Gladys of the Marvelettes Autobiography

[Spreadinglove21]

Hmm not a fan of her using the term "fairies". Sounds like she wasn't a very happy person and did not get on well with the other Marvelettes. I understand why she wasn't happy though.

Does she delve much into her friendship with Florence Ballard? I know the two of them were close in the early days.

No. She talks about Flo helping out and being encouraging when Please Mr. Postman was recorded. And she mentions Flo in passing as going out on tour with The Marvelettes when Wanda had to have her baby. That's it. The chapter on Gladys and the Marvelettes at Motown is the shortest chapter in the book--about 33 pages, which include a few pictures [[just the usual publicity pictures). She does not go into any depth about her relationships with the group members during this time.

[motony]

I'll bet somebody went in & cleaned & deleted a whole bunch of stuff.

[danman869]

I could kick myself for not doing more investigating on this one before I placed my order a few weeks ago. Through the Gumroad website [posted above], I paid $25.00 for the book...plus $7.50 shipping. Looking at Amazon US right now, the book is available for $25.00 with FREE shipping using Prime [which I have] and if I were to order it right now [Saturday], it would arrive on Monday. I've just e-mailed Vaughn Horton to cancel my order through Gumroad so hopefully I'll get a response soon. Why pay a 30% shipping fee when I can get it shipped for free by Amazon? In today's economy, saving any amount of money [even $7.50] is worth it!

Today is day five since I e-mailed Vaughn Thornton asking for my order to be canceled [so I could order it with free shipping from Amazon with Prime] and still no response from him. Considering the Gumroad purchase confirmation e-mail says, "Questions about your product? Contact Vaughn Thorton by replying to this e-mail," I would've thought any responses would come quickly. Plus, he shouldn't be irritated that I was canceling to save on shipping costs as he doesn't/shouldn't make a profit on that anyway.

If I don't get a response about canceling or even shipping confirmation e-mail by end of day tomorrow [Friday, June 24th], I'm going to have to go to my credit card company and claim fraud. Everyone who ordered this book through Amazon seems to have gotten it very quickly. Those of us who ordered directly from Vaughn via Gumroad are all still waiting--and the lack of communication certainly doesn't bode well.

What makes this all the worse is that reading others' "reviews" of the book is quite disappointing. Here I am frustrated that I haven't yet received my copy... and now I'm not even sure it's worth buying at all.

[marybrewster]

I am a member of the "Official Marvelettes FB Page" and someone involved in the book is still posting "spoliers" about the book.....the next one is going to be posted June 30th. How can you post a "spoiler" about a book that's already been released? I was very excited about this book, but I'm losing interest. Like you DM, I'm kicking myself for not waiting and ordering right from Amazon. If it doesn't come next week, I'm filing a dispute with my debit card.

[Spreadinglove21]

Today is day five since I e-mailed Vaughn Thornton asking for my order to be canceled [so I could order it with free shipping from Amazon with Prime] and still no response from him. Considering the Gumroad purchase confirmation e-mail says, "Questions about your product? Contact Vaughn Thorton by replying to this e-mail," I would've thought any responses would come quickly. Plus, he shouldn't be irritated that I was canceling to save on shipping costs as he doesn't/shouldn't make a profit on that anyway.

If I don't get a response about canceling or even shipping confirmation e-mail by end of day tomorrow [Friday, June 24th], I'm going to have to go to my credit card company and claim fraud. Everyone who ordered this book through Amazon seems to have gotten it very quickly. Those of us who ordered directly from Vaughn via Gumroad are all still waiting--and the lack of communication certainly doesn't bode well.

What makes this all the worse is that reading others' "reviews" of the book is quite disappointing. Here I am frustrated that I haven't yet received my copy... and now I'm not even sure it's worth buying at all.

