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Howard Theatre’s rich history Going to the storied music venue in the District’s Shaw neighborhood was a part of growing up for generations of Washingtonians.
Built in 1910, the Howard Theatre was the first legitimate theater in the country open to African Americans, helping to make Washington the early cultural capital of black America as countless acts took the stage. It closed in 1970, a victim of desegregation, competition from larger venues and the 1968 riots. A 1975 reopening lasted only two weeks. Occasional shows followed, but it wasn’t the same. The theater was a go-go palace when it finally closed in the early ’80s. Now the Howard Theatre is set to reopen this week.
Joseph Victor Stefanchik
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For The Washington Post
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The theater, at 620 T St. NW, circa 1910-19. Inset: manager Andrew J. Thomas.
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
The theater’s interior circa 1915.
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Over 60 years, virtually every top African American entertainer performed on its stage, including Cab Calloway, shown here circa 1938.
Michael Ochs Archives
Duke Ellington and his band play at the Howard in the early 1940s. Ellington often won the theater’s band contests with his first quintet, the Duke’s Serenaders. Shirley Horn said a show she saw there made her switch from classical piano to jazz. Pearl Bailey danced in the chorus line while taking voice lessons. Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun said he got his doctorate in black music there.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Count Basie, Ray Bauduc, Herschel Evans and Bob Haggart perform at the Howard circa 1941.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Gloria Thomas Gantt, 85, was a cashier at the Howard from 1959 to 1970. She became a manager for shows in the late ’70s. “The Temptations had people all up and down the aisle,” she says. “At that time, they were Number One. They were the star of the show. The women used to go crazy. Throw up their bras and underwear and everything onstage. Then they would write down their phone numbers.”
Joseph Victor Stefanchik
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For The Washington Post
The King Cole Trio, from left, Wesley Prince, Oscar Moore, and Nat Cole, circa 1943.
Anonymous
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AP
Louis Armstrong circa 1947. The artist played at the Howard in the 1930s.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Billie Holiday circa 1947. She played the theater in the ’40s.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Ella Fitzgerald circa 1947, with Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt (Milton) Jackson and Timmie Rosenkrantz. Fitzgerald appeared at the Howard in the 1930s. In 1931, the Howard was sold; Duke Ellington headlined the reopening show.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Thelonious Monk circa 1947. Singer Jimi Smooth, who was an usher at the Howard Theatre in the early ’60s, says he didn’t know he was “looking at the greatest entertainers in the world in history. I didn’t know this when I saw these guys like Ahmad Jamal, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey. It wasn’t my thing. I wanted to see rock-and-roll. I didn’t know I was looking at genius and the greats until later on.”
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
John Coltrane in an undated photo. Jazz organist Jackie Hairston says he always “tried to go to see all the jazz shows — all the jazz greats, you know: Miles Davis, Jimmy Smith, John Coltrane, Ray Charles. Right next door to the Howard Theatre, there was this little place, Cecilia’s, where all the musicians would hang out after the shows.”
Anonymous
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AP
Billy Eckstine circa 1946-48. After Eckstine won several amateur night contests at the Howard, theater manager Shep Allen told the teenager he was a professional, lent him a tuxedo and booked him to do a show.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
Billy Taylor circa 1947. One of theater’s ragtime musicians taught Taylor to play piano.
William P. Gottlieb Collection
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Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division
An undated photo of singer Dinah Washington, who performed at the Howard in the 1950s.
JAMES HEGSMANN
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AP
Miles Davis in 1959. Singer Jimi Smooth recalls seeing Davis at the Howard: “Miles would turn his back to the audience and play the trumpet to the floor. I thought that was rude. But that was him. That was him. That was his style. He did that everywhere.”
Don Hunstein
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AP
The 4 Jewels (now the Jewels) at the Howard Theatre circa 1963. From left: Martha Harvin, Sandra (Peoples) Bears, Grace Ruffin and Marjorie Clarke.
Courtesy of the Jewels
“To make it to the Howard Theatre was the ultimate dream come true,” says Jewels member Sandra Bears, now 68. “If you were hot and on your way and in D.C., you’d be performing at the Howard. We were nervous and excited and scared all at the same time. ... A lot of our friends from school were in the audience. They could see in our faces, ‘The Howard Theatre! Can you believe it?!’ It was the best.”
Joseph Victor Stefanchik
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For The Washington Post
Jazz organist Jackie Hairston, 73, moved to Washington in 1961 to perform in local nightclubs. During the day, he’d go to the Howard Theatre. He left to go on tour with Otis Redding in 1964. He recalls meeting his idol Jimmy Smith. “I was just awestruck, you know. He sat down and started playing, and I asked him, I said, ’How did you do that?’ ‘How did you do that?’ ’How did you go about doing this?’ ’Why is this?’ ’And why is that?’ I asked so many questions. And he took the time to teach me. Oh, God, it was just unbelievable.”
Joseph Victor Stefanchik
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For The Washington Post
The Howard Theater in 1969, shortly before closing.
Matthew Lewis
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The Washington Post
A street car in front of the Howard Theatre circa 1955-62. After it closed, “it hurt to drive by and see that place closed and dilapidated,” says Robert “Mousey” Thompson, 55, who was James Brown’s drummer from 1993 to 2006. He saw his first show at the Howard Theatre around age 5. “... Quite a few people teared up knowing that [it’s] going to be open again, because black people had nothing. The Howard Theatre gave us someplace to go. It was ours.”
