The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard
In the months before she died, Florence Ballard, the spunky teenager who founded the most successful female vocal group in history—the Supremes—told her own side of the story. Recorded on tape, Flo shed light on all areas of her life, including the surprising identity of the man by whom she was raped prior to her entering the music business, the details of her love-hate relationship with Motown Records czar Berry Gordy, her drinking problem and pleas for help, a never-ending desire to be the...
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In the months before she died, Florence Ballard, the spunky teenager who founded the most successful female vocal group in history—the Supremes—told her own side of the story. Recorded on tape, Flo shed light on all areas of her life, including the surprising identity of the man by whom she was raped prior to her entering the music business, the details of her love-hate relationship with Motown Records czar Berry Gordy, her drinking problem and pleas for help, a never-ending desire to be the Supremes’ lead singer, and her attempts to get her life back on track after being brutally expelled from the group. This is a tumultuous and heartbreaking story of a world-famous performer whose life ended at the age of 32 as a lonely mother of three who had only recently recovered from years of poverty and despair. Al Abrams Florence deserved a biographer with Benjaminson's skill and talent. . . . If this book were a record it would top the charts. (Al Abrams, publicity director, Motown Records, 1964-66)
Preface: Flo and Me xiiiAcknowledgments xviiIntroduction: Founder and Soul Sister xixDetroit Is Where It's At 1Generosity and Betrayal 9Always a Bridesmaid 25Roughing It 37"Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom, Boom-Boom-Boom-Boom, Ba-by, Ba-by" 45In Pursuit of False Gods 51Supremes at the Summit 55Room at the Top 67Struggle Among the Stars 75The Corner of Hollywood and Woodward 83Trouble at the Top 87After the Fall 99"I Now Pronounce You" 107Dashed Hopes 109Fleeced Again 119Bleak House 125Friend or Foe? 129Paranoid, Isolated, and Homeless 135Three into Two Won't Go 141Down, Down, Down and Out 145Inside the Mental Ward 153To Err Is Human 163The Lost Supreme 167Flo Sums It Up 171Where's the Rest of Me? 173Afterword: The Dreamgirls Resurrections 177FlorenceBallard, Primettes, and Supremes Discography 181Excerpts from Florence Ballard's Legal Case Against Motown Records et al. 185Sources 201Index 205
\ Otis WilliamsGet to know the real Flo, from the beginning to the end. A must read. (Otis Williams, The Temptations)\ \ \ \ \ Al AbramsFlorence deserved a biographer with Benjaminson's skill and talent. . . . If this book were a record it would top the charts. (Al Abrams, publicity director, Motown Records, 1964-66)\ \ \ Greil MarcusWhat a reader may take away from this book is a new understanding of how cruel the American promise of success can be. (Greil Marcus, author, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads)\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyJournalist and author Benjaminson (The Story of Motown) attempts valiantly, painstakingly to resurrect the reputation of founding Supreme member Florence Ballard, who left the group early on and descended into litigiousness and alcoholism. Then a reporter with the Detroit Free Press, Benjaminson interviewed Ballard a year before her death in 1976 and elicited a sad story of a starry-eyed, single-minded high school dropout whose dream, and fortune, was co-opted by Berry Gordy's Motown empire. Growing up together in Detroit's black working-class Brewster Projects, gospel-singing Ballard and Mary Wilson first formed the Primettes, joined by Diane (as she was then known) Ross and Betty McGlown, who eventually dropped out. In 1961, the teenagers auditioned for Berry Gordy, who kept them doing backup as they matured, touring with the Motortown Review across country by bus until the newly configured Supremes (Ballard chose the name) had their first hit in 1964 with "Where Did Our Love Go?" The boom-boom beat coupled with the nasaly sound of Ross's voice prompted Gordy to promote Ross rather than Ballard as lead. Over the Supremes' several heady years in the spotlight, Benjaminson explains in this engaging biography, gobs of money vanished through flimsy contracts and the fingers of unscrupulous managers, costly clothes and glamorous acquaintances, and Ballard's resentment of Ross's ambition and Gordy's manipulation got her fired. (Apr.)\ Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalMotown Records launched the careers of many black recording artists. One of the most beloved groups was the Supremes, with Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard. Contrary to popular belief, Ballard was the founder of the group; however, at the time of her death, she was unemployed, broke, and on welfare, never able to recover her career after being fired from the group. Her constant battles with Motown owner Berry Gordy, Ross, and her lawyers caused financial and emotional ruin. Although there are many available books on the Supremes, this one concentrates on Ballard's life before, during, and after her rise to fame; former reporter Benjaminson (The Story of Motown) gathered information from Ballard herself shortly before she died. His style is concise, coherent, and engaging. Readers who are familiar with the group and even those who are not will definitely enjoy this well-written biography. [The character of Effie White, played by Jennifer Hudson in the popular film adaptation of Dreamgirls, is based on Florence Ballard.-Ed.]\ —Rosalind Dayen Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information\ \ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsA book-length portrait of the best singer in Motown's biggest group, delivered three decades after her death. Born in Detroit in 1943, Florence Ballard co-founded the Primettes in 1959 with Diana Ross and Mary Wilson. By 1960, they were working as background singers at Motown Records; when founder Berry Gordy insisted on a new name, Ballard chose the Supremes, and the rest was music history. But all was far from rosy. Ballard was haunted by memories of her rape by a family friend when she was 17; she could be difficult, and she refused to be the controlling Gordy's "puppet on a string." Around 1966, angered by all the attention focused on Ross, who made sure the boss liked her best, Ballard began hitting the bottle hard and was fired from the group the following year. Her post-Supremes solo career never took off, and by 1975, when the author was a reporter at the Detroit Free Press, she and her three children were on welfare. Benjaminson's article about her plight ran nationally, and he won Ballard's trust. She recounted her life to him in eight hours of interviews taped before she died in 1976. Benjaminson (Secret Police: Inside the New York City Department of Investigation, 1997, etc.) relies heavily on this material-indeed, at times it seems he reproduced the interviews in their entirety-but he works hard to place it in context and bring to light its natural narrative arc. He also read the relevant court documents, as well as dozens of books and magazines, and he interviewed Ballard's key surviving family members and Mary Wilson. The book sometimes gets bogged down in minutiae and windy song analysis, but Motown obsessives will appreciate the attention to detail, which doesn't detracttoo much from the final product. Pair this with Wilson's equally revealing autobiography Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme (1986), and you've got an unmatchable snapshot of the exhilarating yet often ugly 1960s soul music scene.\ \ \ \ \ From the Publisher"Readers who are familiar with the group and even those who are not will definitely enjoy this well-written biography." —Library Journal \ "An unmatchable snapshot of the exhilarating yet often ugly 1960s soul music scene." —Kirkus Reviews\ "Peter Benjaminson's sardonic, hard-nosed series of vignettes from the white-collar world of Tweed-like municipal corruption is the dramatic story of a city unraveling from the top." —Village Voice\ "Get to know the real Flo, from the beginning to the end. A must read." —Otis Williams, The Temptations\ "Benjaminson tells Flo's story masterfully, with all the drama and empathy her life deserves." —Gerald Posner, author, Motown and Why America Slept\ "Ballard's voice was never prominently featured in the group's hits. Yet in The Lost Supreme, we finally hear Ballard." —The Boston Globe\ "Benjaminson holds back nothing, sharing with the reader the thoughts and moods of the various figures who came and went during the early years." —Soul Magazine\ "Flo was a beautiful person—loving and warm. . . . She was down-to-earth, she loved to laugh, and everyone loved her." —Marvin Gaye\ \ \
