Supremes - T.A.M.I. SHOW [1964] - In A Pristine Print - Widescreen Format/8 Mins.

[Methuselah2]

Familiar clip?
Definitely.

Seen many times?
Most likely.

So, what's so special here?
The great print. The great sound. And the one great piece of footage that truly captured the thrill and excitement of what it was like to hear, see, and experience The Supremes as their meteoric rise had begun its ascent.

Many, many thanks to Roy Gardnerra for posting this superb print on YouTube. As I just watched it, something very familiar and beautifully of its time suddenly seemed gloriously new.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Cn57BNVoM

[Kamasu_Jr]

The TAMI Show DVD is pretty good. recommend it.

[marybrewster]

The canned applause ruins this for me, as does the bird in the white outfit dancing in the background. Annoying.

[Methuselah2]

Seeing Diana, Mary, & Flo so young and so new and yet being so at one with the music--I simply can't see anything but the sheer beauty of it all. For me, the clip is perfect just as it is. But I understand it's not that way for everyone.

[thisoldheart]

this is great. cuz they were the no hit supremes for so long, when they hit the big time, they were total pros. great job, girls!

[Kamasu_Jr]

Actually if you watch the entire T.A.M.I. Show and see the performances of some of the other acts, the Supremes come off as just OK. They did not have a dynamic act in my opinion, though Diana Ross had lots of charisma and presence. However, the Supremes stood out because aside from Lesley Gore and the Blossoms, they were the only girls on the bill. I would bet that most Supremes fans have only seen their segment and have not watched the entire film.

[Jimi LaLumia]

the Supremes stood out because they had class and finness, all three of them, personified by the 'cool' of Diana Ross; they were not frenetic and hopping around , or getting in each's others way, like girl groups of the time seemed to do... and then, there's THAT VOICE!

[Jimi LaLumia]

the Supremes stood out because they had class and finesse, all three of them, personified by the 'cool' of Diana Ross; they were not frenetic and hopping around , or getting in each's others way, like girl groups of the time seemed to do... and then, there's THAT VOICE!

[jillfoster]

Mary and Flo looked pretty much the same and great as always, but in this, Diana was all nasal and eyeball popping, it was annoying as hell. Watch this back to back with "You Can't Hurry Love" on Sullivan, and Diana's performance is MILES ahead in the Sullivan clip [[Complete with the earring catch). The best looking girl group on that TAMI show was this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-0upHlWfQ4

And I agree, the scream track really marrs this film.

[thisoldheart]

i get a little irked when gordy gets all the credit for breaking the color barrier ... phil had the ronettes, the crystals, darlene love ... and the ronettes were the first sexy women of color [[puerto rican?) ... and all of his artists had super voices!

[Kamasu_Jr]

The Ronettes were not in The T.A.M.I. Show. That clip is from another similar concert film , The Big T.N.T. Show that has been edited in with The T.A.M.I./ Show. The T.A.M.I. Show was released in 1964 and the Big T.N.T. Show was released in 1966. There is a 1984 film titled The T.A.M.I./T.N.T. Show or That Was Rock, but they are two concert films with different directors.

[Jimi LaLumia]

get irked all you want,Gordy deserves all the credit for breaking the color barrier... the Spector groups didn't enter living rooms via Ed Sullivan Show on a regular [[if ever) basis, they weren't on the cover of TIME, NEWSWEEK and LIFE Magazine[[s) like The Supremes were, most of America didn't know them by name , the way everyone knew all three Supremes by name..and the Spector acts were over by 1966..end of story..

[smark21]

Acts like Nat King Cole, Lena Horne, and Sammy Davis, Jr. broke the color barrier on TV and white nightclubs like the Copa long before the Supremes. The Supremes TAMI performance is very good, but James Brown owned that show. Period.

[Jimi LaLumia]

Cole, Horne and Davis were for the old people, they were the 'tokens',hardly competition on pop radio and the pop charts for established white stars, nor was James Brown..
The Supremes, with their 12 #1 pop chart hits, affected and impacted the 60's youth movement, which changed the world, and they were embraced in a way that the 'tokens' never were [[although Cole, Horne and Davis were the train tracks that The Supremes Express sped over, no doubt about that...)

[Kamasu_Jr]

Smark is actually closer to the truth. We're talking about entertainers who broke down barriers for their race. Teenage culture was something completely different. Had it not been for these "tokens," the Supremes would not have achieved what they did. Cole, Davis and Horne faced the kind of ugly racism that the Supremes didn't have to. They fought discrimination, and changed things. Cole, Horne and Davis were pop vocalists and entertainers who competed with and often bested their white counterparts. And the Supremes were fortunate that they went on before and not after James Brown on the T. A.M.I show.

[Jimi LaLumia]

..teenage culture was NOT different...
teenage culture represented "the future', it was 'us'..
... and now we have a black president, due to the boldness and brashness of Gordy and Ross,planting 'seeds' and watching them grow...one of those seeds was Michael Jackson,, and on it went..

