Supremes Fan Club ID
Supremes Fan Club ID
Mary Wilson Fan Club
Some of you will have this album that could only be ordered via coupons of Axion washing power. But how many do have this Axion box?
@Motown_Marc, Very very cool. I had no idea where that album ever came from. I always wondered how it happened that the Sups and Diamond were on the same LP. And to have the foresight to save the box also, that is really something!
I thought so also, but that concert is noted in the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1414...in-gaye-tammi/
I only kept 2 copies of Blues & Soul Magazine... the iconic 1971 ...The Motown Story ...issue ...and the lesser-known 1983 issue ...The A To Z Of Motown ...which at the time was probably my first 'Motown Encyclopaedia'...of any kind...!!
Grape
Last edited by grapevine; 04-09-2020 at 09:03 AM.
Thanks Kenneth, but I only got hold of the Axion-package decades later.
Some other cool stuff for me:having Raynoma sign my copy of her book as ‘Mother Motown’. As well as signatures from Martha Reeves, Berry Gordy, Claudette Robinson and Ronnie White.
Marc, that laundry soap box is a very unique Motown related item, lol. I had no idea that LP was a mail-in item. It took me many years to find a copy in the original shrink, as I strive to find my original press LP's in their original shrink. They are usually in the best condition and well taken care of if the original owner left the wrap on.
We're all aware of The Supremes' Coca Cola advertising campaign. The ads stated for 50 cents to cover s/h you would receive this color photo of the girls. The ads are a dime a dozen, but the promotional photo seems to be pretty tough to find. I was glad to get one finally!
Interesting....maybe this post will revise the history of the duo's "last performance" as we currently know it. I never second guessed the concert taking place, as I know without a doubt this placard is period and original, but never took into account their last show has always been reported to take place in October.
This is a piece/part of the original "floating heads" art used on the back of Motown MS-681 "Merry Christmas From Motown". This was out of Joe Shillair's collection as well.
That is very interesting. I was wondering about who Joe Shillair was and his connection to Motown. I have a few other things like this and they all his name stamped on the back. I figured he had a graphic arts studio and maybe did some work for Motown. I hope you get to share more of your stories here with us. I'd love to hear them.
These are incredible! Absolutely love this sort of thing! I have the photographs used for the "Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten" album cover [[the one where he is wearing a red suit) and the photograph that was used for the "Stevie Wonder Down To Earth" album cover. I should have them framed like you did with yours. That really looks great. So many amazing Motown items have popped up on ebay over the years. To paraphrase a great musical: if I were a rich man...
I figured I would post a couple "inside" Motown items, paperwork that show some of the behind the scenes or inner workings of the company so they could keep the hit machine rolling.
This is the original typed label copy form for The Supremes' "Reflections" album. [[Timely since we're all still waiting patiently for the extended release!) It's dated 2/27/68. Obviously this would have been copied and sent to the pressing plants to produce the proper labels for the discs.
Last edited by DWSheffer; 04-09-2020 at 11:12 AM.
Here is a letter from Keys Popular Song Distributors to Jobete. Motown sheet music collectors know most of the earlier pieces of sheet music were printed by Keys. They are generally smaller size sheets [[8.5 by 11 inches) than the standard size sheets [[9X12 inches). At any rate, this letter of August 28, 1963 is interesting in the fact that Keys is informing Jobete that "Mickey's Monkey" and "Love Is Like A Heat Wave" did not have enough calls to warrant sheet music production for either title. They are offering to include the songs in folios if Jobete is in agreement. The letter goes on to say that sales of "Finger Tips" sheet music has been great.
AND speaking of "Finger Tips"....I do have the original sales agreement between Keys and Jobete for the publication of the sheet music for the song, dated June 13, 1963. The retail price per sheet was set at .60 cents, with Jobete receiving .20 cents per sheet sold and paid for. The licensing agreement is a little more involved in the line of payouts. Also shown is the sales and payment report for the quarter ending September 30, 1963. Jobete was paid $1939.60 for the sales of 9,698 copies of the sheet. Interesting stuff, at least to me anyways!
Darin
Here is a close up of a letter from the general manager of Jobete asking if someone was using cuts of the Marvelettes and The Contours and how they acquired the rights to do so. Motown was protective of their properties!
this is terrific stuff !! thanks to you all for making the effort it takes to share ! keep them coming ! cool items!
boogiedown
You know Darin you have the most fascinating things. Memos, letters, these label copy sheets- all of these taken together really form yet another facet of how Motown worked. I never would have considered all the paper work that is involved with printing a label for an album's tracklist or even a 45 for that matter. I don't know how the general public would react to the intricate day-to-day details of a record company, but I'm sure die-hard Motown fans would be intrigued.
Interesting too on this label copy sheet, they have Motown/Gordy/Tamla and...Workshop Jazz listed, but not V.I.P. I'm guessing this was a form that was drafted early in Motown's operation.
This is an interesting archive from Joe Glaser, owner of Associated Booking Corporation from July 27, 1966. This is another instance of being on the receiving end of Motown, this time from VP Esther Gordy Edwards. It sounds as if Motown wasn't happy with ABC overall, and Esther wasn't happy Joe wasn't representing Motown's artists himself, per an agreement a year prior. The letter informed Joe that he was no longer exclusively representing Martha and The Vandellas or The Temptations. The letters Joe wrote to his guys give some interesting insight into the situation. I hope the files are big enough the membership can read them. My favorite line in the letter to Bobby: "She also wanted a minimum of $5000 a day for The Temptations, which I can assure you they're not worth".
Last edited by DWSheffer; 04-09-2020 at 03:33 PM.
Extremely interesting thread . Thank you all.
