#TheApolloTheater #Harlem #AmateurNight Long before Randy Jackson's it’s-a-no-from-me-dawged judging on American Idol , and those spinning chairs on The Voice decided the futures of intrepid crooners, there was the weekly Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. Beginning a little over 80 years ago, it's the longest running talent show in the world, where acts come from across the country to compete for the admiration of the Apollo’s notoriously hard-to-please crowd. The stakes? If you beat everyone out, you join a list of other winners such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, and the Jackson 5. And if the theater doesn’t like you, you’re booed (like hemorrhaging-sports-fan-booed), and swept off the stage by a guy called “the executioner.” Yeah, it’s a little more dam aging than a Simon Cowell scowl. Though, as it is with the few other American venues that share the Apollo’s history and cultural perma-relevance, it’s a tradition. A proud one, too—even Jimi He