Never saw this pic before.

[lakeside]

[Ollie9]

It was featured on the concert programme cover when she appeared at The London Palladium in 78.

[marybrewster]

Wool, yellow dresses. Later had the sleeves removed. The Lemon Lovelies, lol.

[RanRan79]

I've seen it on the program from one of her shows. Someone said this was the start of Mary's trouble with the Rag. Look at her face. She looks like she's ready to make trouble.

Sometimes I can't get past how gorgeous Mary is.

[marybrewster]

Any idea what year this was? 1981?

[RanRan79]

I'm guessing if it was the one used when Ollie saw Mary, then it was 1978.

[Ollie9]

I'm guessing if it was the one used when Ollie saw Mary, then it was 1978.

I’m guessing you’re right.

[carlo]

Wool, yellow dresses. Later had the sleeves removed. The Lemon Lovelies, lol.

I always thought these gowns were called Custard & Cleavage.

[BayouMotownMan]

This was from a photo session with the two Karen's not long after Scherrie and Susaye left and Mary sued Motown. Gowns from the Jean years.

[jobeterob]

They were still active and on tour in 2019. Are they or is she still active?

[bradsupremes]

I always thought these gowns were called Custard & Cleavage.

I thought they were called the Golden Sunshines.

[bradsupremes]

I will never understand why Mary for the longest time included her background singers in her publicity photos. Even well into the early 2000s she had them included. It was a big mistake on her part especially when she was trying to establish herself as a soloist. This one especially with them wearing the gowns with her did her no favors. This would later come back to haunt her with Kaaaren in court.

[marybrewster]

The wording, and layout, and punctuation on this is misleading.

Is it:

The Supremes; Mary Wilson with Karen Jackson & Kaaren Ragland.....

.....or The Supremes' Mary Wilson, with Karen Jackson & Kaaren Ragland?

[RanRan79]

I very easily read it as:

THE SUPREMES MARY WILSON

WITH

KAREN AND THE RAG

To Brad's point, publicizing the backing singers was a horrible, horrible move. It's clear that she was trying to do two things at once: be a solo artist and give the impression that the group was still a thing. It came back to bite her in the butt. If I'm not mistaken, I seem to recall an advert for a show she did in the 90s that had her photographed with two female backing vocalists. I think I put it in a scrapbook.

[jobeterob]

I very easily read it as:

THE SUPREMES MARY WILSON

WITH

KAREN AND THE RAG

To Brad's point, publicizing the backing singers was a horrible, horrible move. It's clear that she was trying to do two things at once: be a solo artist and give the impression that the group was still a thing. It came back to bite her in the butt. If I'm not mistaken, I seem to recall an advert for a show she did in the 90s that had her photographed with two female backing vocalists. I think I put it in a scrapbook.

I wonder how much financial damage they actually caused - how much bookings were affected.

You would think the FLOS took many more bookings than the SOS.

[lakeside]

With the above pic, I kinda got the impression Mary was presenting herself as the 'lead singer' of The Supremes?

[danman869]

Wait! I thought these yellow wool gowns were called the "Banana-Fana-Fo-Fana Delights"?

[RanRan79]

With the above pic, I kinda got the impression Mary was presenting herself as the 'lead singer' of The Supremes?

Does anyone know exactly how long Mary used these kinds of publicity photos for her solo career, where she's photographed with her background singers? [[Aside from my anecdote about the clipping I think I have from the 90s.)

The reason I ask, and to piggyback off of Lakeside's comment, is that if the photos are all from a 1977/78 session, it could be that this was done to satisfy the remaining Supremes engagements that Mary says she was on the hook for.

[reese]

Does anyone know exactly how long Mary used these kinds of publicity photos for her solo career, where she's photographed with her background singers? [[Aside from my anecdote about the clipping I think I have from the 90s.)

The reason I ask, and to piggyback off of Lakeside's comment, is that if the photos are all from a 1977/78 session, it could be that this was done to satisfy the remaining Supremes engagements that Mary says she was on the hook for.

It went on for some time. When she came to the Boston area in 1985, the act was billed as THE SUPREMES FEATURING MARY WILSON [I believe] and the ad featured a photo of Mary [wearing the TCB gown from the I'M THE GREATEST STAR segment] with her two backup singers. Another photo used in an article promoting the concerts showed a different photo of Mary with the same backup singers, but Mary was wearing her MOTOWN 25 gown. I've enclosed an ad from another 1985 show, which shows the photo I'm referring to.



For a later Boston engagement [circa the early 2000s, I believe] the photo in the ad showed Mary, again with her backup singers. I forget how the show was billed but I think Dennis Edwards' Temptations Review was on the bill as well. Unfortunately, this show was canceled.

[Thornton]

When I saw Mary live in the summer of 2003, she was billed as Mary Wilson & The Supremes.

[RanRan79]

I understand that Mary may not have always been responsible for the way a venue or promoter billed her. And I can certainly understand why they might want to bill her that way, if they feared "Mary Wilson" alone wasn't enough to draw a crowd. But Mary and those promo photos...I can't believe she did that. I've made the accusation before and this just reenforces it, Mary either had no manager or she always had managers who sucked at their job. I can't believe no one told her to stop it.

[bradsupremes]

I understand that Mary may not have always been responsible for the way a venue or promoter billed her. And I can certainly understand why they might want to bill her that way, if they feared "Mary Wilson" alone wasn't enough to draw a crowd. But Mary and those promo photos...I can't believe she did that. I've made the accusation before and this just reenforces it, Mary either had no manager or she always had managers who sucked at their job. I can't believe no one told her to stop it.

Plus for a least a solid decade after The Supremes disbanded, she continued to wear Supremes gowns and even had her background singers wear them too. Sometimes all three would match like in the photo above. Other times she would be wearing a gown from one set and someone like Karen and Robin would be wearing another set - often times clashing in appearance. What was she thinking? It's part of the reason why so many of those gowns in her collection went through the ringer and are quite fragile today. Had she put all those gowns to rest in 1977 or sooner, they would have fared better in shape today.

[jobeterob]

Aren’t all these choices driven by the need for bookings and ultimately finances?

To get the bookings, you do what they want and you do the max to bring people to the shows or you won’t get more bookings.

Looking back or trying to view things without too much emotion by Mary, it seems to me someone in Mary’s [[or Cindy’s) position should have done what’s necessary and taken the money and run.

But I guess sometimes you just can’t do that.