Martha Reeves Faces Funding Deadline for Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

[StuBass1]

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This is from Stubass and it seems relevant to this discussion:


Hi Chris...

As the person who nominated and sponsored the successful campaign for the Funk Brothers Walk Of Fame recognition and advised on another... best of luck in your worthy efforts on behalf of Martha Reeves [[Vandellas too?)... Obviously, since 2013, the cost of the process has more than doubled according to your post. Ours cost $25,000 [[Andy Garcia told me that his Star in the 90's only cost $5,000)... It took me nearly the entire 5 years to come up with the funding and was "saved" at the last minute before having to consider using personal funds if I wanted the ceremony to continue... Assuming you have already gotten the acceptance of your nomination, one word of warning... The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, very nice folks, however, discourage public solicitation for funding, and in fact, I received 3 warnings, one relating to public solicitation of having the plug pulled by the Chamber on the entire event. We had to go more underground and through personal contacts, and thankfully, a few individuals came through, at the time unbeknownst to me, with the funding and we got it in just under the deadline... A lot of what we were doing was quite innocent, but apparently against the Chambers rules...Otherwise, Ana and Leron at the Chamber were great. One more warning...beware of those who would try to come along and hijack your efforts that happened to me, however, Ana knew what I had done and kicked the others to the curb... For some reason, there are those who want to be associated with the process... One person I did allow to organize with the after event celebration stiffed the musicians he hired and being a former musician myself, I felt bad and ended up paying them myself... This same guy also apparently stiffed the luxury bus he offered to provide to transport out of town guests to the after event... There was a time I would have gladly handed the project off to someone else, however, Ana convinced me that since I [[and a lady named Jeanne) had initiated the entire nomination, she urged me to stick with it and I did... A lot of work leading up to the actual ceremony and a lot of loose ends to tie up... The entire month before the ceremony, it was like I was working two fulltime jobs 24/7, but in the end, I'm sure you'll find your efforts satisfying and well worth it... Best of luck...

Hey Rob...

Been keeping an eye on this and wish the best for a successful conclusion... I too would have liked to have seen the nomination in the name of Martha and The Vandellas since the Star category is under "recording", and yes, the major hits were Martha and The Vandellas, although Martha has been a presence and impact player, particularly on the Detroit scene and she is terrific... One of the issues the Chamber has with these public fundraising efforts is in the event the fundraising goal falls short, guess who all the contributors go to to ask for refunds? Yes, they go to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce who not only doesnt participate in any fundraising, but actually prohibits such public fundraising efforts for the reasons stated, and makes clear at the time of the initial nomination that its the sponsors responsibility to provide the funding, assuming any solicitation will be conducted on a personal contact basis and not a public fundraising effort... As the deadline grew near on our Funk Brothers nomination, I also considered the possibility that I may have to reach down and cover the remaining cost myself since I felt a certain responsibility for the nomination, and thankfully it didn't come to that, although I did incur some personal costs for expenses surrounding the event that ultimately reached into the thousands... Hopefully a few large donors will step forward, however, many dont want to be known as an easy mark whenever these situations occur... I wish the sponsors had reached out some time ago, however not much I could do with the clock ticking down... Its literally a years long effort, however, I remain hopeful that it will get done... Motown has had a great run in recent years and Martha Reeves played a significant part in the company's success...