I put the uni-dress right up there with the scarf dance. I'm sure you've seen that MSS clip.
I put the uni-dress right up there with the scarf dance. I'm sure you've seen that MSS clip.
very solid point there - D and F seemed to have an idea of comedy and of delivering lines. in every Flip Wilson skit, you can see that mary can't even begin to hold it together. and in interviews, mary doesn't seem to have the elocution that Diana did. we do know that diana worked and practiced this, endlessly. as for the other women, i'm not sure what they had. but the girls were definitely not actors. I'm not sure if they could have even handled taking over a variety show like Donny & Marie or the Captain and Tennille. with Diana, since she had really really worked at this and Berry had her [[and only her) handling the interactions on shows like Hollywood Palace, you might have been able to do it. but it would have been a strain.
i've even joked that having the Supremes on something like the Love Boat would have been fun. not sure how well it ever would have worked but something to laugh and think about. or other tv show guest appearances.
One thing is for sure, Mary almost always LOVED being on TV and she would often ham it up and overdo it. Dancing with the Stars is a quintessential example.
in a perfect world, i would have had the Sups take on the material the Pointers did. not necessarily meaning having the Sups doing their songs and lps. but the PS emerged as this amazing group that was EVERYWHERE. they were on those tv shows, they appeared on Gimme a break, they sang that numbers song on Sesame Street. they became a household name and institution AND they released popular songs.
not to begrudge them their fame but that's what i would have wanted for the Supremes.
Yes, yes, and yes. The Supremes should have been doing what the Pointers were.
The Supremes were in some horrible 'Beach Movie' back in the mid-60's. I think that
was their extent of 'movies' as far as I know. They sang a forgettable song or two as I
remember. I think the camera kept cutting away to show some idiotic shenanigans going on.
Mary had it in her collection. It was to be photographed for her Supreme Glamour book but when we were trying to put it on the mannequins, none of us could figure out how it worked. There were multiple holes for hands and heads to go through. Mary, frustrated with it, grabbed it and threw it back in the box saying "We didn't know how it worked then and we don't know it works now. Forget it." So we never photographed it.
The movie was called BEACH BALL. If I remember correctly, they sang their songs BEACH BALL and SURFER BOY during some sort of auto show. The girls also appeared in the film THE T.A.M.I. SHOW.
Later, they sang the theme songs for DR. GOLDFOOT AND HIS BIKINI MACHINE and of course, THE HAPPENING.
lol i just get so tickled with that whole story! lol didn't you say it was red? was there any patterning on it? sequins? or design?
I mean, at the end of the day, there could/should have only been so many holes!! 6 total arms, 6 total legs, and 3 heads lolol
Brad you should have tried it on with her and Andy lolol
Sup, with all due respect [because you do such a great job of keeping all the threads lively with discussion topics!], you have to remember that Geoffrey Holder [probably now best remembered as the TV/radio/print pitchman for 7UP in the '70s--"The Uncola Nut"] was the choreographer hired to revamp the Supremes' show in 1975. His hiring wasn't like they hired someone's Great Uncle Clem to do the job--he was an experienced choreographer/performer himself. Plus, I can only imagine that planning of the Dream Sequence likely included lots of input from Mary, Scherrie, and Cindy. [Can't you imagine that it all might have started with the conversation of, "if you could sing one totally non-Supremes-like song onstage, what would be your....dream song?"] The only problem with the whole things is that it was basically a vanity number for all the ladies. Sounds good in concept, but doesn't work so well in practice--or age very well. Once again, in that time of trying to reinvent the group [again] and their new [disco] sound, why weren't they singing songs from their newest album? As we have all said at one point, it might have spurred more sales.
Anyway, I would have a hard time believing that Mary insisted on the Dream Sequence number or that it met much--if any--resistance from Scherrie or Cindy. It was a number that gave each of them the spotlight. What performer [especially working in a group setting] wouldn't want that? Has Scherrie or Cindy [or Susaye] ever come forward in the years since and said, "what a stupid idea that Dream sequence number was..." Hindsight is 20/20 [especially for us fans!] so, in that moment, they probably loved doing something different in the show. This wasn't another "You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You" revamp! We fans may look at it now and go, WTF were any of them thinking? But I see where the idea started as a way to do something fresh and different. And, like that stretchy-three-girls-in-a-dress disaster that just didn't work once it hit the stage, I think the Dream Sequence was something that should have been phased out sooner. By the time Susaye was in the group, they definitely should have been singing more album cuts to give each lady a moment in the spotlight. Just my $0.62 cents worth of opinion...
