Forever Faithful: A Study of Florence Ballard and the Supremes [Paperback]

(Note: I would actually give this book two and half stars!) Mr Wilson's book was actually his thesis for the university he was attending, and frankly, it reads like it. Stiff and academic. I was mostly disappointed because while he dug up a few rarely heard quotes from Flo from Detroit papers and the documents from the legal struggles she went through after her departure from the group, he really isn't covering anything that hasn't been said before in other books. And said better too. The book has an interesting selection of pictures, but they are grainy and hard to look at, which would have been a major redeeming factor. I wag a tsk tsk finger at the editor and proofreader of the book for an assortment of editing errors that should not have seen print. This book comes off more like a high-end 'zine than a book. If you are a Supremes completist, then Yes, by all means you need to have this book. But if you are a casual fan, stick to Mary Wilson's biographies or the numerous other books available about this wonderful group.

Hi, I read the book and I have learned some stuff I never knew that Flo went through after leaving the Supremes.
I think it should have included photos of her parents and siblings.

I give it 4 stars because it had some mis information and some of the photos are hard to see.

I still recommend this book for the die hard Flo and Supremes fans.
Now maybe by the power of god,Flo's story can be made into a movie, cause it has been long enough.
Well hopefully not any longer or too long.

Pick up this book today, you'll be glad you did for Flo is Heavenly a Supreme Angel.

I saw Dreamgirls on opening night, and I was moved to do a little bit of research on the Supremes to try to spot some of the real people behind the stories told in the flick. Effie's character in Dreamgirls is based on Florence Ballard, and the outstanding performance in Dreamgirls made me want to see how Flo and Effie compare.

The challenge is that Florence Ballard has become one of those mythological figures who people have a love/hate relationship with. It's hard to see her as the human being without saying "she failed to play the music game and got the consequences" or "she was sacrificed at the altar of Berry Gordy's and Diana Ross's quest for glory".

This appears to be a self-published adaptation of a master's thesis. I have to give the author a lot of credit. I feel that he put in good work to get this published in the '80s and he has taken on the task of trying to research Florence when others would not. I don't know how much work he put into trying to put this into book form. It's only 75 pages or so. The first 15-20 are mostly rehashing history of Motown stuff, a story that has been told more skillfully elsewhere. The last ten pages or so is a summary of what was a short book.

If you're a Supremes completist it's probably worth owning this book used to support further research on the group. Otherwise, most readers can gain what they need from treating the summary at the end as an above average magazine article or borrowing a library or used copy of the book.

As far as what new info there is, I feel that the best things are opening the door on some of Flo's legal troubles post-Supremes. From what is told here, it sounds that Flo made a poor choice in a husband/manager and made a horrible choice in a lawyer who embezzled funds from her. Yes, Motown probably blackballed her. There's some heresy in this book that leads you to believe that. But it's tragedy that when Flo desperately needed someone to trust, noone was available to help her transition.

Motown exploited its artists hunger for stardom in some very exploitive relationships. Florence Ballard is a tragic casualty of Motown. But in some ways Diana Ross doesn't appear to be that happy either. I'm going to have to read Mary Wilson's biography to get what is probably a better perspective.

I applaud the author's efforts, and I hope that better biographies on Florence or group biographies on some of the other tragic soul figures of the 60s and 70s will emerge in new popular interest in the area.

3 stars

--SD

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 12 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars