The Motortown Revue…Berry Gordy … Genius

It all started with a dream by Berry Gordy and an $800 loan from his family in 1959. The beginning of Tamla Records and the birth of the Mighty Motown Machine. As many of you know, I have a passion for Soul Music and especially the sounds of Motown which includes the entire Motown Family i.e., Tamla, Gordy, Motown, Soul Labels as well as the smaller labels like, Anna and Miracle which soon became part of the Motown empire. The one part of Motown History that most impresses me was the birth of the Motortown Revue, that began this day back in 1962 at the Howard Theater in Washington D.C. There have been many Rock n’Roll, Rhythm n’ Blues and Pop music concerts and tours that were popular in the 1950’s like the Shower of Stars and Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, but the brilliance of Berry Gordy to take a troupe of his performers on the road to promote his labels and his rising stars was a work of genius. The Motown sound was starting to sweep the nation, it was the music of our youth for young and old, black and white kids … it was the “The Sound of Young America!” Many of my friends from the Motown era were part of the Historic Revue, the likes of Martha Reeves of the Vandellas, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Katherine Schaffner of the Marvelettes and Joe Billingslea of the Contours. In particular I remember an interview I did with Martha talking about the early days of the tour how they had to battle racial obstacles and segregation issues. The shows were either separate segregated shows or mixed audience shows that sectioned off areas for black and white kids by a police-guarded rope that divided the performance Hall. The first Revue had the Marvelettes, Miracles, Mary Wells and the Contours as the head liners since they had charted music at the time. The undercard was Marvin Gaye, who would soon become the “Prince of Motown”, Martha and the Vandellas who in addition to having their own songs, sang background for Marvin Gaye, and the Supremes who did not yet have a hit record. The revue continued throughout the 1960’s and even went to Europe when the Beatles invaded the States. Image today attending a show with that many Hall Of Fame artists on one bill! The Motortown Revue … Berry Gordy … the man was Genuis!

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