Berry Gordy Research Paper
Berry Gordy: The founder of Motown Berry Gordy, Jr., was born in Detroit Michigan on November 28, 1929. He was the seventh of eight children of Berry, Sr. and Bertha Gordy. Berry Gordy, Jr. dropped out of the school after his junior year to become a professional boxer; he decided to get out of the fight game at about the time the Army drafted him in 1951. In 1953, he married Thelma Coleman and in 1954 his first child was born, a daughter Hazel Joy. By 1959 they had two other children, named Berry IV and Terry. They divorced in 1959 (Edwards and Callahan). In 1953, he opened a jazz orientated record store called 3-D Record Mart. In 1954, the stored failed and Gordy began working for Ford Motor Company on the assembly line. This is
…show more content…
By the late 1950s, Detroit was the largest cities in the USA that did not have a strong independent record company. With the establishment of Motown, the local talent had an outlet, and they started showing up at the Motown offices. Mickey, my A&R director started looking for the most talented musicians. They called themselves the Funk Brothers (124). One night Berry was at the hottest night club in Detroit called the 20 Grand. He met Mary Wells. She had told Berry that she had written a song for another artist, but he like her voice so much that he told her to come to Motown the next day (139). There was also the group called the Primettes who later became the Supremes. Berry Gordy signed other groups to Motown such as; Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Contours, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye etc. just to name the many people that became a part of the Motown family (145-148). Then there was the Quality Control meetings in which he placed Billie Jean Brown in charge of. Berry discovered that she knew her music; she was strong, opinionated, honest, witty and had a good ear (Posner 115). Berry also had a slogan to Create, Sell and Collect. He placed Barney Wright who was in charge of sales, became in charge of collecting the money that was owed from the distributors
By the late 1950s, Detroit was the largest cities in the USA that did not have a strong independent record company. With the establishment of Motown, the local talent had an outlet, and they started showing up at the Motown offices. Mickey, my A&R director started looking for the most talented musicians. They called themselves the Funk Brothers (124). One night Berry was at the hottest night club in Detroit called the 20 Grand. He met Mary Wells. She had told Berry that she had written a song for another artist, but he like her voice so much that he told her to come to Motown the next day (139). There was also the group called the Primettes who later became the Supremes. Berry Gordy signed other groups to Motown such as; Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Contours, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye etc. just to name the many people that became a part of the Motown family (145-148). Then there was the Quality Control meetings in which he placed Billie Jean Brown in charge of. Berry discovered that she knew her music; she was strong, opinionated, honest, witty and had a good ear (Posner 115). Berry also had a slogan to Create, Sell and Collect. He placed Barney Wright who was in charge of sales, became in charge of collecting the money that was owed from the distributors