Question--is there anything on Vaughan's Gumroad site about all sales being final, or no refunds? I can imagine he rather not deal with cancellations at his site as he will get a larger cut of the proceeds with orders from his site, rather than Amazon, which will take its cut of any sales they make of Gladys' book. The book don't forget is self published by Vaughan so he wants to make some money off of this, understandably so.

[danman869]

Question--is there anything on Vaughan's Gumroad site about all sales being final, or no refunds? I can imagine he rather not deal with cancellations at his site as he will get a larger cut of the proceeds with orders from his site, rather than Amazon, which will take its cut of any sales they make of Gladys' book. The book don't forget is self published by Vaughan so he wants to make some money off of this, understandably so.

There is nothing on the selling page of the book at Gumroad about all sales being final--or on the page where you enter your credit card information. Regardless, Vaughn should at least be responding to my e-mail--either to say "sorry, all sales are final" or "certainly I'll cancel your order! I'm just glad you're buying the book--wherever you're getting it!" I know you're trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but implying that because this is a self-published book Vaughn should not want to give refunds isn't a very strong defense. If he wanted to keep as much of the profit as possible, he shouldn't have offered the book to be sold via Amazon and instead kept it all under a self-published website. As it is, you have to figure that Gumroad is taking SOME kind of profit from his selling the books on their site. It's likely much smaller than Amazon, but it's still a cut. The only way he'd be making pure profit is if he were to print the book in his garage and tell people to stop by and purchase it with cash. Even if the intention with the sale of this book is to make a profit, he should still be professional enough to deal with his customers and accept that not every sale may be final. That's the part of business besides filling one's wallet.

[woodward]

This is the response I got two days ago as a response from my inquiry about my outstanding order.

Sent: Wed, Jun 22, 2022 3:43 pm
Subject: Re: Booklet you are offering for sale

First of all, thank you so much for your support! You will love this Marvelous read!
I am glad everyone is eager to read Glady’s story! You have an advantage because you will be receiving special gifts that are not offered to customers online. Shipping will begin on the 27th of this month. If there is a delay, I will let everyone know. But we are on time and you will have your book soon. Thanks again and I appreciate your support!!!

Sent from my iPhone

[Spreadinglove21]

There is nothing on the selling page of the book at Gumroad about all sales being final--or on the page where you enter your credit card information. Regardless, Vaughn should at least be responding to my e-mail--either to say "sorry, all sales are final" or "certainly I'll cancel your order! I'm just glad you're buying the book--wherever you're getting it!" I know you're trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but implying that because this is a self-published book Vaughn should not want to give refunds isn't a very strong defense. If he wanted to keep as much of the profit as possible, he shouldn't have offered the book to be sold via Amazon and instead kept it all under a self-published website. As it is, you have to figure that Gumroad is taking SOME kind of profit from his selling the books on their site. It's likely much smaller than Amazon, but it's still a cut. The only way he'd be making pure profit is if he were to print the book in his garage and tell people to stop by and purchase it with cash. Even if the intention with the sale of this book is to make a profit, he should still be professional enough to deal with his customers and accept that not every sale may be final. That's the part of business besides filling one's wallet.

Thanks for the info. Not sure I would say I'm giving Vaughan the benefit of the doubt as when I saw the Gumroad site touting the book and the offer for a free tote bag if you're one of the first 100 to order, I thought to myself, "this sounds sketchy and dubious--I don't want them to have my credit card info. I'll wait for it to come on to Amazon."

I don't know anything about Gumroad--I thought it was his site, but apparently not. My apology.

Anyway I hope you get your book [[and tote bag?) soon. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book.

[Spreadinglove21]

This is the response I got two days ago as a response from my inquiry about my outstanding order.