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Harold Mann, 80, was the drummer in the Howard Theatre orchestra from 1957 to 1962. He remembers taking his grandfather to a show starring female impersonators. “He said, ‘Harold, those are some of the best-looking women I’ve ever seen.’ But he knew they were men,” Mann says.
Joseph Victor Stefanchik
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For The Washington Post
Sam Cooke in an undated photo. The singer performed at the Howard in the 1960s.
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AP
Singer Nancy Wilson, center, signs autographs for fans in Los Angeles in 1967. She sang at the Howard in the ‘60s.
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AP
Otis Redding in an undated photo. Singer David Akers, 56, whose father was the doorman at the Howard Theatre from about 1924 to 1970, can still recall Redding’s performance of “Try a Little Tenderness” at one Howard show. “So powerful. God, I can just feel it. It’s like going to church, you know. I knew he was probably going to do the song. But I didn’t know it was going to take my insides and put it outside, expose my whole being right there. At the end of the song, you’re shaking and screaming.”
Anonymous
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AP
Little Richard in 1966. He played Howard shows in the ’50s.
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AP
The Temptations in 1966. Clockwise from bottom left: David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Otis Williams. When Ruffin would sing “My Girl,” former cashier and manager Gloria Thomas Gantt recalls, he “would come down into the audience. ... If you were sitting there, he would sing to you. He would take the [phone] numbers and put them in his pocket and just keep right on singing. He never missed a beat.”
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AP
The Supremes — Diana Ross, front, Cindy Birdsong and Mary Wilson — at a show in Germany in 1968. Singer David Akers remembers singing for Ross as a child. “It felt incredible,” he says. “I thought I was going to be a superstar.”
FRINGS
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AP
An undated photo of James Brown, right, with Bobby Bennett, center. Robert “Mousey” Thompson, 55, was Brown’s drummer from 1993 to 2006 and remembers seeing Brown at the Howard. “I watched James Brown hit that stage, and I couldn’t believe it,” Thompson says. “I was like, ‘This is what I want to do’ — the Howard Theatre and James Brown kicking something in my spirit to do what I do today.”
United Press International
A 1970 photo of guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who performed at the Howard in the 1960s.
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AP
A 1972 photo of Tina Turner, who played at the Howard in the 1960s.
Gerald Martineau
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THE WASHINGTON POST
An undated photo of the Delfonics. Warren Shadd, owner of Shadd Pianos, remembers seeing the group at the theater. “When the Delfonics came to the Howard Theatre, they were a big act. They were the new, hot R&B soul band. I was standing at the stage door on the side of the theater. They came in their old Ford station wagon with the wood panels on the side.”
Courtesy of Philly Groove Records
Soul singer Aretha Franklin in 1975. Gloria Thomas Gantt remembers seeing Franklin at the Howard: “She was the star of the show. When they asked her would she sing another number, she’d go, ‘Uh-uh.’ And walk off.”
Anonymous
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AP
Chuck Berry performs his signature ”duck walk” in 1980. Harold Winley, 78, the only surviving original member of the Clovers, who launched their career at the Howard in 1952, remembers wondering if Berry would be accepted during his show at the Howard, ”because his music was more white than it was black. He really tore the place up. When he went into that duck walk, that sealed it.”
Anonymous
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AP
The District’s own Marvin Gaye in New York in 1983. In October 1962, he sang his debut hit, “Stubborn Kind of Fellow,” at the Howard Theatre with the first Motown tour. The audience went wild over its hometown son. His mother, who was in the audience, poked everyone around her and told them, “That’s my boy!”
Nancy Kaye
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AP
Ray Charles in New York in 1983. Gloria Thomas Gantt says: “He gave you your money’s worth. When the people wanted him to sing more, he would say, ‘Mr. Allen, [the theater’s manager] are you paying any more money?’ Mr. Allen would be standing in the back, and he would laugh. He’d say, ‘Oh, well. Okay. I’ll do it.’ ”
RENE PEREZ
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AP
Chuck Brown in 2010. The Godfather of Go-Go played at the Howard in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Astrid Riecken
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For The Washington Post
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Section:/lifestyle/magazine
![A street car in front of the Howard Theatre circa 1955-62. After it closed, “it hurt to drive by and see that place closed and dilapidated,” says Robert “Mousey” Thompson, 55, who was James Brown’s drummer from 1993 to 2006. He saw his first show at the Howard Theatre around age 5. “... Quite a few people teared up knowing that [it’s] going to be open again, because black people had nothing. The Howard Theatre gave us someplace to go. It was ours.”](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/03/19/Magazine/Images/JS 468.jpg)
![The Temptations in 1966. Clockwise from bottom left: David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams, Otis Williams. When Ruffin would sing “My Girl,” former cashier and manager Gloria Thomas Gantt recalls, he “would come down into the audience. ... If you were sitting there, he would sing to you. He would take the [phone] numbers and put them in his pocket and just keep right on singing. He never missed a beat.”](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/10/20/Magazine/Images/originaltemptations.jpg)
![Ray Charles in New York in 1983. Gloria Thomas Gantt says: “He gave you your money’s worth. When the people wanted him to sing more, he would say, ‘Mr. Allen, [the theater’s manager] are you paying any more money?’ Mr. Allen would be standing in the back, and he would laugh. He’d say, ‘Oh, well. Okay. I’ll do it.’ ”](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/03/14/Magazine/Images/AP830704027_1331693040.jpg)
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