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  1. #1
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    Tony Turner - All that Glittered Book

    I was looking at some second hand books in a charity shop [[ a favourite pastime) and passed over a book by Tony Turner. I once worked with guy of that name, so initially thought of him.
    Then , 5 minutes later I recalled that I have seen reference to a DRATS book by TT here on SDF.
    I went back to look at the book and was amazed to find that it was the DRATS book.
    Bought it for £1.
    I will read it later but any thoughts from DRATS followers?

  2. #2
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    Tony Turner's book . Tony Turner's book. Well, it seems he worked for Mary Wilson when she was writing Dreamgirl. He has photos of himself younger with Wilson,Ross and Bridsong but none with Florence Ballard, whom he said was his link to the group and that she called on him. Some people felt Dreamgirl was a sensational tell-all book, which I did not as I found it to answer questions and it made me like Wilson, Ross, Ballard and Birdsong more. You will see when your read Turner's book, that it seems like a National Enquirer version of the story, told by someone who gathered information to tell a story. He kind of places himself as knowing more about the group than the group itself does[[something I see from fans all of the time). Like when Jean was trying on wigs and he offered opinions and he said Wilson said it is Jean's decision and he tells Mary "Well, I know the look!" and then his friend Delcinia comes in and takes charge and tells Jean wrong, wrong,wrong you're a big girl and you need big hair. These types of things are almost comical. But, as stated here, where are the photos of him with Florence? Everyone writes their own story from their own perspective and while many may not agree with what Wilson, Ross or Gordy wrote because it was from their perspective of the truth-they still lived it. Here, it is more or less sensationalism with some stories like Ross asking him about Ballard after she left and him leaving her suite with pizza she bought for him and hot cheese dripping because she ushered him out after getting information from him. Take it with more than a grain of salt.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by snakepit View Post
    I was looking at some second hand books in a charity shop [[ a favourite pastime) and passed over a book by Tony Turner. I once worked with guy of that name, so initially thought of him.
    Then , 5 minutes later I recalled that I have seen reference to a DRATS book by TT here on SDF.
    I went back to look at the book and was amazed to find that it was the DRATS book.
    Bought it for £1.
    I will read it later but any thoughts from DRATS followers?
    The book was published in the same time period as Dreamgirl and Call Her Miss Ross and is written in a similar tone. IMO, the book is a humorous storytelling and a blurring of fact and fiction. Tony writes of being a close confidant of his dear friend Florence Ballard, who strangely never posed for a picture with him...

    I think it would be interesting to hear your thoughts, Snakepit, after reading the book.

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    Thanks ..I will.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnnyB View Post
    The book was published in the same time period as Dreamgirl and Call Her Miss Ross and is written in a similar tone. IMO, the book is a humorous storytelling and a blurring of fact and fiction. Tony writes of being a close confidant of his dear friend Florence Ballard, who strangely never posed for a picture with him...

    I think it would be interesting to hear your thoughts, Snakepit, after reading the book.
    Great fiction with funny stories and real dramatic.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Roberta75 View Post
    Great fiction with funny stories and real dramatic.
    I could be really catty and b*tchy here and say "do you mean Tony or _____". You fill in the blank.

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    Quote Originally Posted by thanxal View Post
    I could be really catty and b*tchy here and say "do you mean Tony or _____". You fill in the blank.
    Theres a lot of words that could fill in the blank when it comes to Ms Turner. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

  8. #8
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    I read that book and it read like a diary of a 13 year old jr. high school girl.

  9. #9
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    In retrospect, it’s some silly schoolgirl kind of gossip

  10. #10
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    I agree with the comments I've read so far. When I read it, I thought it was just some teenage girl writing out her fantasy.

  11. #11
    My view of the book is that it is, first and foremost, trashy. It's poorly written. He makes the rookie mistake of putting himself in the centre of the action, and, indeed, making his own part bigger than it really was - I suppose we can blame ego for that. It would have been a much more interesting book if he had cast aside his ego and instead used his observer's eye to tell a story.

    Having said that, he was there, so even as a not-completely reliable witness, he does have some interesting tidbits to impart. It has been a long time since I read the book, but I remember finding interest in some of the details he mentions almost in passing, like the way room arrangements at hotels were done for the girls. Another example I posted a couple of weeks ago, he mentions that after Diana left, the limousines, the big entourage, the champagne - were gone, as the the Supremes slimmed down and became a cheaper group to stage. From memory he mentions this in relation to an J-M-C Ed Sullivan appearance in 1970 [[but I could have that wrong, it's been twenty years since I read the book).

    Do read it. It will take you all of 90 minutes cover to cover.

  12. #12
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    Thanks to all who have posted. I will look forward to reading it.

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    I have to say...I ate that book up!....it may have been a bit over the top and even amateurish....but it was good dish...it did, however IMHO make Florence look like a very spiteful woman, who made poor decisions believing she had the same goods as Diana.