Mary was a ham. I think she mentioned that she was shy as a kid. We know she became quite the social butterfly as she grew up. But man, get that woman in front of a camera...That's another thing I think that really made the original trio so much fun to watch. Regardless of what they may have been like off stage, on stage, with an audience watching, and/or a camera pointed in their direction, and they were ON. I don't think Mary really outgrew her love of the camera, whereas sometimes you could tell Diana might rather wish she was doing something else. Lol
sup_fan noted that "Mary doesn't seem to have the elocution that Diana did. We do know that Diana worked and practiced this, endlessly."
Apparently Motown noticed this too, and Diana was called upon to speak early on. In Sing Country, Western & Pop, for instance, she talked during Funny How Time Slips Away, Tears In Vain and Lazy Bones.
Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson stated in interviews that Diana has a very sexy speaking voice they loved listening to and that they wanted to utilize it in Ain't No Mountain High Enough.
But it seems that they failed to acknowledge all of the inspiration she provided, as she was not given a writer's credit for Some Things You Never Get Used To. That's the song in which, notably, she sang the catchy phrase "Looky here..." And, you guessed it, she also spoke that very line in Lazy Bones, uttering "Well, looky here..." as a preface to her observation about the song's title character.
If Diana had been given her due as a songwriter in '63 or '68, would she have left the group earlier? Would any of us have ever heard of or cared at all about Jean Terrell, Linda Lawrence, Scherrie Payne or Susaye Greene? If she had had those extra songwriting royalties, would she even have considered singing junk tunes like The Young Folks, I'm Living In Shame, The Composer or Dr. Goldfoot and The Bikini Machine? to pay the rent or put a few pieces of food on the table?
Oh I totally get it that they sought out Holder and hired him to revamp the show. My complaint is the direction he came up w was the wrong one. The primary strategy should have been to construct a show that would help recharge a general audience re-acceptance of the group. All for spotlighting the girls but why not in a more contemporary way? People thought of the group as an oldies act and so you add a medley of them performing songs from even older musicians?!?!
You don't get a writing credit for saying "looky" or "looka". That's just the way she spoke and it crept into her singing.
For the record, I believe the first Supreme to having a speaking part was Barbara.
As Sup pointed out, Diana worked hard at speaking. She was given a lot to do on stage in that regard and Berry and Co wisely understood that she needed work in that department. And work she did. Interestingly, I recall some articles written at the time that pointed out Mary's speaking ability, not Diana's. And personally, during audio [[and video) interviews I find that Florence often came across as the most articulate of the three. Diana had a habit- that I don't think she completely ever overcame- of tripping over her words. The onstage patter was heavily scripted, and she did that beautifully. Interviews were often obviously unscripted and she wasn't all that good at handling it, IMO.
Yes I agree. Flo sounds quite natural in her interviews. She doesn’t stumble or get tongue tied. But she also doesn’t charm the interviews like Diana did. Of course we only have a couple snippets of Flo so hard to really determine.
Didn't Diana say "Looky here" in "I'M GONNA MAKE YOU LOVE ME" as well?
This is the first time I've heard she should get writing credit for STYNGUT.
Although Diana has a very distinct singing voice and speaking voice, I would have to say she certainly doesn't come across as the most natural speaker in interviews. Out of the three of them, Mary actually comes across as the most natural and confident when speaking in an interview. I am sure Florence would, too, had the interviewer , IMHO, not been so rude to her about her weight. I think Gordy may have been hard on Diana when speaking and she may have been nervous about not making a mistake like she did apparently in the show the night before with Queen of The House. But all three could speak just fine and all three should have been able to continue to speak instead of just one spokesperson. That might have helped the unity of the group and wouldn't diminish the talents of anyone.
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