Sent: Wed, Jun 22, 2022 3:43 pm
Subject: Re: Booklet you are offering for sale

First of all, thank you so much for your support! You will love this Marvelous read!
I am glad everyone is eager to read Glady’s story! You have an advantage because you will be receiving special gifts that are not offered to customers online. Shipping will begin on the 27th of this month. If there is a delay, I will let everyone know. But we are on time and you will have your book soon. Thanks again and I appreciate your support!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Hmmm...sounds like he's trying. I wonder if there was a delay in terms of getting ahold of enough tote bags to send out with the orders? Anyway, I hope those of you who order via Gumroad will receive your books soon. Look forward to reading other people's thoughts and reactions to this book.

[kenneth]

Today is day five since I e-mailed Vaughn Thornton asking for my order to be canceled [so I could order it with free shipping from Amazon with Prime] and still no response from him. Considering the Gumroad purchase confirmation e-mail says, "Questions about your product? Contact Vaughn Thorton by replying to this e-mail," I would've thought any responses would come quickly. Plus, he shouldn't be irritated that I was canceling to save on shipping costs as he doesn't/shouldn't make a profit on that anyway.

I’m not sure if you’re in the US or not, but what I would do in your situation is if the book shows up, don’t open it, just take it to the post office and say you’re refusing delivery. Then you don’t have to pay return postage long as it hasn’t been opened.


Then just call your credit card company and tell them what happened and that you’re no longer in possession of the item and they should give you credit immediately while they do whatever it is they do to investigate. Visa at least is usually very cooperative and generally sides with the consumer in this situation. I bought a copy of the Japanese version of “Phantom of the opera“ from a seller in Japan and when it arrived it was the wrong version. There are actually two Japanese versions of that show and he sent one which was different than the one he had advertised. The seller was very uncooperative and although he admitted the error he wouldn’t give me the $20 or $25 credit unless I returned the CD. I found out it would cost over $30 to return the CD even though shipping from Japan was only about $10. Visa refunded my money and that was that. I never even had to return it, not that I wanted it anyway. As a result, I no longer buy from overseas sellers unless they’re in the UK. I’ve had other problems it seems consistently whenever I bought anything from other countries in Europe or elsewhere.


As far as my interest, even though the Marvelettes are my favorite Motown group of all time as many of you know, the reference to “Fairies” it’s so objectional to me that I wouldn’t buy it if only for that reason, not that it sounded very interesting in the first place. I know enough about the Marvelettes to feel that whatever she could say in 33 pages wouldn’t be illuminating, to say the least. Certainly Gladys should’ve known better if she was writing this book in the 90s. Even back in the 60s that term was probably already objectionable. And certainly if she didn’t know any better, her editor or publisher should’ve eliminated that reference. I wouldn’t pay anything for the book.

End of lecture!

[marybrewster]

I've been in touch with Vaughn and an getting contradiction in the shipping of this book. He's told me that my copy has indeed shipped, and I should get it in a few days. He's then gone on to post publicly that books are getting ready to ship. So which is it?

I don't understand how ordering direct from the source takes longer than ordering from a 3rd party. When Hipo was around, you'd get a CD several weeks before the "street date".

[Graham Jarvis]

In Flo's bio "The Lost Supreme" she joined the Marvelettes in 1962 when they had their hit "Please Mr Postman" as Wanda Young being pregnant could not fulfill their tours. Flo joined for several months. It was also a time when the Supremes were doing nothing really as the No-Hit-Supremes.
Not really much more, its likely from the early spell with the Marvelettes Flo built a relationship with Glady's & the other girls?

However "The Supremes" book by Mark Ribowsky" [page 94/95] details quite a lot of the realtionship Glady's & Flo had, the two of them used to room together and sat side by side together for hours on the many bus rides. They had a very close relationship.

[woodward]

I just received this email this morning. I was send last evening - Monday.

Your order has shipped!
Your order of A Letter From the Postman: A Memoir of the Original Lead Singer of the "Marvelettes" has been shipped and should arrive soon.

If you have any questions about the status of the shipment, you can reach out by replying to this email.

