Mary lists most of the guys who were in Choker's orchestra plus she says there were 45 people on the bus [[including roadies & assistants), with 3 cars & 2 station wagons making up the entire convoy. Cheap hotels, sleepless nights on the road, irregular & bad meals, tour romances, problems down south, segregated venues, etc. Bullets flew at the Birmingham show and other confrontations were a regular happening with rednecks tring to provoke fights. The Contours station wagon [[with Eddie McFarland & Beans Bowles in as well) was involved in a crash on the way to Miami [[Eddie was driving, fell asleep at the wheel & was killed in the accident. Beans was in a coma).
Smokey mentions that he had a fever whilst playing the Howard in DC [[at the end of October). He struggled on for a couple of days whilst making daily visits to the local hospital. When the tour moved on, Smokey was left behind and so headed back to Detroit to recuperate. Claudette had to stay as Pete was in the army & there had to be at least 3 ‘Miracles’ up on the stage each night. Smokey would call her on a regular basis but it was Berry who told him that when Claudette was singing lead [[in his place), the crowd were cheering her on thinking she was ‘Smokey’. On November 11th, Smokey got a call from Mary Wells who was sharing a room with Claudette. Mary told him that Claudette was pregnant & couldn’t cope with the strains of touring. But Claudette was determined to see the tour out and she lasted right up through the week long Apollo gig in mid December.
Sounds like a film should be made, based around the 1962 tour & all the things that befell it !!!