My Favorite Things.....

No not the song.....

Wondering what your most prized Supremes possession is? An original copy of "Meet"? A sequin from a swirl dress? An autograph? What's in your collection?

I'll start with a few things that I've acquired over the years:

A Supremes bread wrapper

A set of Robert Powley dolls/statues [[TCB)

An original poster of Mary's NY debut

A pair of earrings given to me by Susaye

A collection of 32 Supremes/Mary Wilson fanclub newsletters [[dating from September 1976 - Winter 2001)

4 Supremes / DRATS tourbooks

But my favorite piece is a HUMONGOUS poster from Motown circa 1982: THE SUPREME GIRLS; ARE THEY REALLY THE DREAM GIRLS? A fantastic sale-a-bration on all Supremes and Diana Ross records and tapes.

Great question and very interesting collection you have Mary. I really haven't done any Supremes collecting outside of their music. My most prized Supremes possessions would be the cassettes I collected in the 90s when I first got into their music. Meet, C&W, Sam Cooke, Copa, Symphony, A Go Go, Greatest Hits 1&2, Join, Sunshine, Right On, New Ways, Touch, Floy, 25th Anniversary, Greatest Hits and Rare Classics, Best of Sups and Tops, and a couple of generic compilations I purchased between the ages of 13 and 16. I can still remember which [[now extinct) music stores I purchased most of them from. Also my Florence Ballard Scrapbook, a copy of one of Flo's personal scrapbooks that a fan had been given by Tommy Chapman. Some very interesting stuff inside. That's about all I have that I would consider "prized".

I don't have any rare Supremes stuff other than a Supremes bread wrapper and some programs. Reading Ran Ran's post reminded me that I too have a copy of Flo's scrapbook that I bought when I used to follow Flo's Yahoo group.

I do have a huge poster of Diana's THE BOSS album, which hung on my bedroom wall for years. I also have a poster advertising some of Diana's UK dates for her HERE AND NOW tour in the early 90s. I gather it was meant for display in the Tube stations over there.

I don't have that much rare stuff either. Among my prized items are all of the albums up through 1970, a few Supreme Fan club newsletters from around 1967, and although really not that rare, the paintings of Mary, Diana & Florence individually that were included in the 1967 Greatest Hits collection which I have framed. One other treasure that I have is a profile of the Supremes from Life magazine around 1966 [[?) which not only profiled the group [[there's a group picture where Diana is wearing a blonde wig...first and only time I ever saw that picture) but also profiled each individually. There's a picture of Mary wearing a fur coat smoking a pipe and Diana with her brother, Chico, as he is playing the violin. Off hand, I forgot what the feature picture was of Florence, however, her profile did reveal her saying how taxing and tiring being in the group could be some time with all of the traveling.

I have been collecting for several decades now and have a few interesting things

Bread wrapper

Signed and framed copy of the original Lincoln Center poster

Sealed and signed copy of MS&S

Some Taiwan issued lps. Really funny. It’s been a while but I think they’re colored vinyl and then the covers are a weird paper. Not the heavy cardboard like a US album.

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Originally Posted by sup_fan

Some Taiwan issued lps. Really funny. It’s been a while but I think they’re colored vinyl and then the covers are a weird paper. Not the heavy cardboard like a US album.

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I had one of those for WE REMEMBER SAM COOKE. The vinyl was orange. The back cover featured various album covers, not all Motown.

Way too many to list, but one of my rarer [[if not rarest) items is The Primettes 45 on LuPine.

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Originally Posted by johnny_raven

Way too many to list, but one of my rarer [[if not rarest) items is The Primettes 45 on LuPine.

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Wow! This would be the ultimate prize!

The one prized Supremes possession I have is the Eula poster of the 1965 Lincoln Center concert. I found it at Tower Records in the early 70's. It's hung in all the apartments I've lived in and now on the wall in my house [[ where "everything you see.. is with loving care")
I really wish I'd kept the More Hits By The Supremes album [[Mono) that was my very first album [[bought at Sears in September 1965). It's in storage somewhere but I'm afraid to find out the condition it's in.

A set of the Robert Powley Supremes statues....peacock gowns?

Original 1967 'Evening With The Supremes' program [[I was there....Civic Arena, Pittsburgh).

Signed 'Floy Joy' LP by Mary

Signed Mary Wilson T-shirt

A box of Former Ladies newsletters when the fan club was in the UK. This was 80's-90's? A few Mary Wilson newsletters [[fan club). A number of newsletters from the
Florence Ballard fan club.

Several Christmas cards from Mary.

I hope some of the stuff I keep / hoard will be considered rare and collectible in several decades time. :D

Thank you all for sharing! It's fun to read what everyone has collected over the years.

What's the Flo's scrapbook that is mentioned? Is it real scrapbook with pics, etc? Sounds fascinating.

I'm sure there's no real value in any of the items I have but I treasure them all.

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Originally Posted by marybrewster

Thank you all for sharing! It's fun to read what everyone has collected over the years.

What's the Flo's scrapbook that is mentioned? Is it real scrapbook with pics, etc? Sounds fascinating.

I'm sure there's no real value in any of the items I have but I treasure them all.