    Mary's first book on the other hand disappointed me....not knowing a book focusing on the 70's era was coming. The groups Flo/DRATS era history was featured in 4 part multi page interviews with Mary in Right On! magazine around the time Lynda joined. I wanted the details of the 70's period...I enjoyed Supreme Faith much more than Dreamgirls...even though MW remains my favorite Supreme, every time a interview starts, I pray PLEASE don't let this be ALL about the DMF era
    Last edited by gman; 02-03-2020 at 05:36 PM.

  14. #14
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    Tony Turner is very elaborate but I doubt he was there much...

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    30 years after the fact, fans will say what they will, but I guarantee at the time EVERY SINGLE ONE hung on to every single word, just itching to be Miss Tony Tina Turner themselves.

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    Quote Originally Posted by marybrewster View Post
    30 years after the fact, fans will say what they will, but I guarantee at the time EVERY SINGLE ONE hung on to every single word, just itching to be Miss Tony Tina Turner themselves.
    The book had been out a few years when I became a Supremes fan. At the time, I was still a teenager who believed that a book like that couldn't be published unless it was the truth. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11. I know what All That Glittered is: historical fiction. Also hysterical historical fiction, but historical fiction nonetheless.

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    Quote Originally Posted by marybrewster View Post
    30 years after the fact, fans will say what they will, but I guarantee at the time EVERY SINGLE ONE hung on to every single word, just itching to be Miss Tony Tina Turner themselves.
    LOL. Especially the one who loves Diane LOL and knows everything about Suremes gowns and wigs. Hes Tony and the one who agrees with EVERYTHING he say is Delcina Wilson. LMAO

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    I strongly feel I would not want to be something as glaring as Tony Glitter but I might take it over Miserable Marvina

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by jobeterob View Post
    I strongly feel I would not want to be something as glaring as Tony Glitter but I might take it over Miserable Marvina
    I'd have to second that; at least Turner has accomplished something in life and moved on.

  20. #20
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    Where have you been, he was popping up years after the book came claiming he knew the real stories of some of the events after that book was published. You do know he woke another fairytale book years later.
    Quote Originally Posted by PeaceNHarmony View Post
    I'd have to second that; at least Turner has accomplished something in life and moved on.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by blackguy69 View Post
    Where have you been, he was popping up years after the book came claiming he knew the real stories of some of the events after that book was published. You do know he woke another fairytale book years later.
    Was that the book on the Temptations?

  22. #22
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    Yep and one mustn’t forget the update of La Turner’s first book with “inside” knowledge of RTL
    Quote Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance View Post
    Was that the book on the Temptations?

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance View Post
    Was that the book on the Temptations?
    Well, I know he got at least two of the stories right in his book on the Temptations because I was there. I was an eyewitness.

  24. #24
    oh no. I actually bought that temptations book and it was the first time I ever threw a recently purchased book into the garbage. Not throwing shade, but it just seemed kinda like Tony was going full-speed ahead with the trashiest stuff he could print, just for the same of being sensational. I knew there were holes and questions about the Supremes book, but in an odd way, it was pretty darn entertaining. Compared to what I was reading in the Tempts book, The Supremes book was really G-rated. I had no idea he did an updated version!

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by marv2 View Post
    Well, I know he got at least two of the stories right in his book on the Temptations because I was there. I was an eyewitness.
    Hey Marv, I had just replied to blackguy69 about this book. I didn't get too far with it and in fact threw it out. There was almost an air of desperation for attention in the writing style of this book. Tony seemed to be dialing the "trashy" quotient all the way past 11. I also think I was still pretty young and just didn't feel like seeing my Motown stars deconstructed so boldly!

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    Quote Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance View Post
    Compared to what I was reading in the Tempts book, The Supremes book was really G-rated. I had no idea he did an updated version!
    It wasn't much. Just a few pages on the Return to Love tour.

  27. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance View Post
    Hey Marv, I had just replied to blackguy69 about this book. I didn't get too far with it and in fact threw it out. There was almost an air of desperation for attention in the writing style of this book. Tony seemed to be dialing the "trashy" quotient all the way past 11. I also think I was still pretty young and just didn't feel like seeing my Motown stars deconstructed so boldly!
    There is a bunch of stuff you do not really need to know and I have never posted here on this forum in 16 years or more LOL! I was just confirming that two of the events he wrote about in his Temptations book were really accurate. All that other stuff, I don't know about. There were some things said that could be plausible.

  28. #28
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    I think I posted on this forum a few months back that Turner's books were available on-line to read for free:

    https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2699...that_glittered

    https://openlibrary.org/books/OL2633...ons_and_motown

    They certainly are trashy but interesting reads for Motown trivia fanatics.

