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Apollo Theatre Or Theater


Guest MBarrett

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Guest MBarrett

This just struck me as odd.

 

Watching an old clip of Martha & the Vandellas at the Apollo the cloths on the musicians desks say Theatre. That caught my eye as I thought the spelling in the US was "er"

 

As per recent images from the web.

 

Can anyone from "over here" or "over there" throw any light . . . . . . . .

 

post-6836-0-12229900-1391897612_thumb.jp

 

mission-graphic.jpg

Edited by MBarrett
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It should be "Theater", as that is common usage in USA.  BUT, "Theatre" is used often when a "classy" or dignified image is desired.  British spellings are the cliché for old fashioned and "high class" or long-standing (a la "Ye Olde Tavern" -Ancient spelling-(adding  letter "e" to the end of the word, using obsolete letters (like the thorn), etc.).  I would guess that the spelling "theatre" may comprise between 10 and 15% of theatre names in USA.  But it is only used in proper nouns.  The common noun should always be spelt: "theater" in US English.

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Guest MBarrett

Thanks Robb

 

So it sounds like in the earlier days of the Apollo they used the UK spelling to give it a certain kudos.

 

Then in more recent years they have decided to revert back to the more correct US spelling.

 

Cheers

 

MB

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Guest MBarrett

It wasn't the reason for this thread - but has anyone on here ever been to a gig at the Apollo?

 

I love the old stories when the shows used to run continuously so that artists would do about seven performances a day.

 

I was only in New York once and the Apollo was high on the agenda so I took a trip up there to take a look - but just from the outside.

 

Anyone on here been inside? Or even performed there? There might just be! :wink::thumbup::D

 

MB

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I went passed it on a tourist bus...but didn't have time to 'deck'off.

a friend of mine did the theatre tour...and stood on the hallowed stage....I think he 'performed' a Jackie Wilson song!

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Guest MBarrett

 

a friend of mine did the theatre tour...and stood on the hallowed stage....I think he 'performed' a Jackie Wilson song!

 

Nice one - I didn't realise they did tours. Damn!!

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Guest MBarrett

I just love the old footage of the Motortown Revue at the Apollo. I try not to watch it too often in case I get fed up with it. But hasn't happened yet. :D

 

What is it about girls dancing in high heels . . . . . . :wub:

 

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There's a spelling of spelled you don't see very often these days. It's almost archaic, in fact. You got Scottish or Northern English ancestry?

No.  I'm half Dutch and half Canadian: Dutch and Flemish on my father's side and Dutch and Lithuanian on my mother's.  I learned  (or had learnt :lol: ) that "spelt" is the past participle of "to learn" in school in Midwestern Canada in 1949.  That was proper Canadian English at the time.  If I remember correctly, after The French and Indian War, when Britain took over French Canada, Upper Canada (Ontario) was first settled heavily by Scots from Nova Scotia, and a reasonably high percent of the new British settlers came from Scotland and Northern Ireland (Scots-Irish).  That is why Canadians have a heavy Scots influence on their speech, and, apparently, on their spelling conventions, as well.  Canadian spelling is NOT the same as official UK spelling, nor is it similar to conventional US.  It's something between, but closer to British than to US.  But, increasingly, people in B.C. Alberta and Saskatchewan are starting to speak and write like Americans.  

 

The English taught in Holland still has that usage, as far as I know.  I know that The World has passed me by, and people speak differently now.  I guess that my writing now is old fashioned.  I am a writer by trade, and my Dutch, Danish and Swedish  editors ALL massage my Dutch and English submittals into "contemporary speech" for my comic book and children's book stories, and I dare say, probably will also do that to my adult-level science fiction/comedy books.