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Years ago there was a guy who claimed to have become acquainted with Tommy Chapman before his death and because the guy was a big Flo fan, Tommy gave him one of Flo's scrapbooks that he held onto. In the issue of Jet Magazine that had Flo on the cover in 1975 there's a photo of Flo and her mother looking through the same scrapbook. Anyway this guy was a member of the Flo Ballard yahoo group and he copied the scrapbook for those who wanted it. It contains some rare stuff like an article about Mrs. Ballard going to see the Supremes perform for the first time at the Roostertail, some different things on Flo during her solo career, a post card from Florence to her mother from Germany [[I think it's Germany) on Mother's Day, and another post card from Esther Gordy to Mrs. Ballard letting her know that Flo had made it to the group's destination safely and was having fun, some photos, among other things. It's a pretty thick book. I haven't looked through mine in years. It's packed away in a box somewhere.

Many great items being mentioned in this thread, most of which I also have, with the exception of the Primettes' first single [[nice!). I have seen Florence's scrapbook, as I am friends with another local fan who acquired a copy some years ago through the Yahoo Group, but I have not yet managed to track one down for myself. It is a very interesting item!

I have a lot of things ranging from an original Meet the Supremes stools album, the early Sups singles, the bread wrapper, Mary's '79 Eula poster, Diana's Love Hangover promo 12" [[did not realize it was rare when I found it for $4 a couple of years ago), a set of Bob Powley sculptures, posters, programs [[including one autographed by DMF and a promo book for the line of wigs from the 70's), newsletters, etc. After taking an inventory of my life in recent years, I've realized that the most prized items are those that have personal sentimental value. For me, these are an autographed photo of Diana that I received in the mail, after I wrote to her now-retired attorney in 2006, a couple of hand written postcards from Mary in response to fan mail I had sent as a young teen, my first Supremes cassette and CD, and my Return to Love tour book, which my uncle bought for me when I saw the Toronto RTL show with him and my Mom. Those things bring back special memories and feelings from the years when I was most passionate as a young fan.

This thread has made me all sentimental. Just remembering the young fan excitement from certain releases, like the pink Supremes box-set, Flo's solo album and the 70's Supremes Anthology. I remember being 13 and wishing I could attend the signing in LA at Tower Records for the 70's Supremes Anthology! :)

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Originally Posted by carlo

This thread has made me all sentimental. Just remembering the young fan excitement from certain releases, like the pink Supremes box-set, Flo's solo album and the 70's Supremes Anthology. I remember being 13 and wishing I could attend the signing in LA at Tower Records for the 70's Supremes Anthology! :)

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The signing was at The Arclight, not Tower Records. Sorry you missed a fantastic evening, Carlo.

Thanks Johnny Raven for the correction :)

No worries. :)

Oddly enough, I think The Velvelettes had a signing at Tower in L.A. around this time.

I have a photocopy of Diana’s address book up to the letter F

Florence Ballard’s phone number is unit

Some employee copied it; not sure who gave me the copy

Originals of More Hits, I hear, Sing HDH and Greatest Hits

45 of Stop and The Happening

While I collect basically anything Motown related memorabilia-wise from '72 and before, my collection seems to have more Supremes items than any other artists. I have several items signed by Diana Mary and Flo including a photo, newspaper clipping, and a napkin from a "Holiday Inn", as well as signed items from the Cindy line up. I also have a "New Ways" LP signed by the trio at that point in the group's history.

I have several different original posters of the girls from the 1960's, which are among my favorite items. I would guess the rarest would be the poster I recently acquired advertising AMPEX Motown stereo tapes with the Supremes as the main artwork. I believe it's from 1969 from the research I was able to do. It's a pretty rare piece! It's a bit pop-art inspired and uses a very groovy 60's font. Sorry for the bad pic, but framed items are hard to photograph well.

I would say my best Supremes piece is the original negative used to produce the cover artwork for the Supremes Sing HDH. The item came out of Joe Shillair's collection of artwork and photos he saved out of the dumpsters at the Donovan building in the late 70's when they were cleaning out junk! I'm darn glad Joe was there to save some of this stuff, as the majority of the rest of it went down in rubble when the building was needlessly demolished for Super Bowl parking in 2006.
Darin

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For me, it is the number of original, pristine copies of Motown/Tamla/Gordy 33s and 45s I have. That collection has been a LONG time in the making. Also, I have a near complete collection of all the 90s CDs from all Motown artists. Some special things stand out. I have an original 1990s "Touch" CD that Mary signed in-person and dedicated to me. I have a signed copy of WDOLG with all three Supremes signatures that a dear friend gave me. He wasn't a super fan, just had the opportunity to have them sign so did. He found it in a box in the early 2000s and knew I was a fan and just gave it to me. The other very special item is a copy of "Hi We're the Miracles" with Claudette's signature. I got that at my favorite record store for $30. I don't have much "memorabilia". I became a Motown fan well after the 60s and much of that sort of stuff was fakes by the time I started collecting. It's so hard to tell when buying on-line and its not worth it. Even the trade and record shows are all fakes or repros.

I love that Ampex poster, DWSheffer! Thanks for sharing.