After Jean Terrell, who chose and hired the new Supremes?

We all know Motown chose Cindy Birdsong as Florence Ballard's replacement and Jean Terrell as Diana Ross' replacement but after that the information on who picked the group members is a bit fuzzy. It seems that Sundray Tucker was supposed to replace Cindy in 1972 but Lynda Laurence , her sister, also auditioned and they chose her. So, who chose Lynda? Was it Motown or Mary and Jean? After Jean and Lynda left, Mary rehired Cindy and chose Scherrie. She wrote Motown was angry that she chose people for the group. They were initially hired by Supremes, Inc. so basically they worked for Mary until Motown provided contracts. Mary also wrote that Motown basically gave them contracts as soloists, with agreed upon percentages of the group. It has been written that Terrell was salaried, so she apparently received no profits from songs she sang on. Mary said Lynda was asking for a full third of the group profits, but since Lynda was pregnant and would be replaced, it was a no and that a one-third share was "unrealistic". Did they give each a percentage and use the rest for wardrobe,recording,etc.? Also, Mary said Motown was wanting to replace Cindy, plus Cindy was at odds with Pedro. I believe Pedro was the one who found Susaye and I think I read he promised she would be lead singer. So, who really chose the group members after Jean-Mary or Motown?

I’m assuming it was Mary

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Originally Posted by jim aka jtigre99

We all know Motown chose Cindy Birdsong as Florence Ballard's replacement and Jean Terrell as Diana Ross' replacement but after that the information on who picked the group members is a bit fuzzy. It seems that Sundray Tucker was supposed to replace Cindy in 1972 but Lynda Laurence , her sister, also auditioned and they chose her. So, who chose Lynda? Was it Motown or Mary and Jean? After Jean and Lynda left, Mary rehired Cindy and chose Scherrie. She wrote Motown was angry that she chose people for the group. They were initially hired by Supremes, Inc. so basically they worked for Mary until Motown provided contracts. Mary also wrote that Motown basically gave them contracts as soloists, with agreed upon percentages of the group. It has been written that Terrell was salaried, so she apparently received no profits from songs she sang on. Mary said Lynda was asking for a full third of the group profits, but since Lynda was pregnant and would be replaced, it was a no and that a one-third share was "unrealistic". Did they give each a percentage and use the rest for wardrobe,recording,etc.? Also, Mary said Motown was wanting to replace Cindy, plus Cindy was at odds with Pedro. I believe Pedro was the one who found Susaye and I think I read he promised she would be lead singer. So, who really chose the group members after Jean-Mary or Motown?

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Interesting post. Why was Motown wanting to replace Cindy?? What year did Pedro
become involved with the group?

He became their manager in 1975

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Originally Posted by lakeside

Interesting post. Why was Motown wanting to replace Cindy?? What year did Pedro
become involved with the group?

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Sorry, but Pedro sucked. Seems to me he was à user of Mary/Supremes fame. All that abuse, I would have tossed his àss out the door.

It is an always easy answer for me; Berry picked Jean and then right after Jean was introduced Berry changed his mind. Berry nor Mary never said why but he changed his mind. When Mary said no, then Berry said he washed his hands of group. So, to answer your question I think at this moment if was up to Mary and then Mary and Pedro to chose which lady would enter into the group.

I would assume Motown would have still wanted some sort of control over the group in 1972 when Lynda replaced Cindy. Still, that was the year of Lady Sings The Blues and almost all of the attention went into making movies. I read that when Berry saw the group in Elmwood Casino[[ a rarity since he never went to see them much after Ross left) that he was pleasantly surprised at how good their show was. I think Mary wrote that Berry never told her why he wanted to replace Jean with Syreeta but that he was having a much harder time having her follow his directions. Once Jean & Lynda left, it seems Motown itself was done with the group due to personnel changes and inner turmoil and that they assumed the group would end. Mary herself rehired Cindy and chose Scherrie. Mary wrote that Motown never said whether they liked Scherrie or if she should have a contract while in the 2 years they didn't record and that they were mad at Mary for choosing Supremes since none of them were Supremes because they had no contract. Pedro was inept as a manager and did cause some bad feelings because an "outsider" was being brought in against there wishes. Mary also wrote after hearing MSS, that Berry said he wanted to manage the group again. So, basically Mary was running the group from 1970-on because Motown didn't care except to make money off of the name. Without Mary, Lynda,Scherrie & Susaye would not have been in the group-even Jean may have not been in the group had she went along with Berry and had Syreeta become the lead singer after they announced Jean. Just wondered that Motown gave Mary that much power to choose the new members or that they just didn't really care about the Supremes.