Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing: The Smithsonian Does The Apollo

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Exhibition on Apollo Theater Coming to Smithsonian

by Lee Mergner

Guthrie Ramsey can’t wait for the exhibition on the Apollo Theater to open at the Smithsonian. The musicologist has been working for almost two years on the exhibit that eventually will tour the U.S.. The moment he’s waiting for is when he walks through the show with the general public and sees their reaction to the sights and sounds that he and his co-curator Tuliza Fleming organized for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. “That is going to be so special,” says Ramsey. “I can’t wait.”

The first exhibition to explore the Apollo Theater’s seminal impact on American popular culture, Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment examines the rich history and cultural significance of the legendary Harlem theater, tracing the story from its origins as a segregated burlesque hall to its starring role at the epicenter of African American entertainment and American popular culture.

Organized by NMAAHC in association with the Apollo and in celebration of the Apollo's 75th Anniversary, Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing will be on view in the new museum's gallery in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History from April 23, 2010 until August 29, 2010.

Following its premiere in Washington D.C., the exhibition will be presented at Detroit's Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History from October 1, 2010 - January 2, 2011, at the Museum of the City of New York from January 30, 2011 - May 1, 2011, and in four additional U.S. cities to be announced. The tour is being presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

This was Ramsey’s first exhibition, but as a professor of musicology at University of Pennsylvania and a scholar of African-American culture (and a part-time musician), he managed to debut with a dream project: presenting the incredible history of perhaps America’s most famous performing arts theater. “The Apollo is so familiar and ubiquitous that you take it for granted, but it’s really a storied place,” explains Ramsey. “The challenge for me was to switch to focus on an object rather than music. Tuliza [Fleming] had done a lot of museum curating before, so I think we made a great team.”

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