APOLLO

The Apollo Theater at 253 west  125th  street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (formerly Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (formerly Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of  Manhattan,New York City  is a music hall which is a noted venue for   African American performers. It was the home of Showtime at the Apollo, a nationally syndicated television variety show which showcased new talent, from 1987 to 2008, encompassing 1,093 episodes. The theater, which has a capacity of 1,506, opened in 1914 as Hurtig & Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater, and was designed by George Keister in the . neo-Classical style It became the Apollo in 1934, when it was opened to black patrons – previously it had been a whites-only venue. In 1983, both the interior and exterior of the building were designated as New York City Landmark, and the building was added to the National  Register of Historic Places It is estimated that 1.3 million people visit the Apollo every year.