[Kamasu_Jr]

You can't equate teen culture with the contributions of black entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat Cole who had to prove that they and an entire race of people were just as good and often better than a race of people that had written blacks off for hundreds of years. And you can't say Berry Gordy and the Supremes paved the way for or had anything remotely to do with President Obama. It sounds ridiculous. And where is this teenage culture today? It doesn't exist any longer. But Black people and their culture are still here.

[ejluther]

You know who else was great on The TAMI Show? Marvin Gaye, that's who!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpnf82hD5Ic

[ejluther]

And Smokey, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1dU3yerbYs

[Kamasu_Jr]

I agree. They were good.

[skooldem1]

Why are people posting videos of other acts? This thread I thought was about the Supreme's performance on the TAMI Show.

[milven]

I think they all were important. Each was a link that got us to where we are today. I wouldn't underate Nat Cole as just for old people. He had his last big top ten hit the same year that the Supremes were finally getting on the charts and about to have their first number one record. So, the Supremes would be the next link.

Nat King Cole was also the first black entertainer to star in his own variety show. It lasted only a year because it had trouble getting sponsors. Nat said that Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.

We have come a long way since the fifties and sixties and have a long way to go. But at least today a white person can touch a black person on TV without the sponsors going beserk.

During a Petula Clark Special in March 1968, while singing a duet with Belafonte titled “On the Path of Glory”, an anti-war song that she had composed, Petula Clark innocently and naturally touched Belafonte’s arm toward the end of the song. Doyle Lott, a vice president from Chrysler, the show’s sponsor, was present at the taping. Lott objected to the “interracial touching” and feared the brief moment would offend Southern viewers – this at a time when racial conflict was a major issue in the U.S. Lott insisted they substitute a different take – one with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from each other. But Clark and her husband, Claude Wolff, the executive producer of the show, refused. They destroyed all the other takes of the song, and delivered the finished program to NBC with the touching segment as part of the show. Clark, who had ownership of the special, told NBC that the performance would be shown intact or she would not allow the special to be aired at all. Meanwhile, at Chrysler, by March 10, 1968, Doyle Lott was relieved of his responsibilities.

The Clark-Belafonte-Chrysler incident soon made the news, as American newspapers and magazines reported on the controversy. The press stories, however, only heightened viewer interest in the show. Advertising for the Petula Clark Show ran all across the country, with some local TV guides featuring Clark and Belafonte on the cover. The show was broadcast on April 8th, 1968 with Clark doing several numbers on her own as well as Belafonte doing several on his own before they sang together. It marked the first time a man and woman of different races exchanged physical contact on American television. When the show finally aired, it received high ratings and critical acclaim.



The video below was quite a TV event in 1968. It was a lot of something about what today is nothing. But it was an important link in the chain that got us to today. The Supremes were important too. But they are just a link in the long chain.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQXVjY1oqRo

[Kamasu_Jr]

The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey and the Miracles; They were all on The T.A.M.I, show so it's all relevant to me. Like most threads on the forum, this one was about one subject, but others take the conversation in other directions. I'm not a Supremes purist or fanatic so it doesn't have to be all Supremes all of the time.

[jillfoster]

You can't equate teen culture with the contributions of black entertainers like Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat Cole who had to prove that they and an entire race of people were just as good and often better than a race of people that had written blacks off for hundreds of years. And you can't say Berry Gordy and the Supremes paved the way for or had anything remotely to do with President Obama. It sounds ridiculous. And where is this teenage culture today? It doesn't exist any longer. But Black people and their culture are still here.

I very much agree. And let's not forget Ella and Johnny Mathis, either.

[ejluther]

Why are people posting videos of other acts? Because they're part of the TAMI Show, of course, and directly related. Anyway, I'm glad Motown/The Supremes are a part of such a great piece of music history - all that talent on one stage and in one show...unbelievable! And how about Lesley Gore? I didn't knew she could really sing until I saw her in this film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0y1Rr5kPII

[Methuselah2]

Glad to see this great Lesley segment, EJ. Thanks so much for posting. I loved Lesley's voice and recordings. The T.A.M.I. Show is just chock-a-block with terrific performances. Even in Lesley's finale, it's very funny to see Smokey's expression of bewilderment [[maybe over the fact of what's going on around him), plus Marvin's little chuckle to himself. Wonderful stuff from just about 50 years ago from an era that won't be duplicated quite as it happened in '64. But just like back then, I still can't get enough of it.

[nabob]

. . . . Had it not been for these "tokens," the Supremes would not have achieved what they did. Cole, Davis and Horne faced the kind of ugly racism that the Supremes didn't have to. They fought discrimination, and changed things. I agree with Cole, Davis, Horne, Bailey, Davis, Mathis, etc. paving the road for the Supremes and those who came after. Read some of the accounts of the Motown Revue traveling through the South in the early 60s. I vividly remember reading two accounts of bullet holes in the bus. There were stories of not being able to find hotels or eat in restaurants. Audiences were also separated by race in most venues. Our Motown stars did get a bit more than a taste of racism on the Chitlin Circuit.