She was Motown's brightest star, the one with guts enough and ambition enough to make her dreams come true, no matter where they took her. Rules that apply to others have never applied to Diana Ross. She won't let them. CALL HER MISS ROSS goes behind the footlights and stage facade, behind the broad smile and beautiful voice, for an exclusive look at the real Diana. J. Randy Taraborrelli has interviewed over 400 people and uncovered stories that have never been told before. The ultimate control maven, she became the star of The Supremes without giving Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard a second throught, but also gave them both money when they ended up broke; self-centered, she dated newlywed Smokey Robinson on the sly in order to get more work at Motown; fiercely devoted mother of five, she gives her children anything they desire; impossible employer, she insists that everyone call her "Miss Ross"; insecure star, she demands complete control over every record, every movie, and every performance, no matter what the result. Her triumphs and tragedies, her virtues and vices, her lovers and enemies -- here's Miss Diana Ross as she's never been seen before. "Enjoyable . . . [A] marathon bitchfest." -- The Village Voice
From a fierce and humorous new voice comes a relevant, insightful, and riveting collection of personal essays on the richness and resilience of black girl culture--for readers of Samantha Irby, Roxane Gay, Morgan Jerkins, and Lindy West. Shayla Lawson is major. You don't know who she is. Yet. But that's okay. She is on a mission to move black girls like herself from best supporting actress to a starring role in the major narrative. Whether she's taking on workplace microaggressions or upending racist stereotypes about her home state of Kentucky, she looks for the side of the story that isn't always told, the places where the voices of black girls haven't been heard. The essays in This is Major ask questions like: Why are black women invisible to AI? What is "black girl magic"? Or: Am I one viral tweet away from becoming Twitter famous? And: How much magic does it take to land a Tinder date? With a unique mix of personal stories, pop culture observations, and insights into politics and history, Lawson sheds light on these questions, as well as the many ways black women and girls have influenced mainstream culture--from their style, to their language, and even their art--and how "major" they really are. Timely, enlightening, and wickedly sharp, This Is Major places black women at the center--no longer silenced, no longer the minority.
Profiles the legendary icon, temperamental superstar, Civil Rights trailblazer, and mother, delving into all aspects of her life, including her family, her romances, and her career.
In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building’s entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted “Hitsville U.S.A.” The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company’s name was Motown. Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of America’s most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to resurgence in 2002. Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America’s northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s, Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy. But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit’s inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come with stardom—drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and uncontrollable ambition. Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet completely dysfunctional extended family. Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation, Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit’s Wayne County Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial—and hitherto largely untold—history of Motown and its stars, since almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters, producers, and the label ended up in litigation. From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an entire generation.
This unauthorized biography of entertainment legend Diana Ross strives to give a balanced account of her life and career while giving her the historical due that seems to have escaped her previously. Captured in vivid detail are her groundbreaking performances leading the Supremes, the renowned concert in Central Park amidst a raging thunderstorm, and the peaks and valleys of the more than 40 years of her ongoing stage, studio, and screen career. The book steers clear of dry biography, in that it is interspersed with entertaining essays that capture the effect her life and career have had on fans throughout the years. This book is a must-read for anyone with an appreciation for popular culture over the last half century.
In this extraordinary "scrapbook"-a photo album as glamorous and compelling as its subject-Diana Ross has insightfully collected a treasury of filmic memories, iconic images, and personal moments from her long career. An icon and powerful role model for four decades, she has been one of the most noticed people of our time, pictured by all the leading fashion photographers-Richard Avedon, Victor Skrebneski, and Herb Ritts, among them. From lead singer of The Supremes to one of the most successful female artist of all time, from her academy award nominated performance as Billie Holiday to her role as a muse to artists, she has been a powerful and vibrant force in American life. Hers is an inspirational story, first told carefully in words in her 1993 memoir Secrets of a Sparrow. Here her life is daringly and lovingly assembled in pictures, many never before published, and all rich with recent history, insightful comments, and plentiful anecdotes. From fashion icon to mother at home, this is a rare self-portrait by a very special person of our time. In this extraordinary "scrapbook"-a photo album as glamorous and compelling as its subject-Diana Ross has insightfully collected a treasury of filmic memories, iconic images, and personal moments from her long career. An icon and powerful role model for four decades, she has been one of the most noticed people of our time, pictured by all the leading fashion photographers-Richard Avedon, Victor Skrebneski, and Herb Ritts, among them. From lead singer of The Supremes to one of the most successful female artist of all time, from her academy award nominated performance as Billie Holiday to her role as a muse to artists, she has been a powerful and vibrant force in American life. Hers is an inspirational story, first told carefully in words in her 1993 memoir Secrets of a Sparrow. Here her life is daringly and lovingly assembled in pictures, many never before published, and all rich with recent history, insightful comments, and plentiful anecdotes. From fashion icon to mother at home, this is a rare self-portrait by a very special person of our time.
Profiles the legendary icon, temperamental superstar, Civil Rights trailblazer, and mother, delving into all aspects of her life, including her family, her romances, and her career.
Diana Ernestine Ross, born on March 26th, 1944, Detroit, Michigan, U.S, where she was brought up, is a singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Ross became famous as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, which became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s, being the best charting girl group in US history, and one of the world's best-selling female groups of all time. They released a record-setting twelve # 1 hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Child", and "Someday We'll Be Together".
The Guinness Book of World Records calls her the best-selling female singer in history. Billboard named her the Celebrity of the Century. Diana Ross, lead singer of the most popular girl group of the 1960s and later a consummate solo artist, has been in the public eye for over four decades. From 1964-when "Where Did Our Love Go?" rose to number one on the pop charts-to the present day, she has been the ultimate diva, an artist worshiped by fanatical fans, yet pilloried in the press for her temper tantrums and untoward demands. Ed Ifkovic delivers his own spin on this international celebrity, an idiosyncratic collection of short pieces that create a portrait of the mercurial star. From a Detroit housing project to a Connecticut mansion-who is this woman who exacts such loyalty from her fans and such vitriol from her detractors? There are pieces on Diana's tantrums, true, but also jottings on the homes she's lived in, the food she eats, the cars she drives, even her role as muse for writers. There is a collection of poetic similes commentators have employed to describe her, as well as a mind-boggling catalogue of garish tabloid headlines. This off-beat book, admittedly an obsessive fan's unembarrassed send-up-equal parts delight and censure-is a spirited yet sardonic tale that also explores the integration of black music into the white mainstream. Frankly, Diana led that noble charge. What the author delights in is the unorthodox observation and gossipy tidbit that accompanied that revolution.
Mysteries and Legends of New England explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in the region’s history—evenly divided between the New England States (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island).
