Mark Ribowsky The Supremes; A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success, and Betrayal (2010)(2)

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.That recording artist may have been Ross, al-though $700 seems a bit light for the back mortgage payments Floowed.It may well have been someone else, since Ray Gibson remem-bers hearing that Diana tried to send money but backed off because ofTommy Chapman s meddling. Diana would only do it if an agreement could be worked outbut Tommy wanted her to send the check to him, which she wouldn tdo.Diana is smarter than that.She never would have given Tommythat check.She knew better.We all knew better.In Call Her Miss Ross, J.Randy Taraborrelli contends the opposite,that Chapman was suspicious of Ross s motives [H]e thought shehad ulterior motives for wanting to save the home and thus wantedher check made out to him instead of to the bank, which prompted Di-ana to call off the deal.In an endnote Taraborrelli wrote: Ross hasnever discussed [the payment] but there are many Motown executiveswho recall this transaction and a copy of the voided check exists in Mo-town s accounting files. And what of Mary Wilson? In Dreamgirl Wil-son took pains to explain why she hadn t reached for her checkbook toaid Flo: Word of Flo s financial plight didn t reach me until she hadlost the house.She never asked for help a rationalization at best andwillful blindness at worst, similar to Diana s unlikely plaint to theChicago Tribune Magazine that Flo hadn t wanted her help (to whichshe added, She got to be a pain in the ass and I said, Oh, forget it! ).Indeed, at the time, Mary was trying hard to keep up with Diana Rossin self-absorption; as a result she spent like a drunken sailor, buyingamong other decadent items a white stretch Mercedes Benz and a clas-sic Silver Cloud Rolls-Royce.When Tony Tucker brought up Flo s predicament to Mary aroundthat time, she could hardly be bothered. I can t go around tryingto save Flo, she said, adding that Flo had spent her money, she mis-managed it.So what should I do about it? Another time: I have myown problems.I can t start feeling sorry now for Flo.0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:07 AM Page 392392 THE SUPREMESFlo, sensitive and intuitive as she was, didn t pull any punchesabout what had happened to the souls of her ex-Supreme mates.OfRoss, she told Tucker, It s a sickness, honey, simply a sickness; shethinks it s all about her.She concluded: That whole Supremes thing is a total sickness.Thus did Flo lose her house, and among her other problems onesthat didn t include what color Rolls-Royce to buy was the dangerousground she was on with the increasingly violent Tommy Chapman.Maxine Jenkins recalled that when she made a routine visit to aneighborhood doctor Flo also saw, she spied Flo one time in the wait-ing room, wearing sunglasses, shaking and crying.Maxine asked herwhat was wrong and Flo lifted the glasses to show two black eyes anddeep red bruises on her face, put there, she said, by Tommy.Chapman s physical abuse of Flo had been suspected for some time,with Flo always cutting him slack, making excuses, even blaming her-self for provoking him.But now he was also shirking his duties as afather and not bringing in any income.A frustrated Flo, who indeedwould go right back at Tommy when she was angry, would call Maxineand say, That black motherfucker didn t bring me any money formy kids!With the house gone, Tommy took the car and drove off into thenight.This time, Flo didn t keep the porch light on for when he d return.Sick of being battered and abandoned, she filed for a separation and,with her mother and Maxine, moved into a rundown, $150-a-monthapartment on the dumpy west side of town.Shutting off the outsideworld, she ate her way to over 200 pounds.To feed the kids, she appliedfor aid from the city s Aid to Dependent Children program and received$135 biweekly.Shaken and saddened by seeing Flo lose her house and descend intopoverty, Mae Atkins, her neighbor on Buena Vista, who with her hus-band, Cholly, had once rented Flo s basement as a dance studio, anony-mously called a reporter at the Detroit Free Press and related Flo s storyin the hope that someone would come to her aid.When the paper ranthe story, many Supremes fans were shocked that she had hit skid row.Many fans had indeed forgotten her, either assuming she was con-tentedly raising a family in splendor and leisure or never realizing she dever left the group.Few knew of her lawsuit against Motown.Now,0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:07 AM Page 393EPILOGUE: WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO? 393here she was, overweight, abandoned by her husband, and on welfare livin in shame, indeed.The implication was that Motown had tobe plenty cruel to fire her, pay her off in peanuts, then let her aSupreme go to pot.Because Flo had always played along with themyth of leaving the group amicably to get some rest, the truth hurt. I didn t leave, she said. I was told to leave. That story line wouldcontinue to follow Diana Ross and Berry Gordy for many years, withfuture implications that would bedevil Ross.Numerous well-wishers sent her letters and cards.Some came withchecks.A few offered jobs, which she didn t take.The Temptations Ed-die Kendricks dropped by her new place, knocked on the door, andwhen Flo s sister answered, stuck a hundred-dollar bill in her handand told her, Here, give this to Flo.The heartbreaking story was picked up by newspapers across thecountry; the Washington Post sent two reporters to Detroit to write theirown article.Flo was buoyed by the attention, and was ready with ajuicy quote. I dislike him very much, she said of Gordy, since Itrusted him very much and I also had a lot of respect for him at thetime and I put my faith in this man, but the money was never there! Idislike him very much. Interviewed by a Detroit radio station, shesaid, I spend my life trying to come out of this nightmare.I [have] hadmental anguish and a whole lot of mental problems, adding, I amfeeling a little better.I want to do something.I haven t made the deci-sion what. She mentioned getting a call from New York to recordbut admitted that she wasn t nearly ready for anything like that Notyet.When I get over these problems.That summer of 1975, Mary Wilson persuaded Flo to visit her in L.A.for a few days, and sent her a ticket [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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