Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post
Ran - motown did intend to shelve the group when J and L left. at the point, the company had no interest in continuing the supremes and felt the group was done. They were an expensive act with costumes and recording and stage shows etc. I really don't know the full story of how/why the Sups were allowed to continue. When J and L left in late 73 there were a few dates still but motown could have simply cancelled the shows, worked with the promoters to put another act in. I can't believe they didn't just drop the act altogether

There have been stories floating around that Mary personally appealed to Berry about not being dropped. I can imagine she would be panicking at this time. motown would certainly not have kept her on as a solo act. and there were no groups for her to join on the label. And she had not other immediate opportunities, unless she followed J and L to another label. So she'd be unemployed

The story goes that Berry felt sorry for her and basically agreed not to drop her or the act
Whatever precipitated the decision, Motown decided to continue with the group. Doesn't make sense to do that if the initial decision was to let it faze out. Mary says in her book that the label was basically content to let the group disappear. I can't remember if she wrote that she appealed to Berry or not.

While Motown wasn't the Motown of the 60s, it was still a record label that refused to let it's acts have a whole lot of freedom. So somebody somewhere was greenlighting decisions. Mary, nor Pedro, had that kind of power. Motown released "He's My Man" because they thought it might hit. Whatever amount of promo they put behind the group, it's singles, it's albums, they had to feel some type of stake in it or the Scherrie years would've been a group recording but seeing no releases. So why go through putting a cent into this group whose name is so valuable and not give it 110 percent?

Maybe Mary should've gone solo when Jean and Lynda left. While I tend to think of the Scherrie years as Mary finding that one stepping stone to independence that she needed, maybe it ended up doing her more harm than good. I wonder how things may have fared for her had she left after "Bad Weather". Roberta Flack was having great success at the time. Maybe Mary would have heard her as inspiration and marketed herself as a balladeer-ess, which is one of her strengths. Who knows?