Christine Schumaker feature from 1966

[booty]

http://www.mcrfb.com/?p=48489

[theboyfromxtown]

Good find! I'd not seen a picture of her before.

[marybrewster]

This is great; thank you for sharing!

[brothadc]

Yikes!! She looks as bad as she sounded! I would hate to think what the ones who lost the contest sounded like!

[144man]

Yikes!! She looks as bad as she sounded! I would hate to think what the ones who lost the contest sounded like!

She may have attracted extra votes because she was blind.

[Philles/Motown Gary]

Great article, booty! What a thrill that must have been to be on a Motown record at the height of The Supremes' popularity! Cool stuff. Thanks!

[nathanj06]

Yikes!! She looks as bad as she sounded! I would hate to think what the ones who lost the contest sounded like!

What does what she looks like have anything to do with it. That's just a cruel comment that says much about you. I'm sure it's way past time for you to grow up.

[JL2648]

Thanks for posting this, booty. This is another good one from Motor City Radio Flashbacks. I had never head of this contest before. I thought Christine did a fine job with the recording. I found it interesting how she was [[and I assume, still) blind and went on to teach the impaired. The former Wilson Junior High School is somewhat in my stomping grounds. I had a great uncle that worked in that immediate area for decades, a friend grew up near there and another friend lives just east of there. Good stuff.

[robb_k]

9752
I never knew that Christine was blind. It's nice to read all those newspaper articles. Not having lived in Detroit, and only visiting there once a month, I didn't learn about those radio station contests that gave prizes of recording with Motown, and that Christine Schumacher, Frances Nero, Conny Van Dyke and Ronnie McNier were all prize winners, until many years later. Were there any other contest winners who also had singing careers [[however short) as Detroit singing/recording artists?

[johnny_raven]

I believe Carolyn Crawford was a contest winner as well ...

[psychedelic jacques]

Has anyone listened to the soundstrap included with the article? It seems to be Scott Regan speaking to Ms Schumaker overlaid over her singing over the backing track - not of 'mother you smother you', but of 'i hear a symphony'. I checked TCMS 1966 which confired that MYSY was pressed on both sides of the promo. I don't think i've seen any reference to a Schumaker recording of IHAS before - it's not mentioned in DFTMC. In the clip she sings over about the first minute of it [[up to the instrumental break) - presumably she recorded the full song, and wonder if this is in the vaults somewhere.

[reese]

Has anyone listened to the soundstrap included with the article? It seems to be Scott Regan speaking to Ms Schumaker overlaid over her singing over the backing track - not of 'mother you smother you', but of 'i hear a symphony'. I checked TCMS 1966 which confired that MYSY was pressed on both sides of the promo. I don't think i've seen any reference to a Schumaker recording of IHAS before - it's not mentioned in DFTMC. In the clip she sings over about the first minute of it [[up to the instrumental break) - presumably she recorded the full song, and wonder if this is in the vaults somewhere.

Schumacher singing I HEAR A SYMPHONY is included amongst the Scott Regen promos on the Supremes' LOST AND FOUND cd.

Not knowing the rules of the contest, maybe she entered it by taping herself singing I HEAR A SYMPHONY? Or maybe she recorded both and MOTHER YOU...was chosen?

[Methuselah2]

http://www.mcrfb.com/?p=48489

Truly wonderful posting, Booty. Many, many thanks.

[kenneth]

I think she sounds good on the archived fragment. Remember, we're listening to a wobbly tape transfer, most likely and some of the "wow" effects are just the age of the medium.

I remember this contest well although I had never been aware that Christine was blind, either. Oh and by the way, no one would know she was blind because they didn't tell the listeners that. They played the different singers and then you voted on who you thought was the best. There was no "sympathy vote." What a cynical remark.

I think the contest was that you sang along with "I Hear a Symphony" but the prize was a newly-recorded song. I don't think "Mother You, Smother You" was out yet. I remember getting the "Supremes Sing HDH" album and naively assuming that "MYSY" would have had Christine on the track with the Supremes, as by then I was aware and had heard her singing it with the Sups on the radio.

Did someone really make fun of what she looked like? God, how sad.

[robb_k]

I believe Carolyn Crawford was a contest winner as well ...
9753
That rings a bell with me, as well. I'm pretty sure she was.

[skooldem1]

I never understood the fascination about a contest winner from 50 years ago.

[jobucats]

Yikes!! She looks as bad as she sounded! I would hate to think what the ones who lost the contest sounded like!

Gee, Brothadc, did you really think before you made that cruel statement as to how someone looks?

[blueskies]

Gee, Brothadc, did you really think before you made that cruel statement as to how someone looks?

I agree with you jobucats. That remark was really insensitive and unnecessary.