollo is back in the black. As for amateur night, that has always been cheap entertainment, with the best seats going for $15 and most costing just $5. Cooper is proud that Wednesday is still a family night...