Berry Gordy Jr.

Biography:

Berry Gordy Jr. was born on November 28, 1929, in

Detroit, Michigan. He was the great-grandson of a
slave woman. His father owned several small
businesses in Detroit, his mother helped run a
company that sold insurance policies to black
customers during a time when it could be difficult
for them to get insurance.

Gordy had many different jobs as a young man. He

worked for his father. He was a professional boxer.
He served in the army during the Korean War, and
then came home to Detroit and opened a record
shop where he sold Jazz records. When the shop
failed, he took a job at an auto manufacturer,
working on an assembly line. Eventually, he began
pursuing a career as a songwriter.

Gordy was not making much money from his musical work, although he did have some early
success. In 1959, he decided to go into business for himself. He borrowed $800 to start his own
record label. (He was not the first Gordy to do this — his sister Anna already owned a record
company.) Operations were based in a house located at 2648 West Grand Blvd. in Detroit, which
Gordy dubbed “Hitsville, U.S.A.” When he incorporated his company in 1960, he called it Motown
Record Corporation, a name that paid tribute to the city of Detroit, which was known as “Motor Town”
for its importance to the auto manufacturing industry. Soon, Motown was one of the most successful
record labels in the country, producing more than a hundred Top 40 hits in the span of a decade.

Role at Motown Records:

Gordy was not only Motown’s founder, but also its leader from the beginning until 1988. He oversaw
all of the operations at the label, from music production to artist development to marketing. He knew
virtually everyone who worked for the company on a personal basis.

One of Gordy’s responsibilities was auditioning new musicians for the label. His ability to spot raw
talent was remarkable. He also wanted to ensure that the musicians he hired made a good
impression on the public. He insisted that all of the label’s musicians receive formal training in
singing, dancing, and even etiquette. Gordy himself was often present at recording sessions and
could be a tough critic.
Gordy held weekly “quality control” meetings — one of many ideas he borrowed from local auto
manufacturers — where members of the Motown staff would evaluate the records being produced by
the company before they were released. Any recording not meeting the company’s high standards
would be rejected. Gordy would ask his team questions like, “If you had money only to buy either this
record or a sandwich, which would you choose?”

Quotations:

“At the plant the cars started out as just a frame, pulled along conveyor belts until they emerged at
the end of the line — brand spanking new cars rolling off the line. I wanted the same concept for my
company, only with artists and songs and records.”

“Hitsville had an atmosphere that allowed people to experiment creatively and gave them the courage
not to be afraid to make mistakes.”

“I broke down my whole operation into three functions: create, make, sell. Create something, make
something and then sell it.”
 Maxine Powell

Biography:

Maxine Powell was born Maxine Blair in 1915 in

Texarkana, Texas, and she was raised in Chicago
by her aunt, who taught etiquette classes.

Powell worked as an actress and model in her

youth, appearing with a company in Chicago
called the Negro Drama League. From there, she
went to school to become a manicurist and
cosmetologist. She was also a model.

In the 1940s, Powell moved to Detroit, where in

1951, she opened the Maxine Powell Finishing
and Modeling School. Her school acted as one of
the first agencies in the region for African-
American models. Among the school’s students
were members of the family of Berry Gordy Jr., Motown’s founder. It was Gwen Gordy who
encouraged her brother Berry to hire Powell in 1964 as part of Motown’s Artist Development
Department, a job Powell held until 1969.

Role at Motown Records:

Powell was Motown’s etiquette instructor. Her duties included running what has been called the
“Motown Finishing School” — she taught the label’s artists how to present themselves well. She
would often say that she was training singers to appear at the White House and Buckingham Palace.
Berry Gordy said of Powell: “She was tough, but when she got through with [the artists], they were
poised, professional and very thankful.”

Singers at Motown were typically required to take classes from Powell for up to two hours a day
whenever they were not on tour. During class, they would learn about topics ranging from table
manners to speaking skills to proper posture. Powell advised her pupils to take care in how they
looked and acted: she told Marvin Gaye that he shouldn’t close his eyes when he sang, and
cautioned Diana Ross not to make faces while she performed.

Powell took on some other responsibilities at Motown. She occasionally went on tour with the label’s
groups, acting as a chaperone. She also advised singers on matters of style, including wardrobe and
makeup.
Quotations:

“Everybody walks, but I teach how to glide.”

“You're going to be trained to appear in No. 1 places around the country, and even before the king
and the queen.”

“I am a motivator and an image builder.”

 Cholly Atkins

Biography:

Cholly Atkins was born Charles Sylvan Atkinson in 1913 in Pratt City,
Alabama, and raised in Buffalo, New York.

He started out in entertainment as a singer in Buffalo, but soon turned

to dancing. He went to Hollywood for a few years, where he was an
extra in films and a nightclub entertainer. He toured the Midwest in the
1930s, finally moving in 1939 to New York, where he performed in
Broadway shows. After serving in the military in the early 1940s, he
became well known as part of the dancing duo Coles and Atkins. The
duo toured with major artists of the day, including Jazz musicians
Louis Armstrong and Count Basie.

During the 1950s, the popularity of the type of variety theater Atkins
worked in had begun to decline. “Tap dancing began to fade out,” he
explained, and jobs were harder to come by. Atkins began providing
dance instruction to vocal groups. He coached some of the best-known
groups of the era, including the Cadillacs, Frankie Lymon and the
Teenagers, and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

In 1965, the head of Motown Records, Berry Gordy Jr., hired Atkins to
help the company’s acts develop a more sophisticated style on stage.
Atkins held this position until 1971.

