Originally Posted by
BobbyC
Come on, guys. Mary's book made me a fan and I am sure I am not the only one. The Supremes were about to be assigned to the dust bin of history when it came out. If not for those outrageous stories about outrageous DR, the book would have sunk and nobody would have cared. Because of Mary's book, I bought Supreme Faith, Martha's book, all the Temptations books, etc. Dreamgirl, along with the Big Chill movie, gave all these performers a second lease on life. As a kid of the 70's, the only Motown acts I knew were of the second and third waves at Motown, and being on that label in the 70's meant pretty much nothing to the younger audience. Marvin, The Supremes, Tempts, Tops and all the rest of the 60's first wave were definitely "of Motown" and it was a selling point in those years. Few people thought of the commodores or Rick James or even High Inergy as Motown groups. Anyway, I think Dreamgirl and Call Her Miss Ross and all the other books HELPED. I don't believe for one second that that book caused DR to fail on the charts--in fact, who of her 60's peers were getting big pop hits by the mid 80's? Very few.