marv2
08-30-2012, 09:56 PM
http://mije.org/node/663#Supremes
I found this very interesting article that I thought I'd share with everyone.
The Supremes finally made the cover of various editions of TV Magazine. [[Credit: Al Abrams)
Take 2: How the Supremes Made Cover of TV Magazine
As reported in this space two weeks ago, the Supremes, the Diana Ross-led trio touted as the biggest American musical act of the 1960s, faced a color barrier few today would imagine: a hometown newspaper's Sunday magazine of TV listings whose editor said the cover was off-limits to blacks.
Motown's founding public-relations man, who broke through the barrier on the group's behalf, tells a different tale than the one in a new biography of the singing group.
Al Abrams' version might be even more offensive.
It was 1965. "I couldn’t crack the Detroit News," Abrams said in the University of Michigan's "Living Music" archives.
"Finally . . . the Supremes are hot with three Number One hits in a row . . . It was driving me crazy that I couldn’t get them on the cover of the TV magazine that the Detroit News would put out. I went to see the features editor at the Detroit News. He called me aside and said, 'I gotta ask you — what’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing working for a bunch of niggers like them? Shouldn’t it be the other way round?'
"I’d been waiting for this. I said, 'Well let me tell you the truth: You know how these black people like to play dice? Well, I really started Motown Records, and one night I got into a craps game with Berry Gordy, and I lost the whole thing. But they let me stay on and do the publicity anyway.' He says 'Here, that’s the saddest story I ever heard.' He said to his staff, 'Wait a minute, from now on, I want you to do whatever you can to help this guy.' Then the Supremes became the first African-Americans to be on the cover of a TV magazine."
Abrams added for Journal-isms, "During the month long debut run of my 'Memories of Motown' musical in Berlin this winter, I told that story on stage every night and pontificated on how the Supremes [[and Diana's) breakthrough beginning with the cover of that magazine [[and subsequently making the cover of Time) 'opened the doors to African-American entertainers in television and Hollywood and made possible the miracle we saw last week in Washington, D.C., the inauguration of Barack Obama as . . .' The rest of the sentence was always drowned out by applause — the most applause we received from that German audience during and after the entire show."
He also disputed the biography's claim that the Michigan Chronicle, a leading black weekly in Detroit, was unsupportive of its hometown talent. "Folks like Rita Griffin, Roy Stephens and, of course, publisher Albert J. Dunmore were always there to support us. The Detroit edition of the Pittsburgh Courier under entertainment writer Charles Henry was another loyal friend back in the days before we cracked the mainstream media. And that's not to mention Chester Higgins at Jet magazine," he said.
Of himself, Abrams said he was one of the first members of the Northwest Ohio Black Media Association [[NOBMA), in 1990
I found this very interesting article that I thought I'd share with everyone.
The Supremes finally made the cover of various editions of TV Magazine. [[Credit: Al Abrams)
Take 2: How the Supremes Made Cover of TV Magazine
As reported in this space two weeks ago, the Supremes, the Diana Ross-led trio touted as the biggest American musical act of the 1960s, faced a color barrier few today would imagine: a hometown newspaper's Sunday magazine of TV listings whose editor said the cover was off-limits to blacks.
Motown's founding public-relations man, who broke through the barrier on the group's behalf, tells a different tale than the one in a new biography of the singing group.
Al Abrams' version might be even more offensive.
It was 1965. "I couldn’t crack the Detroit News," Abrams said in the University of Michigan's "Living Music" archives.
"Finally . . . the Supremes are hot with three Number One hits in a row . . . It was driving me crazy that I couldn’t get them on the cover of the TV magazine that the Detroit News would put out. I went to see the features editor at the Detroit News. He called me aside and said, 'I gotta ask you — what’s a nice Jewish boy like you doing working for a bunch of niggers like them? Shouldn’t it be the other way round?'
"I’d been waiting for this. I said, 'Well let me tell you the truth: You know how these black people like to play dice? Well, I really started Motown Records, and one night I got into a craps game with Berry Gordy, and I lost the whole thing. But they let me stay on and do the publicity anyway.' He says 'Here, that’s the saddest story I ever heard.' He said to his staff, 'Wait a minute, from now on, I want you to do whatever you can to help this guy.' Then the Supremes became the first African-Americans to be on the cover of a TV magazine."
Abrams added for Journal-isms, "During the month long debut run of my 'Memories of Motown' musical in Berlin this winter, I told that story on stage every night and pontificated on how the Supremes [[and Diana's) breakthrough beginning with the cover of that magazine [[and subsequently making the cover of Time) 'opened the doors to African-American entertainers in television and Hollywood and made possible the miracle we saw last week in Washington, D.C., the inauguration of Barack Obama as . . .' The rest of the sentence was always drowned out by applause — the most applause we received from that German audience during and after the entire show."
He also disputed the biography's claim that the Michigan Chronicle, a leading black weekly in Detroit, was unsupportive of its hometown talent. "Folks like Rita Griffin, Roy Stephens and, of course, publisher Albert J. Dunmore were always there to support us. The Detroit edition of the Pittsburgh Courier under entertainment writer Charles Henry was another loyal friend back in the days before we cracked the mainstream media. And that's not to mention Chester Higgins at Jet magazine," he said.
Of himself, Abrams said he was one of the first members of the Northwest Ohio Black Media Association [[NOBMA), in 1990