Timmy84 said:

HuMpThAnG said:

Well, she did have a baby by him

That don't mean shit. Berry didn't acknowledge her for 13 years...lol I read when Diana and her husband at the time attended Jermaine Jackson's wedding, Berry said some shit about Hazel being the only daughter he had. Diana and her husband left the ceremony after that.

[Edited 12/16/12 17:48pm]

It may take him a while, but BG comes around. I think Tee said that it was thirteen years between seeing him and his showing up backstage after one of her shows. Time had healed all wounds.

Happy man right here. We all deserve a shot at redemption.

^ Oh he made up for it. Now he's real proud of Rhonda. And of course whatever bad feelings Diana had about Berry after leaving him in 1980 dimmed after a while too.

The whole Diana and Berry thing was so weird that it kinda defies logic! On one hand you have this guy who was both Diana's long term lover and ultimately her babydaddy, but this didn't stop him from ripping her off for years. In her case, I think it was more motivated by paternalism than sheer greed. On the other hand, you have a guy who's extremely passionate about his bio family and would have never let Rhonda (or Diana, for that matter) go w/o a certain lifestyle. It was if Berry couldn't choose between his Detroit hustler instincts and his family uber alles inclinations here. That said, Berry seemed to genuinely love Diana while he was robbing her blind...crazy, right?!

The Bob Silberstein thing was just too odd. From what I can make out, he started of as something of a beard to hide Diana's OOW pregnancy by Berry....but of course Rhonda is clearly NOT Bob's! It's hard for me to believe that Berry wasn't involved in cooking up that hairbrained scheme somehow. Even tho Bob and Diana ultimately had 2 kids together, Berry was all up in their story from beginning to end. I think she finally shook Berry's meddling when she moved to RCA.

That would have made it extremely diffcult for him to come forward and publicly claim Rhonda cuz Diana was married to someone else during most of the years before she turned 13.

One thing I think I can say here is that even if he'd tried to hinder her career like he did other when they left Motown, he wouldn't have done it even if he could have. By 1980, I don't think he had the juice to pull it off like he did in the Mary Wells/ Flo Ballard days and Diana was far too big of a star anyway, hence RCA's huge offer.

[Edited 12/17/12 3:32am]

Timmy84 said:

^ Oh he made up for it. Now he's real proud of Rhonda. And of course whatever bad feelings Diana had about Berry after leaving him in 1980 dimmed after a while too.

Whatever his faults, he always seems to try to do right by his blood kin. He might have been a hot mess to their mothers (and Marvin Gaye ), but he seems like he values family above all.

Timmy speaking of MG, have you ever heard that story about him having Marvin III by an underage Gordy family member from whom he and Anna later adopted the kid? If so, what do you think of this story?

brooksie said:

Timmy speaking of MG, have you ever heard that story about him having Marvin III by an underage Gordy family member from whom he and Anna later adopted the kid? If so, what do you think of this story?

Marvin was sexually impotent for most of his life so I doubt he took a part in it. Denise Gordy only confirmed that she mothered MG III. But III looks too much like Denise Gordy. Got nothing of Marvin in him whatsoever.

Compare III to Nona and Frank Gaye (the latter his two with Janis Gaye) and tell me if you think the same man who looked like he spit Nona and Frank out of his semen would do the same for a Gordy-looking boy as MG III. I blame the biographers (like Steve Turner, Ben Edmonds and Michael Eric Dyson) for indicating Marvin may have took part in it with no real proof of it. Point blank, III is not as much of Marvin's biological child as he wasn't Anna's. Denise Gordy basically had another boy father her son. Janis was Marvin's Priscilla though Janis was only a year from 18 (not 16 as Marvin and others suggested). It's a miracle Marvin was still able to produce Nona and Frank at all because of his sexual fears.

[Edited 12/17/12 4:02am]

MickyDolenz said:

I don't see Motown as different than any other label. They focused on more on certain acts and less on others. Motown also gave out the same rip off contracts like other labels. Even later on they wouldn't let Teena Marie out of her contract, but wouldn't release her music. She had to sue.

I was watching Teena's Unsung episode the other week. She said she didn't blame Berry for how Motown screwed her over. She said she and Berry were still actually very close long after she left the label.

kitbradley said:

MickyDolenz said:

I don't see Motown as different than any other label. They focused on more on certain acts and less on others. Motown also gave out the same rip off contracts like other labels. Even later on they wouldn't let Teena Marie out of her contract, but wouldn't release her music. She had to sue.

I was watching Teena's Unsung episode the other week. She said she didn't blame Berry for how Motown screwed her over. She said she and Berry were still actually very close long after she left the label.

I'm pretty sure there wasn't a real Lady Tee album to release at the time. After the incredible body of work that she put out at Motown, releasing the collection of demos and random songs availalbe to Motown would have been an unprofitable disgrace to all parties. I think Tee was really looking to get out of the contract and away from some of the people at Motown who weren't giving her the proper respect she deserved as as the top female act on the label. And yeah, there was the financial aspect. But she only had a year left on the contract - why not put one more record out and then sign a more resonable contract, or move on? Why not earn big money from performing live for a year and then look at the contract situation again? There was the principle of the matter. And, I think, our beloved Rick was working her ear and trying to convince her to walk out the door of Motown. I think that not only was he too much for her in some of his wild ways, she was too much for him in the strength of her backbone. He "tought me the game" (TM); and with that insight she was a bit of a threat to his ability to dictate in his world without being questioned. And particularly when you are partying at his level you don't want to be bothered with someone placing you in check, at any level, on a regular basis.

Here's a cute shot of Teena's "brush with the law." She's getting ticketed for jaywalking.

http://www.angelfire.com/la2/dytimages/images/teephotoofthemonth.jpg

[Edited 12/17/12 10:37am]

if you watch the Marvin Gaye celebrity crime files episode, that touches on some of what happened and what went down between Gordy and Marvin Gaye. I know because I had it recorded on cable.

http://tvone.tv/shows/cel...isode.html

fred12 said:

I'm one of the biggest fans or maybe the #1 fan of Hitsville USA...i admire Mr. Gordy so much because of what he brought to the world of not just soul music, American Music...but it saddens me to hear about what really went on behind closed doors..i understand that motown was like a family, your good days tnen bad days..but when you hear stories about Florence Ballard, Martha Reeves, Shorty Long, Marvin gaye, The funk Brothers, The Isley Brothers(whom people forgot were on the label for a little), and Gladys Knight(who was already big time and even bigger when she left)...

Was it Berry Gordy himself or was it the Motown Machine?