 

I had thought that "learnt", "spelt", "spilt" and "whilst" were all still commonly used in The UK.  Am I incorrect on that count?  I do know now, thanks to posters on this forum, that "Gotten" is now archaic in Britain, and they now use "got" for the past participle of "to get".  It seems that gotten is dying out in USA, too (as, apparently, are most, if not all of the past participles that are spelt differently from the simple  past tense.  As far as I know it's still proper in Canadian English (at least among my family and friends (but I don't speak with many kids)).  I do run with a young artist crowd in The Netherlands, and do notice that Dutch language conventions are changing as well.  But I'm not going to change the way I've spoken  (should that now be spelt: "spoke"? :rofl: ) for almost 70 years, just to "fit in" (I've never been one of the crowd-as you might surmise).

 

I'm sure that you've noticed that my writing is quite old fashioned.  There was a Western story, titled "Yesterday Ranch", about a rich man who lived on a ranch in the wilds of the Colorado mountains during the 1930s, who wanted his "World" to remain in the 1880s.  So, he didn't allow telephones, automobiles, or anything that was made after 1889 to be used by anyone on his ranch, or to be brought onto his property.  He lived in the World of the late 1800s.  I am like that about the 1960s, although my language probably reflects more the 1940s.  My musical taste the 1930s through 1966 or so.  I enjoy films from the 1920s through early 1950s best (US films -late 1920s to late '40s, British films 1930s-through 1950s, German films 1920s-'30s).   I like art work mainly before 1960.  I read, for the most part, old books from the 1800s when I was young (Dickens, Wells, Verne, Hugo, etc. and a British World History many volume set from the 1880s).  I also read comic books from the 1940s an '50s, but my favourite authors of those stories were men who were born in the late 1800s on rural farms, and used old-fashioned language and stressed old-fashioned values.  My car has a standard shift.  I use hand turned pencil sharpeners, and still drink tapwater, and don't eat packaged food.  I didn't get a personal computer until 2003, and then, only reluctantly, and the same for a mobile phone (only got my first one year ago) and then, only reluctantly, at a request (nee DEMAND) from my family and my business clients.

 

Ask Rod ("Modern Soul Sucks") if I'm a weird bloke. :lol:

Edited by RobbK
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No.  I'm half Dutch and half Canadian: Dutch and Flemish on my father's side and Dutch and Lithuanian on my mother's.  I learned  (or had learnt :lol: ) that "spelt" is the past participle of "to learn" in school in Midwestern Canada in 1949.  That was proper Canadian English at the time.  If I remember correctly, after The French and Indian War, when Britain took over French Canada, Upper Canada (Ontario) was first settled heavily by Scots from Nova Scotia, and a reasonably high percent of the new British settlers came from Scotland and Northern Ireland (Scots-Irish).  That is why Canadians have a heavy Scots influence on their speech, and, apparently, on their spelling conventions, as well.  Canadian spelling is NOT the same as official UK spelling, nor is it similar to conventional US.  It's something between, but closer to British than to US.  But, increasingly, people in B.C. Alberta and Saskatchewan are starting to speak and write like Americans.  

 

The English taught in Holland still has that usage, as far as I know.  I know that The World has passed me by, and people speak differently now.  I guess that my writing now is old fashioned.  I am a writer by trade, and my Dutch, Danish and Swedish  editors ALL massage my Dutch and English submittals into "contemporary speech" for my comic book and children's book stories, and I dare say, probably will also do that to my adult-level science fiction/comedy books.

 

I had thought that "learnt", "spelt", "spilt" and "whilst" were all still commonly used in The UK.  Am I incorrect on that count?  I do know now, thanks to posters on this forum, that "Gotten" is now archaic in Britain, and they now use "got" for the past participle of "to get".  It seems that gotten is dying out in USA, too (as, apparently, are most, if not all of the past participles that are spelt differently from the simple  past tense.  As far as I know it's still proper in Canadian English (at least among my family and friends (but I don't speak with many kids)).  I do run with a young artist crowd in The Netherlands, and do notice that Dutch language conventions are changing as well.  But I'm not going to change the way I've spoken  (should that now be spelt: "spoke"? :rofl: ) for almost 70 years, just to "fit in" (I've never been one of the crowd-as you might surmise).

