"DIGNITY AND MOTHER WIT" [original screenplay based on the life of Berry Gordy Sr.]

Meitzenheimer, Randolyn.

Price: 995.00 USD

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np (Detroit? Los Angeles?), 1974. Three orig ink and watercolor illustr inserted (no artist given), 11 x 8, gilt colored boards with plastic comb spine, 57 pp printed on rectos only + illustr, covers edge worn with small stain on front cover, extremities bumped, front cover with indent along bottom left side, minor wear to contents, orig illustr with glue stains along edges from attaching to larger card stock sheets. With Motown Inter-Office Memo from Janet Hubbard (signed "Janet") to Berry Gordy [Jr., founder of Motown] dated March 27, 1974: "Enclosed is a screen narrative treatment . . . Based on The Berry Gordy Sr. Memoirs . . . We are currently typing the final draft of the [m]emoirs manuscript." The introduction to the screenplay calls the story ". . . A black story beyond compare" and suggests the screenplay be produced as a 90-minute TV movie targeted for Afro-American History Week. The screenplay, the writer says, is unique because it deals with "the various differences in opinion among black people in opinion themselves. . ." among other reasons. We include a copy of the First Edition of MOVIN'S UP, Pop Gordy Tells His Story, by Berry Gordy Sr., published in 1979 (the manuscript mentioned in the memo). Motown moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, in part to move into the movie business. Their first film production was LADY SINGS THE BLUES, starring Motown diva Diana Ross. Janet Hubbard is credited with being a researcher on LADY SINGS THE BLUES, and an associate producer on other Gordy productions, BINGO LONG and SCOTT JOPLIN. This is a fantastic, one of a kind item that was probably very important to Motown founder Berry Jr. (he kept his father on the Motown payroll for years as a consultant). Berry Sr. might even have been associated with this project since he was alive when it was written. It is not often that something so personal to the Motown legend is offered.

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