Re: Supremes with ANOTHER unknown man... well, well. No end to the gossip!
http://cgi.ebay.com/DIANA-ROSS-SUPRE...item4aa6b07c6d
[[this is one of the few fabulous color pics that Dutch photographer Paul Huf shot of the girls in early 1965. Unfortunately Motown never used the best pics from the series in one of their recent Supremes projects, until now. The material is heavily copywrited, I think.)
It's
Pete Felleman alright, he was my boss at Tamla-Motown's [[EMI-)office between 1970-1976. I have mentioned his name many times, but not many posters have seemed to notice, until now [[thanks, John).
I met Pete briefly in 1968 when I was working as an administrative clerk at CBS/Artone, the company that distributed Tamla-Motown then [[in the city of Haarlem, Holland). Pete was labelmanager for Motown. 1968 was also the year of the Supremes' televised concert at the Amsterdam RAI Hall, which was released on dvd a few years ago [[and not at the Concertgebouw, as the dvd mentiones). If you listen carefully, you can hear Diana address You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You to Pete, who of course sat front row, with his wife [["Pete, I love, I love, I love you...").
Pete started to work for Motown in - I believe - 1964 at CBS/Artone's [[in 1969 Motown would move to EMI). He heavily promoted the Supremes' records in Holland and all over Europe, as early as A Breattaking Guy in '63/'64. He made sur most of their 45's had full color sleeves over the years, which was exceptional in those days. Their Someday We'll Be Together was one of the first
stereo 45 that EMI marketed in Europe.
More facts.
He had them fly over in October 1964 from London [[just for 24 hours) for their very first continental visit, which resulted in the few songs that were lip synched in an empty Theatre Carré. That recording also can be found on the aforementioned dvd as bonus tracks. In early 1965 the girls appeared on the prestigeous Grand Gala Du Disque Gala, in their famous pink silk dresses with feather seams and feather stoles, singing their new hit I Hear A Symphony, a.o.
When I approached Pete again in early 1970 for an interview for the magazine A Sound Supreme of the Dutch Tamla-Motown Appreciation Society, I was almost immediately hired to be his right hand [[man, was I lucky...).
I worked for him until I was promoted to the international division of EMI in 1975, but kept on advizing him on all kind of matters. I quit EMI in 1977, to pick up university studies.
If I could write a book about this flamboyant man, I would. He was befriended with Mary. He called Diana "a tomboy". He admired Flo for her impeccable high notes.
Bookmarks