548 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94104-5401, USA

[carlo]

Just finished reading the book today. Spreadinglove21 summed it up perfectly. This is an interesting and engaging read, and Gladys is a solid writer. However, it is indeed more about her struggles after she left the group, and barely about her time at Motown and as part of The Marvelettes, which I had also mentioned in an earlier post. As motony mentioned above, I also suspect that someone went in and deleted a bunch from her original manuscript, as I find it odd that she would have written so little about her time with the group. I did find parts of this book to be repetitive and a bit monotonous, as she seemed to move a dozen times to different places and recounted each move in too much detail. However, I suppose that those parts did add to the overall understanding of how much she struggled. There were indeed some additional glaring grammar errors and typos that should have been corrected before going to print. It was unfortunate to read of Kat's mistreatment of Gladys, and her son, Vaughan. As Spreadinglove21 mentioned, she really did read her to filth lol. It also changed my opinion of Smokey Robinson, as he's certainly not the nice guy he's been made out to be. Being a fan of The Marvelettes and having always had a soft spot for Gladys, due to her talent and knowing how much she struggled through life, I walked away from this book, respecting her even more so. On the other hand, I'm also able to see that she made a number of bad decisions over the course of her life. I agree that in this book, you can feel how much of a big heart she had. I'm glad I could read her story in her own words. I just wish it had been given the proper editing and treatment it deserved, while she was still alive, to bring more focus to her Motown years. I don't regret having purchased or having spent the time reading this book. A few parts of the book made me cringe, or bored, but by the end, I felt like it had redeemed itself. I recommend reading it, if you want to know more about her, as a person, and her life after Motown, as that was my main motivating factor. Rest in peace, Gladys Horton.

I hope the rest of you receive your books soon. I know that frustration all too well, in regards to online merchants that don't deliver on their promises and/or price discrepancies. I hope it works out.

[carlo]

I would have also liked to have seen at least a few more photos from Gladys' archives. I seem to remember seeing maybe five, and four of them were common publicity photos that we've all seen. In particular, I would have liked to have seen a photo of her with her sons.

[Spreadinglove21]

Who knows if material about the Motown days was removed from the text before it was published?

Another part of the book that's on the incomplete side is the Ian Levine project. She talks about how happy she was to be recording again with Wanda and being able to write a song for the project, but nothing about the end result--both in terms of the quality of the music on those recordings as well as how well the recordings sold and lack of radio play. It would have been interesting to read her take about that.

[TomatoTom123]

This sounds like an interesting but quite a sad read.

Does she talk about Smokey in the Marvelettes' Motown era or in the years after? I know that he had a drug problem in the 80s at least.

[Graham Jarvis]

I do find It being a unique book and something so different from the usual bio, as the details as to the Marvelettes, the group, the girls and their records, Motown, etc are pretty sparse. It Is predominantly her life experience in great detail.

Concerning Smokey, without giving away the details I do feel its quite an explosive section at the back end of the book concerning Smokey, she slates Smokey not only concerning the early Motown era but later on concerning the "Marvelettes" as a name and entity.

I do find it somewhat a sad read, but it is real about how tough life can be, but also the good times, a great book. I would encourage getting a copy.

[BritishTony]

Frankly, I found Gladys’ book genuinely inspirational. Sure, I’d have loved much more inside info on the group years [[maybe the editoring theories are right?) but overall she pulls no punches on her own personal & professional mistakes. Gladys is brutally honest on everything and her unwavering love for her family and indomitable drive to get back on stage shine brightly through. Indefatigable in crushing circumstances, creative and determined she inspires and impresses throughout. That girl kept holding on. And the girl could write – her All Things Abide for Motorcity being one of my favourites. Talking of those recordings just check out her real jazzy take on You’re My Remedy, Gladys was way more versatile than we realized.