  29. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by marv2 View Post
    There is a bunch of stuff you do not really need to know and I have never posted here on this forum in 16 years or more LOL! I was just confirming that two of the events he wrote about in his Temptations book were really accurate. All that other stuff, I don't know about. There were some things said that could be plausible.
    We discussed those events a long time ago and one of the events you are referring to was validated by another singer in Detroit. How the heck would he get all this info and not be there. Unless he did a lot of interviewing and kept good notes for the detail. Or just a real creative mind lol!

  30. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by detmotownguy View Post
    We discussed those events a long time ago and one of the events you are referring to was validated by another singer in Detroit. How the heck would he get all this info and not be there. Unless he did a lot of interviewing and kept good notes for the detail. Or just a real creative mind lol!
    The two events where I was there and he was there were real. I met him when he came to Detroit with Mary to Trappers Alley back in the 80s.

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    Meanwhile this thread has turned into a conversation between two handles registered to the same member. Where’s Luke to complete the trifecta?

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    Quote Originally Posted by marv2 View Post
    The two events where I was there and he was there were real. I met him when he came to Detroit with Mary to Trappers Alley back in the 80s.
    Nobody is disputing that he has a connection to the Supremes. Mary wrote in her first book that Tony was a fan who revealed to her years later that he would call around to different hotels in NYC pretending to be a woman from Motown, find out where the girls were staying, and then make his way to see them. Tony managed a half page of two pages of mention in Mary's first book [[and none in the second), and lumped him in with a group of other young fans who somehow made there way past security. There is nothing about how every time they came to New York Flo was calling him to come down. There is no way I believe that grown ass woman was confiding and hanging around with a kid. Was he ever present? I'm sure he was. But as Maxine Ballard once told me, dude was an exaggerator.

    We also know that Mary kicked his ass to the curb in the 80s, and of course shortly thereafter he decided to write a book. Nobody with at least half a brain buys the crap he was selling.

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    Ah, like Mary shunned Marv?

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    I think Tony's position with Mary was he became somewhat of a gofer. As Tony Turner once said on the Joan Rivers show when Joan asked him why he wrote the Book All That Glittered..."I wanted the world to know that there was more than one bitch in the Supremes!" I am still unsure what role he played around Flo.

    I think there is a small piece of truth with The Temptations [[David and Eddie) but I truly believe he blew that out of proportion to get book sales.

    If memory serves me right, Berry Gordy sued for over 200 million but ended up settling out of court. Those $$ amount is sealed.

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    Tony doesn't seem to like Mary all that much but I still think most of his claims are untrue or definitely over-exaggerated. Definitely not over him trying to out Marvin Gaye and Eddie Kendricks...smh

    And I definitely don't believe a 24-year-old woman was trying to get some 12-year-old boy to be her gofer for anything smh

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    or how about the story that motown had him manning the elevators and doors for guests to come meet the girls?!?!? lolol I'm sure given all of motown's staff that they'd eagerly bring a 16 year old kid to handle starts like Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Sammy David Jr, etc etc

    very logical

    btw i found some random 15 year old that's handling my 2019 taxes lolol

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    as the story goes, he was working for Mary as they were touring in the early and mid 80s. i'm guessing sort of a road manager.

    by the time she was working on sup faith, i don't believe they were still working together. and i believe they were NOT close. hence the even more venomous treatment of mary by miss turner in his 2nd book

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    I first saw Tony when he accompanied Mary to a local book signing for DREAMGIRL. He was sort of arrogant: "Have your book open to the title page PLEASE!" But I didn't know that he was the Tony Turner mentioned in her book until years later when he appeared on ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT to promote his first book.

    I gather by then he and Mary were on the outs as he started making the rounds. I remember an appearance on Joan Rivers where he wasn't so nice re Mary. When Mary appeared on Joan's show not too long after, she sort of dismissed him as a disgruntled employee but Joan didn't let it go that easily. But I hear the two are friendly as of late.

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    Tony was the one who claimed Martha Reeves took the money from some late 1980s gig with David, Eddie and Mary and then cussed out all three of them and put the money in her wig, then claimed David grabbed at her, cussing her out for "stealing my money".

    How can anyone be friends with a messy queen like that?!

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    You’d hope Mary would keep her distance from this kind of person but she’s made odd choices from time to time, I think most guided by the need to make a dollar

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    Quote Originally Posted by midnightman View Post
    Tony was the one who claimed Martha Reeves took the money from some late 1980s gig with David, Eddie and Mary and then cussed out all three of them and put the money in her wig, then claimed David grabbed at her, cussing her out for "stealing my money".

    How can anyone be friends with a messy queen like that?!
    LOLOL And not one single photo in his novel of him and Flo. MIs Martha couldnt point him out if you put him in a line up. Miss Turner aint real aquatinted with the truth.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Roberta75 View Post
    LOLOL And not one single photo in his novel of him and Flo. MIs Martha couldnt point him out if you put him in a line up. Miss Turner aint real aquatinted with the truth.
    He's a great storyteller though lmfao

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