SHOWTIME AT THE APOLLO.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/NFINE.No inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Slight creased edges - shelf wear? UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,322pp includes b/w photographs and index. 50 years of great entertainment from Harlem's world-famous theatre. 'Showtime at the Apollo' is the first major history of the world-famous Harlem showplace.For nearly half a century the Apollo Theatre has been one of America's most vital cultural institutions,leading the way in the presentation of virtually every innovation in popular music,dance and comedy.The special scene at the Apollo is described by the people who were there and made it happen - Sammy Davis,Jr., Dionne Warwick, John Hammond, Gladys Knight, Little Anthony, Leslie Uggams,and many others. Some 150 photographs,many never before published,illustrate the text and show what life was like at the theatre,both onstage and off.The Apollo was home to thousands of performers who made up the Apollo family.This was a family that sometimes scrapped,a family of sibling love and rivalry,but a family that supported and encouraged one another because it could not depend on the outside world to do so,and because it was bound together by shared experiences,hopes,and ambitions.Although the Apollo family was largely black,it had an almost mystical lure for the whites.The Apollo was the place where a young, still-raw hayseed named Elvis Presley spent night after night soaking up rhythm and blues,literally just before his controversial national television debut.It was the first place the Beatles wanted to see when they came to America: they knew that the Apollo was the birthplace of greats like Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, James Brown, and Gladys Knight.They knew it was renowned for having the world's toughest and most appreciative audience - a place where, as Dionne Warwick says, "Everyone gave their best performance." The Apollo has been closed for the past three years (1983),but plans are being made to reopen its doors soon,as a theatre and cable television facility,under the leadership of former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton,broadcasting weekly live shows to a nationwide cable and radio audience. Appropriately,this rebirth will be just in time for the Apollo Theatre's fiftieth anniversary.On June 29,1983,the Apollo was officially designated a New York City landmark,and cited as "one of the nation's most important cultural resources." This stunning volume brings alive the electrifying atmosphere of that extraordinary theatre and chronicles the lives and times of the hundreds of people who danced and sang and joked their way to fame and fortune on its storied stage. Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight/value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!