 

I'm sure that you've noticed that my writing is quite old fashioned.  There was a Western story, titled "Yesterday Ranch", about a rich man who lived on a ranch in the wilds of the Colorado mountains during the 1930s, who wanted his "World" to remain in the 1880s.  So, he didn't allow telephones, automobiles, or anything that was made after 1889 to be used by anyone on his ranch, or to be brought onto his property.  He lived in the World of the late 1800s.  I am like that about the 1960s, although my language probably reflects more the 1940s.  My musical taste the 1930s through 1966 or so.  I enjoy films from the 1920s through early 1950s best (US films -late 1920s to late '40s, British films 1930s-through 1950s, German films 1920s-'30s).   I like art work mainly before 1960.  I read, for the most part, old books from the 1800s when I was young (Dickens, Wells, Verne, Hugo, etc. and a British World History many volume set from the 1880s).  I also read comic books from the 1940s an '50s, but my favourite authors of those stories were men who were born in the late 1800s on rural farms, and used old-fashioned language and stressed old-fashioned values.  My car has a standard shift.  I use hand turned pencil sharpeners, and still drink tapwater, and don't eat packaged food.  I didn't get a personal computer until 2003, and then, only reluctantly, and the same for a mobile phone (only got my first one year ago) and then, only reluctantly, at a request (nee DEMAND) from my family and my business clients.

 

Ask Rod ("Modern Soul Sucks") if I'm a weird bloke. :lol:

 

It survives in the expression 'ill gotten gains', something that describes perfectly the European polítical class of today. ;-)

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No.  I'm half Dutch and half Canadian...

 

Ask Rod ("Modern Soul Sucks") if I'm a weird bloke. :lol:

 

Thank you for the extended reply, Robb. I appreciate that as a writer words flow easily for you. I, as a magazine editor, often favour brevity.  :D

 

 

 

I had thought that "learnt", "spelt", "spilt" and "whilst" were all still commonly used in The UK.  Am I incorrect on that count?

 

I think they're still in relatively common usage, mainly among older people, and in those parts of the UK that are not London and the south. I spent the first half of my childhood in Scotland before moving to Kent in the south east of England. After a while in the Garden of England I began to realise that my use of all four of the words you highlight was pretty unique. 

 

In speech and in writing I still favour them. Curiously, the Dutch — who often think they know more about the English language than native speakers (and sometimes they do) — tend to pick me up on my supposed erroneous use of these words in texts.

 

Naturally, I try to explain how certain words are spelt, but they, being Dutch, still assume that they are correct.  :dash2:  :lol:

 

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Guest MBarrett

 

I'm jealous :D

 

I like the name artists but I've always liked the idea that they had these amateur nights - going right back to the early days I think.

 

I bet they get some talented people at those nights.

 

MB

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I'm jealous :D

I like the name artists but I've always liked the idea that they had these amateur nights - going right back to the early days I think.

I bet they get some talented people at those nights.

MB

In truth mate I wish I could remember more of the names, especilly the young dude in white, as for all we know he's a household name now.

I recall that the tall flautist was Kitchener Henderson and the lady in the yellow/gold dress was something like Cheryl Barrells or such like.

If that makes you jealous I won't tell you about seeing Kid Dynamite & The Chi-Town Hustlers at Kingston Mines in Chicago, or Tower Of Power at House of Blues Chicago or my tour of Chess Studios on the Southside........then of course thre's Grover Washington Jr, Joe Sample, Lee Ritenour et al at the Hollywood Bowl......joined on stage at one point by Randy Crawford singing "One Day I'll Fly Away."

I've done a bit......but kids put paid to holidays like that......for now! ;-)

Cheers,

Mark R

Edited by Mark R
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Guest MBarrett

What is meant by "SNAP"?    Is that an acronym?

 

Robb

 

Just means "the same" or "ditto".

 

Comes from a kids' card game where you lay down cards and if they match you shout SNAP.

 

MB

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Guest MBarrett

That's not at all how I read/interpret it.

 

Russell said that he favours brevity. I thought Bob was just saying "ditto" I favour brevity too.

 

Apologies if I misinterpreted it.

 

Where's Bob? He'll tell us what he meant!! :D

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