Apollo Theater
The Apollo theater is a neo classical theater and was designed by George Keister. The theater was first owned by Sidney Cohen. then in 1914, ownership of the theater changed. Benjamin Hurtig and Harry Seamon obtained a thirty-year lease on the newly constructed theater and planed on calling it the "Hurtig and Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater." The theater of course was not open to blacks at the time. That all changed when in 1933 Fiorello La Guardia started a protest to stop this segregation and closed down many theaters including the "Hurtig and Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater." Cohen and Morris Sussman then reopened the theater as the 125th street Apollo theater. They noticed the growing of the black community in Harlem so they started redirecting their maketing towards them. Then Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher bought the theater. These families would hold onto control of the theater into the 1970s. Then in 1978 it reopened and then closed promply in 1979. Percy Sutton took over the theater after that equipped the theater with their own recording and televison studio. Finally in 1983 the theater got city and state landmark status. That brings us to today where a board of directors controls the programming.