[motony]

Gladys was very talented.She wrote "Playboy" a TOP TEN POP & R & B hit.They were there BEFORE Maxine Powell & Cholly Atkins were brought on board. What you saw onstage was The Marvelettes . They practiced in their living rooms ect. Gladys played a song she wrote for my brother in the mid-80's, I think he said it was called "Space Rock Radio" & he said it was really good.

[Spreadinglove21]

So have others here who ordered received their copies of the book yet?

[marybrewster]

I recieved mine yesterday, I had ordered direct from Vaughn/Gumroad. The book is thick, but very large in print. Probably could have been half the size in normal font. It came with a few extras; an "autographed" photo from Gladys, a letter from Gladys, thanking the fans for never giving up on the Marvelettes, and a gold bag, inscribed with her name, and the name of the book. The bag is an oddity; it's more like a sachet bag. I'm ASSUMING the book was supposed to go in the bag, but the bag is too small, and the book is too big. Regardless, it's a cute keepsake. The postage on my package was about $4.50, so I'll chalk up the other goodies as the extra $3. Oh, and the book is signed by Vaughn, personalized to me, which I thought was a nice touch. It was sent direct from Vaughn's house, with his return address on the label. I've only flipped through it thus far, and only caught a few pictures, scattered in the pages. There's no "picture section" like you'd normally find. Whether it's good or not, it was worth the $25, if only to help fulfill Gladys' dream of writing her story. As I mentioned before, she had talked about it decades ago in a Flo Ballard Fan Club Newsletter. What a blessing that it finally came to fruition.

[reese]

I received my copy of the book earlier this week and purposely avoided this thread so that I could form my own opinion of the book. I just finished it a few moments ago and have to say that I am really disappointed.

First, while initially thumbing through the book, I was very surprised that there was no photo selection. It wasn't until I actually started reading the book that I found that there are indeed some generic photos sprinkled throughout the book but very few that I had never before seen.

But the biggest disappointment was the extreme lack of detail on her Marvelettes years. To have "a memoir by the original lead singer of the Marvelettes" that only has perhaps 50 or so pages on the group is really a bummer. And I'm not necessarily talking about dirt. I would have been happy with details of their tour with Otis Redding. Or how they felt preparing for HULLABALOO. I agree with those that perhaps some heavy editing was done on the Marvelettes' years as the book is HEAVILY detailed regarding her years before and after them.

That said, I must say that my heart goes out to Gladys and her family for all that they went through over the years. It seemed as if trouble [and yet another move] was never far away. I have to hand it to her for her resilience but after a while, I must say that the constant bad luck was a bit of a downer. It began to get repetitive. But is was nice that some of her old colleagues like Cindy Birdsong, Mary Wells, and Patti LaBelle turn up at times to be of some help.

Personally, I am a bit sad that I never really got to see Gladys in person. She was slated to take part in a PBS Girl Groups special taped at Foxwoods Casino. But when I arrived, there was a sign saying that she wouldn't be appearing. A few years later, my local oldies radio station brought her to town for a free concert. But it fell on the night of my best friend's birthday celebration. I managed to get him over to the venue but by that time, it was so crowded the most I could see was a glimpse of a red dress and a bit of Gladys doing DON'T MESS WITH BILL.

[Spreadinglove21]

I asked about this over at the Facebook Marvelettes group and Vaughan replied that they removed hardly any material from Gladys' manuscript in order to preserve her voice. So her own son and the man who made the book possible is on record. Apparently his mom chose not to devote much attention to the Marvelettes at Motown. On one hand, it's her story and she can tell what she wants to tell, but I can understand why she was unable to sell it to a publisher in the early 90s when there was a market for Motown books.

To me the value of the book is the story it tells of what it was like for a single Black woman to live in the US in the 60s to the 90s without much in terms of financial resources.

[franjoy56]

Does anyone know anything about the book in terms of number of pages, pictures, etc.?

the book has 608 pages. Only 40 or so pages on the marvelettes but I'm only up to her list show in Jan 68 at the fox where she has a spat w no gordy