BERRY GORDY

'Berry Gordy, Jr.' (b. November 28 1929, Detroit, Michigan) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label and its many subsidiaries. The character "Curtis Taylor Jr." from the Broadway musical ''Dreamgirls'' and its film adaptation is based upon Gordy.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Personal life

Footnotes

External links

Biography

Early years

Berry Gordy, Jr. (actually Berry Gordy III)^[1] was the seventh of eight children born to the middle class family of Berry Gordy, Sr. (Berry Gordy II), and Bertha Fuller Gordy, who had relocated to Detroit from Milledgeville, Georgia in 1922. Gordy was brought up in a tight-knit family with strong morals.
His father was the grandson (Berry Gordy I) of a slave in Georgia and was lured to Detroit by the many job opportunities for blacks that booming automotive businesses like Ford offered. The strict parenting of the Gordy family paid off.
Berry Gordy's older siblings were all prominent black citizens of Detroit. Berry, however, dropped out of high school in the eleventh grade to become a professional boxer in hopes of becoming rich quick, a career he followed until 1950 when he was drafted by the United States Army for the Korean war.
After his return from Korea in 1953, he married Thelma Coleman. He developed his interest in music by writing songs and opening the 3-D Record Mart, a record store featuring jazz music. The store was unsuccessful and Gordy sought work at the Lincoln-Mercury plant, but his family connections put him in touch with Al Green, owner of the Flame Show Bar talent club, where he met Jackie Wilson.
In 1957 Wilson recorded "Reet Petite," a song Gordy had co-written with his sister Gwen and Billy Davis, which became a modest hit. Wilson recorded four more songs co-written by Gordy over the next two years.
===Motown records===
Gordy reinvested his songwriting successes into producing. In 1957 he discovered Smokey Robinson and The Miracles and began building a portfolio of successful artists. In January 1959 Gordy founded an R&B label called Tamla Records, which produced Marv Johnson's first hit, "Come To Me." At Robinson's encouragement, Gordy created Motown on December 14, 1959. Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)," besides appearing on Tamla, charted on Gordy's Anna label from February 1960. The Miracles' hit "Shop Around" peaked nationally at #1 on the R&B charts in late 1960 and at #2 on the pop charts in early 1961 and established Motown as an independent company worthy of notice.
Unlike most producers of the time, Gordy did not cultivate Caucasian artists, although right from the start some white artists were signed, such as Nick and the Jaguars, The Valadiers, Debbie Dean and Connie Vandyke. He did however have several white employees at Hitsville USA. He promoted African-American artists— but carefully controlled their public image, dress, manners and choreography for crossover appeal.
His gift for identifying musical talent, along with the careful management of his artists' public image, made Motown a national success. Over the next decade he signed such artists as Mary Wells, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight and The Pips, The Commodores, The Velvelettes, The Marvelettes, Martha & the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and The Jackson 5.
In 1968 Gordy moved to Los Angeles, California, and expanded Motown's offices there, following the riots in Detroit. In June 1972 he relocated the entire Motown Records company to LA, and the following year he reorganized the company into Motown Industries, an entertainment conglomerate that would include record, movie, television and publishing divisions.
In the 70's Gordy produced the successful film ''Lady Sings the Blues'' starring Diana Ross. The film also starred Richard Pryor, and introduced Billy Dee Williams. The studio rejected Williams after several screen tests, but Gordy, known for his gut-feeling tenacity, won out and Williams became a star. Ross was nominated for an Academy Award. Berry Gordy soon after produced and directed ''Mahogany,'' also starring Diana Ross. By this time, the Motown sound was losing popularity. Gordy turned to a song writer by the name of Rick James to update the Motown sound. However the relationship between Gordy and James was not a great one. Gordy some how convinced Rick James to give song writer credits to Smokey Robinson. He also convinced James into using an alias when writing songs for Smokey, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye and many others. Gordy stated that this was done for "tax evasion purposes". In 1985, he produced the cult martial arts film ''The Last Dragon'', which starred martial artist Taimak and one of Prince's girls Vanity.
Gordy sold his interests in Motown Records to MCA and Boston Ventures in June 1988 for $61 million. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and published an autobiography, ''To Be Loved'', in 1994.

Personal life

Gordy, who has been married and divorced several times, has seven children: Hazel Joy, Berry, Kennedy, Kerry, Rhonda, Stefan and Terry James. (His publishing company, Jobete was named after his three oldest children, Hazel ''Jo''y, ''Be''rry and ''Te''rry.)
Rhonda Ross Kendrick is the daughter of Gordy and his most successful female Motown artist, Diana Ross. Kennedy Gordy is better known as the Motown musician Rockwell. Gordy's daughter Hazel was once married to Jermaine Jackson. He recently bought a retirement home in Palm Desert, California in the "Big Horn".
Gordy delivered the commencement address at Michigan State University in 2006 and at Occidental College on May 20, 2007. He received an honorary degree from each school.

Footnotes

1. Although he was named "Berry Gordy, Jr.", Gordy is technically "Berry Gordy III", because his paternal grandfather was also named Berry Gordy. His son is correctly named Berry Gordy IV.

External links

★ Boxing Record

★ History of Rock bio

★ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio

★ The Motown Story information on Berry Gordy