[3] From the 1950s to the year 2000, Sims was a regular attraction—a "fixture"[4][5]—at Harlem's noted Apollo Theater, comedically ushering failed acts offstage[6] with a hook, broom or other prop.

In her review of the play based on his life, New York Times critic Anna Kisselgoff wrote, "Sims is a virtuoso among virtuosos—in a class by himself.

To say Mr. Sims dances on sand is like saying Philippe Petit [the French high wire who gained fame from his illegal walk between the two World Trade Center towers in 1974] is a tightrope walker.

[4][14] After arriving in Harlem, Sims began performing on the street as he had done in California, but faced stiff competition from other innovative dancers: "I knew people who danced on dinner plates.

"[10] He performed on corners in between working whatever jobs he could find,[10] and then discovered the "Amateur Night" stage on Wednesdays at the Apollo Theater, where he soon gained local notoriety.

He eventually won the Amateur Night competition a record-breaking 25 times, after which a rule was instituted that performers could no longer compete once they had earned four first prizes.

[19]By the mid-1950s, he had been hired as the Apollo's stage manager, and soon began his role as the Apollo's famed "executioner",[1][18] chasing Amateur Night contestants the crowd disapproved of off the stage[2][20] with a shepherd's crook[21][22] (known since vaudeville times as "the hook")[23][24] a broom,[4][21] or other props,[18][25][26] while dressed in a variety of wacky costumes, whether long underwear, a clown suit, or even a diaper.

[14][18] Sims played "executioner" until 1989, when he departed to California to film "Tap" (he was replaced by James Brown impersonator C. P. Lacey),[27] although one obituary says he stayed on until shortly after Time Warner took over the Apollo[28] in 1999.

A significant change to Sims's dancing style came about as a result of his interaction with Harlem's hoofers, practitioners of a variation on the tap he had learned on the west coast.

[13][30] As a result of the synergy between hoofing technique and his unique use of a sandbox, his routines were described as being "as rich in sounds and textures as they were in steps.

"[1] Constance Valis Hill, in her 2009 survey Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History, described the hoofers' mecca thusly: At the Hoofers Club, rookie and veteran, mostly [B]lack male tap dancers assembled to share with, steal from, and challenge each other; there, new standards were set for competition.

These were nothing like the formalized buck-dancing competitions of Tammany Hall, where judges sat beside, before, and beneath the stage to evaluate the [dancers'] clarity, speed, and presentation.

The Hoofers Club comprised a more informal panel of peers, whose judgments could be cruel and mocking and were driven by an insistence on innovation.

[30] The late 1960s brought the beginning of a wave of nostalgia for tap, and Sims found his dance skills in demand again.

[12][28] In 1980, a far cry from the tiny venues he had been lucky to play just a few years earlier, Sims performed before a crowd of 2,600 fans at the Lincoln Center during the Newport Jazz Festival.

[39] Later that year, Sims was one of the instructor-performers of the By Word of Foot "teach-in" series, spending a week demonstrating his hoofing techniques for a new generation of tap enthusiasts.

[16] By 1982, Sims was part of a promotional tour reviving interest in No Maps on My Taps with co-stars Bunny Briggs and Chuck Green, their pre-screening performances backed by Cab Calloway.

[41] Even as booked performances were coming more regularly, Sims never stopped participating in street-corner challenges, encouraging younger generations of dancers and inviting them to learn his moves.

"[3] That same year, clogger Ira Bernstein received an NEA Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant "[t]o study traditional [B]lack tap dance with master dancer Howard 'Sandman' Sims.

[31] He also made a brief appearance in a play based on his life, The Sand Dancer,[14] which was written by poet Sandra Hochman and starred LeLand Gantt, and which received another rave review:[30] "Sims is a virtuoso among virtuosos—in a class by himself.

"[8] And he traveled to Los Angeles to perform in a production called Essence of Rhythm with fellow tap stars including Charles "Honi" Coles and Jimmy Slyde.

[7] A particularly busy year, 1988 saw Sims tour the world as a cultural ambassador on behalf of the U.S. State Department, traveling to over 50 countries in a span of 11 months.

"[13] Tap dancing's popularity was nearing a new peak as well, with three major American cities (Houston, Texas; Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.) hosting tap-dance festivals.

[13] In movie theaters, the dance drama Tap was introducing Sims's footwork (and that of his former student Gregory Hines) to audiences who had never had the opportunity to see him perform before.

[45] "Mr. Sims" was the dance instructor the Huxtables signed their young daughter Rudy up with in order to help her prepare for a class assignment about the Harlem Renaissance.