by Fern Gillespie

The Apollo Theatre is entrenched in Black music culture and Brooklyn resident Billy Mitchell has witnessed that superstar history during the last 60 years. He’s called “Mr. Apollo.” A charming storyteller, his impact has earned him the official title of Apollo’s Director of Tours, In House Historian and Apollo Ambassador.

These roles have taken him to be featured on the 2021 Grammy Awards announcing the Best Rap Award to Beyonce and Meghan Thee Stallion, hosting the Apollo Sirius Radio Show and even personally escorting First Lady Michelle Obama on a private tour of the Apollo.

Although he’s been surrounded by the showbiz glitter, Mitchell never forgets his difficult childhood growing up in Mount Vernon. “My parents had 14 children. When we lived in Mount Vernon, we were the poorest family,” he said. “I remember in Mount Vernon, people used to point at me and my family when we walked down the street.” At one point the family was homeless and he spent time in foster care. His mother moved some of the children, including Mitchell to the Bronx.

In 1965 at age 15, his life changed. “My mother needed money for food so she sent to Harlem to get money from her cousin. My mother’s cousin lived on 126th Street right near the back of where the Apollo Theater was located. While waiting for her I got dizzy. I thought I was going to faint because I had nothing in my stomach from that morning.

The door opened an old White man asks do you want to make some money?,” he recalled. “I started backing up because I didn’t know what this guy had on his mind. I thought I had run into a weirdo. He said “I’m not going to bother you, my name is Frank Schiffman and I own this theater. It’s called the Apollo.“

Mitchell recalled being overwhelmed with excitement. He knew about the Apollo Theater. His father mother aunts and uncles all used to talk about the Apollo Theater. Schiffman told him details about running errands for the people in the theater.
“I decided that while I was waiting for my mom’s cousin, I’d make some extra coins,” he said. The man that needed help backstage was Berry Gordy. His Motown Review was its national tour.

That day Mitchell ran errands for the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, the Miracles, Marvin, Gaye, Martha, Reeves and the Vandellas and Little Stevie Wonder. He begin working weekends and after school running errands for the music superstars that was gracing the stage at the Apollo from Moms Mabley to Flip Wilson to Gladys Knight.

“I did that for a few years. I was helping my mother pay the rent and buy food,” he said. “James Brown and Marvin Gaye would always give me great tips. They would always sit me down and talk about the value of education. They told me if I were to get a good education, when I got older the education would put me in the position to possibly get a good job, and I would never have to live the life that me and my family was living when I was young. I wanted it so bad. I hated being poor.”

“One day, Mr. Brown had me leave the theater and go back to The Bronx and get my report card and come back to the Apollo and show it to him. When he noticed that I had failed. I told him it was because kids were bothering me because I was poor. He said That’s no excuse. Get your grades up. or don’t come back anymore.”

Perseverance prevailed for him. When he graduated from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx, Mitchell was on the honor roll. Both Marvin Gaye and James Brown gave him money to go to school. Mitchell used that money to study business at the New York Institute of Credit. He became a credit analyst and collection manager. He worked on Wall Street, in banks and for manufacturers in the fashion industry.

In 1982, Inner City Broadcasting Corp, the home of WBLS and WLIB, purchased the Apollo Theatre under the direction of chairman Percy Sutton. In 1984, Mitchell returned to the Apollo to work part time as an usher at the theater. “Mr. Sutton liked the way that I handled myself and the way that I spoke,” he recalled. “Mr. Sutton said because of my financial background, he offered me a job managing the Apollo Store.”

The Apollo ownership changed hands and the Apollo became a nonprofit in 1991. Mitchell became an independent producer, doing special events at the theater. By 1992 he returned to the Apollo full-time to do group sales for Amateur Night.
“I always want to remind people that the reason why we were there because it was Percy Sutton’s idea. Percy Sutton, Hal Jackson and The Apollo Theater Business Group they all put their money together and an opened up the theater. Had it not been for Percy Sutton and his vision we would not be there right now. “

During the Obama Presidency, the First Lady had heard about Mitchell’s marvelous tours. “Michelle Obama was coming New York with her mother, her daughters and some friends. She wanted to do a tour of the Apollo with this man called Mr. Apollo. That day, the Secret Service were all over the place.

They made everybody stay in their Apollo offices, including the president of the Apollo. The only one allowed to be around Mrs. Obama was myself giving the tour,” he said. “So, I’m talking to her, and we’re dancing on the stage doing Temptations moves. Her daughters Malia and Sasha were their dance.

They could dance and were killing it. After the tour, Mrs. Obama had said something to me that people had said for a long time. I just thought they were being kind. But she said. “People know you, but do they know that you were in foster care, homeless? You need to write your book you need to write your autobiography so people would know more about you.”

Michelle Obama became the inspiration for his autobiography They Call Me Mr. Apollo: My Journey from Running Errands for the Stars to Help Run One of the Most Famous Theaters in the World. Mitchell’s career also spans acting with National Black Theatre and the Frank Silvera Writer’s Workshop. He even had a speaking role in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X starring Mitchell’s childhood friend Denzel Washington, who were friends since being 10 year-olds in Mount Vernon.
Since 1980, he’s lived in Brooklyn. For many years in East New York and for the last 17 years in Canarsie. He’s been married 40 years to his wife Barbara, who grew up in Brownsville.

Billy Mitchell is an important part of the Apollo legacy. He was mentored by Apollo legends Ralph Cooper, James Brown and Howard “Sandman” Sims. All had their funerals on the Apollo stage and Mitchell was a pallbearer. “My wife has been instructed that I want my funeral at the Apollo,” he said. “Because I want my spirit to stay in that building.”