Quote Originally Posted by bradsupremes View Post
A few corrections...

2.) Yes, she was tardy but it never showed in her work. For all the talk that she was late to things, she never missed her mark. Diana even said that Mary kept her on her toes. She may have been late, but she was no slouch. The woman was on her game.

4.) Not sure what Deke was remembering, but the Farewell album we hear is the last show. It wasn't the highly edited show with pieces and parts from other nights he has said it was. There were edits to the Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In medley because some celebrities didn't want to be featured on the album and maybe that's what he remembered in terms of the amount of hours and work of editing but the things we hear on the album are from the last night and the things we hear Mary saying are what was there that night. The ladies clearly had champagne before the show and were just letting things flow, but nothing comes close to being out of line, unprofessional or inexcusable.
but the topic of conversation is not if mary was good at her job or not it is why Motown did not like her. And the unprofessionalism of keeping people waiting and waiting and waiting is enough to piss people off. And that’s in any profession, and it doesn’t matter how good someone is. Read about the making of the Judy Garland show. Are anybody that worked with her the ladder years especially. People do not like waiting and it makes them not like someone they might otherwise like.. There’s no excuse for this. It’s just simply a fact.

I don’t know why would make up such a total, a lengthy lie about the farewell show. But he told her to more people than just me. What is your source that unequivocably that the released farewell album was only from the last show? I think I’m going to need at least some convincing because Deek didn’t just mention this, we had a pretty lengthy conversation about it because of course it was great dirt and I was asking a lot of questions. For a guy who is making up the story he sure had a lot of answers ready. And if you look at the picture of them in the booth after the show on January 14, Mary is raising her glass and diana is directing her glass away from her as if she might be afraid it might spill on her. That’s how it looks to me . Or at least looks like it could be that. And I’ve said this before but, I don’t know one person, who either personally heard, or knows anyone who heard mary ever express happiness for any of diana ross’s solo successes. I think Mary‘s feelings got the best of her that night.


but I think all of this discussion might also be backwards. I think the question should be, “why would Motown like mary wilson?”

if by the word like we are meaning, appreciating and nurturing and marketing the talent of mary wilson…

Some folks act as if Motown somehow owed Mary or anyone at Motown something. record, Companies are notoriously callous. They are not living things. They don’t have hearts or feelings or consciousness or anything. They have a balance sheet. Motown was a business, and they didn’t see a good investment in her. It was nothing personal, like any business they would invest in what they thought they could make a nickel on. on top of that, there may have been personal feelings, one way or another at the upper echelon, actually believe there was that. But, either way, they would’ve exploited her if they felt it was worth their while. I think that, we as supreme fans, naturally want to see the people that have brought us so much pleasure do well, and it might cloud our judgment as far as the commercial viability of a certain act or a certain record.

when I read threads about the viability of red hot, for example, it makes me wonder what’s going on at the Tommy Boyce and Bobby hart page, Terry jacks page, etc., There’s usually a good reason why a record doesn’t hit and I don’t believe it’s because of promotion for the most part. And that includes 99% of diana ross’s failures as well. don’t leave me this way as a great example of that. I don’t know how much promotion it got or didn’t get, but it limped up the chart so slowly, it would’ve lost the race to the tortoise and the hare. it is a prime example of a great record growing naturally.