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Fats Waller playing his piano and organ to tell us when Tarzan was going to swing from tree to tree.

Remember, I said Harlem is a state of mind, whose euphoric interpretations were wrapped up in one's dreams. The Big Apple was the name of a nightclub and bar located on the northwest corner of 135th St. and 7th Ave. and is still in existence today. In its heyday, during the depression, the bar was owned by Mr. Shannon, a local dignitarian whose daughter, Earline, was my classmate when I went to Morehouse College, and incidentally, Earline, who was sent to Spellman College, Morehouse's sister school, was the richest girl in the school at that time.
 
The Big Apple was a place where all the cats came to see, drink and talk to all the working nightclub performers. Also on the 7th Ave. strip was located Smalls Paradise and Monroe's Uptown Club, and Connie's Bar where Billie Holliday first performed. The strip, as Harlem was known at that time was really 133rd St. between Lenox and 7th Ave., the 52nd Street of its day. Down the street a block, on 7th Ave. and 133rd St. was the Lafayette Theatre from which the great Orson Welles starred Canada Lee and all the Black Thespians of the City in his WPA produced plays. Connie's Inn, where Don Radmond held forth was a nightclub located in the basement of the Lafayette building.

The Big Apple was the symbol for excellence in music, excellence in culture and excellence in just plain trying to live from hand to mouth during the trying times of the world's greatest depression.

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The Harlem of my youth was a place where a young man by the name of Joseph Louis Barrow, integrated in one night, forever—breaking down the barriers of living at an Uptown Hotel called the Theresa. The story behind these facts say that Joseph Louis Barrow was a 19-year-old prizefighter brought here by a group of Detroit promoters to fight at Yankee Stadium against a fellow by the name of Primo Carnera. In trying to protect this fighter, his handlers sought to hide him out in the Concourse Plaza Hotel, where the Yankee Ball Team was quartered, but the owners of the Concourse Plaza refused to accept a Negro. The people around Mr. Louis decided to take the bull by the horns and bundled their fighter and his protectors in a couple of cabs and went to a place in the heart of Harlem, which they thought would accept Negroes. However, when they got there and were met with the same rebuff, the boys from Detroit opened up their violin cases and after the desk clerk saw the musical instruments lodged in these violin cases, Mr. Louis and his party were bid welcome. From the very next day on, Blacks lived at the Theresa Hotel, which is located on 125th and 124th St. and 7th Ave.

The Harlem of my youth was a Harlem in which Bob Douglas put together a group of basketball players known as the Renaissance, who became world famous as professional basketball players.
 
The Harlem of my youth was a Harlem in which a young girl by the name of Althea Gibson learned how to hit a tennis ball back and forth over the net on the concrete floor of a City playground at 149th St. and 7th Ave.

The Harlem of my youth was a Harlem in which Marcus Garvey, A. Philip Randolph and Father Divine were the heroes of the day. Marcus Garvey sought, during the early twenties, with his followers like my uncle Arthur Reid, Adam Powell, Corliss Cook, James Lawsen, Sufi, to instill Black pride in us saying that Negroes should control their own destinies. Father Divine sought to save with his brand of religion of love for all fellowmen while filling our stomachs with earthly things

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like a 7-course meal for 15 cents.

The Harlem of my youth spawned the great Adam Clayton Powell and the great strategist, J. Raymond Jones.

The Harlem of my youth was the place where Chick Webb introduced a young star by the name of Ella Fitzgerald to sing ballads for his band. It was the place where Lena Horne danced in the chorus at a nightclub called the Cotton Club, located at 142nd St. and Lenox Ave., in which Negroes were barred as patrons. 

Polishing of the apple musically was done by such giants as Louis Satchmo Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, Billy Daniels, Cozy Cole, James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, Buster Bailey, Coleman Hawkins, Clarence Williams, Don Redmond and Elmer Snowden.

Harlem also had Hulan Jack, the first Manhattan Borough President who started the city on a rebuilding program; George Gregory, the first Black captain for a Columbia University basketball team and the same George Gregory, who was to give years of service to the community as a Director of a neighborhood house, and leader of a Planning Board which wrote a scheme for the revitalization of Harlem, one aspect being the construction of the State Office Building.

Harlem had its "Sassasity Ball" known as the Urban League Guild Beuxails Ball, held at the Surrey Ballroom under the guidance of Mollie Moon and her cohorts, Helen Harden, Florence Dixon, Garnell Engram, etc.

Harlem had its Abram Hill, the playwright who wrote and produced Anna Lucasta — its Canada Lee and his native son; its Paul Robeson and its Dorothy Maynor, the soprano.

Harlem was the apple because it was the fulfillment of one's dreams. The saying in my youth was, "If you can make it in the apple, you can make it anywhere." And, this was why Seventh Ave. and 135th St. was such a cherished spot.

The Harlem of my youth was spent on strolling down treelined sidewalks of 7th Ave. from 125th St. to 145th St. It was stopping off at Spreens, 134th and 7th Ave. or at Snookers, as 137th and 7th

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Ave. for that ice cream soda. And if I was flush, it was taking my date to the Monteray Restaurant, in whose basement I could hear Putney Dandridge, the piano player — or making it to the Renny for those Fraternity Basketball games on Easter Sundays and later "stiffing" on a glass of beer uptown on Sugar Hill in the La Marcheri, 14th St. and St. Nicholas Ave.

The Harlem of my day was replete with house rent parties every Saturday night

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