Gladys Horton's "Letter From The Postman:" My review
A Letter From The Postman
A Review
Having just finished this autobiography last evening and expecting it to be rather somber, I came away from Gladys Horton’s autobiography more than a little disturbed, somewhat angry, and totally sympathetic for a woman who gave so much to music fans and received so little in return. While this seems to be true of most Motown alumni, Gladys’ story is a bit more jarring in the years after she walked away from her celebrated position to raise a child who was handicapped.
Most people know the basics of Gladys’s life and story. Orphaned as a toddler, she was bounced around between several family situations before settling in Inkster, MI. She gathered a group of four other teenage singers who entered a talent show in high school and wound up auditioning for Berry Gordy’s fledgling Motown Records.
Gladys was touched by the grace of God when at the age of 15, within weeks of signing and making her first recording with Motown, she wound up with the No. 1 song in the country, the very first for Motown on the pop charts. [[The Miracles’ Shop Around peaked at No. 2 shortly before). The girls were still basically amateurs and in short order gave up their high school years to travel the country as the hottest girl group in the land for at least three years before personnel changes and hierarchy diversions at Motown began to tarnish their popularity.
Still when Gladys left the group in early 1968 to have her first child, the group was still at an enviable high if slightly diminished in terms of record sales. When her child was born disabled, and being an orphan herself, the young Ms. Horton refused to toss her child aside as her parents had done her. It is clear throughout her story that being without identifiable parents instilled a compassion in Gladys Horton rarely seen in such a situation.
Expecting to retire in order to raise her child, and the two that came later, Gladys, like so many other recording artists of that era, soon found herself without money, without roots and without the pride she once cherished of being one of the lead singers of the world famous Marvelettes.
What happened to her later is a heartbreaking tale of lost wages, abusive relationships, homelessness, and continual setbacks from a lady who merely wanted to re-establish herself as a pop singer of highly marketable proportions. While the book is laborious at times [[well over 600 pages), Gladys spares nothing in relaying her obstacles and how she worked beyond every one of them. Unlike other Motown biographies, one walks away not only with a sense of sadness at the lack of respect she had after her heyday ended, but also endeared to her for being a devoted mom to three boys, whose love she cherished and who took her from the brink of suicide because of the love they shared. It becomes a family story.
While some have complained about the chapter on the Marvelettes being so brief, one must also realize that when she perished at age 65 more than 10 years ago, Gladys Horton had only spent a small portion of her life [[less than 8 years) in this group. The sad truth is that most of her existence after leaving the group was devoted to merely surviving. Therefore that part of her life gets more elaboration, and not unjustifiably.
The take-away from Gladys Horton memoir is not just the pitfalls of show business, but of life in general when decisions are made based on emotion instead of practicality. It is a warning to all prospective entertainers to arm themselves with the business knowledge she herself was robbed of by becoming so successful so young as a recording artist. People will prey on this naivete’, as they did with her.
For most of the book I detected very little bitterness from Gladys until getting to the years when she tried to re-establish The Marvelettes, as so many artists at Motown did with their respective groups in order to live a decent life, only to be forced to fight for a group that was totally her invention. An unscrupulous promoter wormed the name away from Motown and had complete control of a singing group he had no association with and knew little about. The book is a reminder that performing is about BUSINESS: And business is never honest.
After reading the rather lame autobiography by Duke Fakir of the Four Tops, which was significantly cleaned up, Gladys Horton holds nothing back. Reading the book is almost spiritual; unlike other Motown biographies one of our heroes is telling us her story from the other side. Gladys Horton must have had a premonition that her life would be short. Included here are letters she wrote to her singing partners, to Berry Gordy, to her beloved sons…and to the fans. It will leave the reader teary-eyed.
RIP Gladys. You deserve your heavenly reward.
Rick Bueche
PS Many of you might remember me from the E! show “Mysteries and Scandals: Florence Ballard.” I spoke with Gladys Horton, who was graceful enough to be interviewed for the piece. We talked for hours and I can verify that everything she told me then [[2001) is truthful and included here.