Role at Motown Records:

At Motown, Atkins was given the title “Choreographer-Director,” and he worked in the Artist
Development Department. He taught singers how to dance and created routines for them, a process
he called “vocal choreography.” Many of the Motown artists he worked with had little or no formal
training in dance, and he often had to worry as much about balancing the egos and personalities in a
group as he did about helping the individual members learn to keep their balance.

Atkins’ choreography style was distinctive. He trained groups to perform synchronized moves, which
were sometimes borrowed from tap dance or Jazz styles. His “vocal choreography” also sometimes
involved acting out the lyrics of the song. When the Supremes sang the phrase “stop in the name of
love,” for example, they held out their hands as if stopping traffic.
Quotations:

“In ‘vocal choreography,’ you had to give a lot of considerations to the fact that you were working with
singers, not dancers.”

“I would get a set of the lyrics and get the story line of what they were singing about. I made sure that
we did things that corresponded with musical tracks along with the lyrics.”

"Motown hired me as an artist developer. I wanted to make a harmonious marriage between the
singing and the dancing — the visual."
 Smokey Robinson

Biography:

William “Smokey” Robinson was born in 1940 in

Detroit, Michigan. His mother died when he was 10,
and he was raised by his older sister in a house with
eleven other children. He was musically inclined from
an early age and wrote his first song at the age of
six.

Robinson grew up hearing Jazz, Blues, and Gospel

music in his neighborhood. While still in high school,
he founded a singing group with some of his friends
known as the Matadors, and later the Miracles. He
wrote songs for the group, and they began playing in
venues around Detroit.

The Miracles began seeking a record deal. In 1957,

they had an audition in New York City for a company
called Brunswick Records. Brunswick turned them
down, but they were overheard by a fellow Detroit
resident by the name of Berry Gordy. Gordy was impressed with the group’s sound, and particularly
with the songs Robinson had written. Gordy mentored Robinson in songwriting and helped the
Miracles record and release their first records.

Role at Motown:

Robinson was one of the first singers to record for Motown. His early hits were with his group, the
Miracles — their record “Shop Around” was the first Motown record to sell a million copies.

Robinson was also an important figure behind the scenes at Motown — in fact, he helped convince
Gordy to start the label. He became vice president of the company, assisting with operations. Along
with Gordy, he played an important role in defining Motown’s characteristic sound.

Robinson’s skills as a songwriter and producer were in high demand at Motown. He wrote songs for
himself as well as for other singers on the label; a number of these became big hits. As a producer,
his duties included managing recording sessions and deciding which songwriters and musicians
would be involved in a project.
Quotations:

“I have so many songs that have been a songwriter’s dream because when I write a song I hope I’m
writing a song that will be re-recorded and sung forever.”

“I've always known there are no new words, there are no new notes, there are no new chords, so I've
gotta use those same old tools and make it come out differently. And it happens!”

"About ten of us took all the decisions on a collective basis. Berry had the final say, of course, but we
had a chance to make our contributions. It was all very informal, we knew all the secretaries and
studio staff by their first names.”

“The function of my office was originally designed for artist coordination. So if someone signs up with
Motown, I might pick songwriters and studio people to work with them.”
 Maurice King

Biography:

Maurice King was born in 1911 in the Mississippi Delta. A talented

musician and a good student, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee,
where he studied music at what is now Tennessee State University.
He did not graduate, but he quickly began working full time as a
musician in the Nashville area. In the late 1930s, King followed his
wife and her family to Detroit, where he soon made a name for
himself playing saxophone in bands.

In the 1940s, King served for a time as the director of the

International Sweethearts of Rhythm, an all-girl Jazz band that
toured the country. When group disbanded in 1949, he settled back
home in Detroit.

His next gig was as the bandleader for the Flame Show Bar, which
would become one of the most important venues for black
entertainers during the 1950, hosting some of the most famous
Jazz musicians of the era. It was at the Flame Show Bar that King
first encountered Berry Gordy Jr., at the time a struggling
songwriter. In 1963, Gordy hired King to join Motown Records.

Role at Motown Records:

King was the music director for Motown. He worked with Motown acts on various aspects of their
performances. In many respects, he was a teacher who instructed the company’s singers in the
basics of music. King’s biggest role was teaching singers to sound their best, which included teaching
group members their individual parts. He described his tasks as follows: “I taught them how to
phrase. I arranged their music; I arranged songs for them. I taught them how to blend. I collaborated
with their choreographer, did a lot of their staging.”

King was also on hand to fix any problems that came up with the musical arrangements as they were
performed in the studio or in a live performance. When a lot of musicians were involved in a session,
he would act as the conductor.

Motown artists remember King as tough and demanding, but effective. “He taught us the things that
would help us to stay out here,” recalled singer Gladys Knight.
Quotations:

“I tried to teach performers honesty, integrity, and sincerity in their approach to the business. If they
learned that, then they learned a lot.”

“I was working with some of [Berry Gordy's] acts already and he explained it might be a lot easier if I
joined his staff and worked regularly with all of the Motown acts. I liked the idea of an artist
development department, and being able to have control of the musical end of it was quite an exciting
aspect.”