[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
. However, not even in the blissful atmospherics of this triumph didGordy behave with any tact in singularly promoting Diana Ross andslighting Florence Ballard.The two were surely on a collision course forsome time, with Flo of the mind that even in her diminished role shewas integral to the chemistry and personality of the group, as shown onopening night.And she was right, far more so than Gordy knew, orwanted to.It may well even have been that the Supremes unfath-omable winning streak had kept him from seriously considering a radi-cal move, such as a solo Diana Ross project something all of Motownbelieved was an inevitability and never dismissed by Gordy.The streak was also a palliative for Ballard.She had done all shecould to get on with Diana; she d stepped aside as the leader for her,and sought to keep the old, albeit never strong, sister vibe going bytrying to include Diana in the parties on Buena Vista.Now, she workedextra hard mastering routines that clashed with her style and music sen-sibilities, rehearsing herself right into a sick bed, just as Diana had.Thedifference was, when the latter had taken ill, Gordy did everything butact as her wet nurse.For Flo, perhaps looking for a reason to questionher commitment to the Supremes, he couldn t spare even a phone call. 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:06 AM Page 223 BABY, JUST POUR 223Neither did it seem a coincidence when Diana began openly ques-tioning whether Flo was even very sick at all.When Flo had to delaygoing to New York, Diana cattily spent the couple of days that Flowasn t there with her and Mary telling people that if it were her, shewould collapse on stage at the Copa rather than be felled by a headcold though there was never any doubt that Flo would not havemissed the opening.That was the sort of nasty accusation that Flonever would have made about Diana, and was so personally cruel thatFlo had to assume that Diana took a cue from Berry. The one thing about Florence was, she was very, very sharp; shehad antennae, she could read people s intentions, her cousin Ray Gib-son believes. When she was sick before the Copa thing that was thefirst of many times she d get sick she could sense things that were hap-pening.It was like they wanted to use it to insult her, to make her seemlike an outcast so they could use it against her later.Hell, they knew shewouldn t miss the Copa.They would have had to kill her for her not tobe there.She was incredibly excited about it.She d tell me, Imaginethat, Raymond I m gonna be singing at the Copa! So all that bullshit made her stronger.She wasn t going to let themstop her from having her moment, any of the great moments theSupremes had.I think the objective with Florence was that Berrywanted to make it look like she didn t care about the Supremes, andthat was the furthest thing from the truth.That was her group, herdream.And here it was like they were trying to take it away from her,and she just never knew why.If they had to do that, tear her down,never say a good word about Florence, because they wanted to makeDiana stand out more, that s the height of cruelty.Thinking about it allthese years later, it still turns my stomach. Otis Williams believes that Flo never could reconcile having allthat success, being one-third of something so special, yet not being ableto sit back and enjoy.She couldn t figure out why it had to be so hard.She understood about Diana being the lead singer because she had avoice that sold records.But she couldn t understand why she was so un-appreciated by the Motown establishment. It was surely a weird dynamic.Onstage, fans seemed to have moreaffection for her than they did for Diana and Mary; regularly, shouts of We love you, Flo! or Sing it, Flo! would resound in the hall.Butthen she d get back to Motown and be ignored as the establishment fell all over Diana, and even Mary, whose low-pitched voice was almostalways recessed and was really now no more than that of a good-looking 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:06 AM Page 224224 THE SUPREMESmannequin whereas Flo s human qualities were both vocal, in thehigh, ringing notes she could let fly, and visual with her slightly against-the-grain ingenuousness.This certainly explained why club owners outon the road also loved her, far more than Gordy did while seeing her re-fracted by his obsessions with Ross.Indeed, those shouts of We loveyou, Flo may have had something to do with Gordy s waspish attitudetoward Ballard, given that Ross rarely, and Wilson never, were the re-cipient of such hosannas from Supremes fans.Gordy s plans meant hehad to get that kind of reaction for Ross, even if he would have to man-ufacture it.It wasn t just paradoxical that he could have regarded any form ofadulation for the Supremes as a threat to his blueprint; it was beyondabsurd.But the fate of Florence Ballard seemed to show that it wasstandard operating procedure around Motown, as Ballard becameknown as a problem. The more adrift Flo became, the more she found the means to gauzethe hurt with a glass in her hand.For most in the Supremes en-tourage, Ballard s increased consumption of alcohol meant nothingother than that she was a good-time girl who liked to get the juice flow-ing for everyone.At the Plaza, she set up a wet bar in her room, makingSuite 811 the place to be.Here, every day, room service was instructedto roll in her standing order, which was described by one reveler as abottle of everything, one Scotch, one vodka, one gin, one rum, one rye,and several dozen canapés along with a dozen each of champagneglasses, water glasses, highball glasses, and shot glasses, and three icebuckets.Everyone just took it as a road-show version of the basement barshe had at home, with the same intent to provide spirits for peoplestreaming into the room at all hours.As always, she meticulously set upthe bar, pouring all the booze from their bottles into the decanters andserving the drinks herself, every inch a lady who could keep waves ofguests entertained for hours.Flo would imbibe freely, but while shecould drink them all under the table she seemed to be able to hold herbooze, too, and almost never appeared to be drunk.But being around all that alcohol was a comfort, too, and duringthe Copa run Flo Ballard needed comfort as her grand dream turnedsour.Even in the opening-night afterglow, before the orchestra had 0306815867_ribowsky:6.125 x 9.25 4/22/09 11:06 AM Page 225 BABY, JUST POUR 225stopped playing, Gordy was messing with her about her amusing ad libduring the final number. About that one-liner you dropped in, he began, uneasily. Realfunny stuff. But he didn t say it as if he really thought it was funny; to Flo, itsounded sarcastic, meant to cushion what he wanted to say, and hersuspicion was well founded when he added, Diane loved it, some-thing Flo couldn t have cared less about. Oh, she did, did she? she said.He then told her it was a good idea to keep the one-liners in theact, but that maybe we ll give Mary a line, too. Pause. And, nexttime, I want you to say Before he could utter another word, Flo was in high dudgeon. Holdit, Berry, she said, raising a hand Stop! In the Name of Love style. I ll do it my way.That s my thing, nobody else s
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
