A velvet house, gilt boxes and balconies, a lit stage carrying three works the size of a curtain.
The building opened in 1914 as a burlesque house for white audiences. In 1934 it reopened as the Apollo Theater and admitted Black audiences, and Amateur Night began the same year. Ella Fitzgerald won Amateur Night in 1934 at age 17. James Brown, Billie Holiday, and Aretha Franklin all played the stage, and the theater became a National Historic Landmark.
Source · Apollo Theater ↗
The proscenium arch with its gilt frame, curved balcony fronts, red velvet seats and drapes, footlights and the marquee lettering. Mood: from the stage. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.