Well let's see what I can dig out today.....being home [[not by choice!) for the first time in my 26 years of employment will sure be interesting. At least it's given me time to share some of my collection with the membership. I love this stuff, it really makes me feel like I'm part of the Motown story in my own way. I do plan on leaving my rarer and one of a kind items to the Motown Museum, where they will be archived and back home where it came from.
These bowls made for Motown's 10th anniversary are pretty hard to find. I'm lucky to be in relatively close proximity to Detroit and have contact with a couple record and memorabilia dealers that get some pretty rare items. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to acquire some of them, some are well out of my budget like the set of Supremes' dresses I was able to hold and the tote full of designer shoes with D, M, C written in the shoes for easy identification of who they belonged to. I actually have two of these presentation bowls, and both came right out of Detroit. I was told they were made for Motown VIP's and to present to important industry people. I'm sure they were not cheap to produce at the time, as they are made in Sweden. I love the artwork of Hitsville, which shows how important the symbol of the building was even then.
Last edited by DWSheffer; 04-10-2020 at 06:08 PM.
And speaking of Hitsville, I couldn't pass up this little model of the house which was made in 1981. It's approximately a 4.5" cube. I don't know if it was made for some event in particular, as the decal on the back is missing most of the bottom line. I can make out however that it would have said "The Artists and Music That Started It All! then something that ends with "Greetings 1981". Possibly an item made to give out at Christmas time, but I'm not sure. Regardless it's a neat little item!
Darin
This is a neat Kim Weston item, a folder sent out by ITMI promoting her. I'm sure at one time it contained a biography on ITMI letterhead, but that is no longer present unfortunately. What is present though is a great photo of Kim, as well as 13 pages of advertisements and stories from period newspapers. I've only seen one other of these folders and it was for Martha and The Vandellas, but I'm sure they existed for all of the major artists at the time. It's surprising to me just how difficult some of this stuff is to find!
Now THIS is really something! For all the feeling that Motown didn't seem to value Kim, it's interesting to see this. I've never seen anything like this before. Even the photos are quite rare.
Kim was quite young when she was with Motown, but it's easy to forget that given the glitzy dresses and carefully coiffed hairstyles she sported in many photographs; the photo of her in the newspaper clipping makes her look like a teenager getting ready to go to the malt shop! [[amazing how a change of attire can make women appear older or younger than their years.) Kim was a very pretty gal.
You truly have some most incredible items, Darin. You make my collection seem like small potatoes! Seriously though, you've amassed a mosaic of Motown items that really tells much more of The Motown Story- in some ways, better than any book I've read so far.
Well, here is another ebay find that I was over the moon to find and obtain. The original photograph that became the cover for the Jimmy Ruffin Sings Top Ten album [[the non-monochrome version) The photo is glued to heavy stock cardboard. I've got to frame this one of these days.
Last edited by WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance; 04-10-2020 at 11:40 AM.
What a neat item! I remember that tag line "The Artists and Music That Started it All," was used [[as I recall) as the basis for a series of Greatest Hits albums. But I don't remember if this series and the accompanying advertising campaign followed on the success of "The Big Chill" soundtracks or the success of the "Motown 25" special. I think it was the latter, but I'm sure someone else will verify.
What a fun thread this is turning out to be. Amazing, unusual items.
On April 18, 1971 Diana! Aired on ABC Television. But at what time, 9 or 10 PM?
Attachment 17112
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Spanish 45's :
Last edited by phil; 04-10-2020 at 05:19 PM.
Thanks for posting sophisticated_soul, those are some items I've not seen before, neat to see a foreign fan club card. Since you posted those I do have a couple other Supremes fan club cards not shown yet, as well as buttons. I was told by a a longtime memorabilia dealer the DMC pin is more difficult to find than the DMF version. The small photo is signed on the back by the girls, with Flo leading with "Supremes Florence".
Here is the only other fan club item I have, a more complete mailer for Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. The bio sheet is kind of fun to read 50+ years later....I wonder if Smokey still likes chicken with tomatoes, lol?!
These are the only other Motown buttons I have, for the J5 and Rare Earth Records.....
These Motown matchbooks are pretty neat....these are the only two designs I've seen in my years of collecting. Does anyone know of any earlier ones and possibly have a photo to share if you do? I'm sure with as popular as smoking was at the time they probably had some earlier ones in the Hitsville lobby!
Wow, I never knew there were MoTown matchbooks. Seriously awesome.
The most oddball thing I have is a copy of a portion of Diana’s address book from the 1970’s that some employee must have made; a fan gave a copy to me. It has Phone numbers for Berry, Florence, Esther, Cher, Lucille Ball, Bill Cosby, Pierre Cardin etc.
I’ll post a page of it when I have more than just my phone,
Interesting to see that the Dutch Supremes fanclub was in Delfgauw, close to where I live. Did they issue a magazine at the time?
Thank you, I'm very happy to share my collection with the forum Waiting! I've always personally felt in the world of music memorabilia that Motown and the soul genre in general is not given proper attention by collectors. If it isn't Rock n Roll or something of The Beatles or the like then they don't value it as highly. Motown is just never given it's proper dues for it's place in history!
Thanks for the other comments as well, again, glad to share.
I had to look for it but I knew I had my DR fanclub card somewhere. Also found some of my DR concert tickets.
I suppose my most 'Special Motown Collectables' ...are the 75 disc ...1849 track ...14 Volume complete set of ...The Complete Motown Singles...that were released by Hip-O / Motown Select between 2004 and 2013...!!!
Grape
Coverage of Florence Ballard's funeral from the Detroit Free Press.
I always thought I was keenly observant because I noticed that Mary has on the same cloche hat she wears on the back of the "High Energy" album.
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