The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard (19 page)

And, although Flo was legally forbidden to use the name “Supremes” in her own publicity, there was nothing to prevent DJs from referring to her as

“former Supreme Flo Ballard.” The mind boggles to think what fun many DJs could have had, and what publicity they could have drummed up, if two

“Supremes” groups—the “real” Supremes starring Diana Ross and Mary Wilson, and the “other real Supremes” starring Florence Ballard—both produced records simultaneously for a significant period. The two groups would undoubtedly have been seen as competing in a “Battle of the Supremes.”

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Scherrie Payne would come up with a similar idea in 1986. By then herself a former Supreme, she formed the singing group “Former Ladies of the Supremes,” very significantly called FLOS, which at various times included not only Payne but by then former Supremes Jean Terrell, Cindy Birdsong, and Lynda Laurence. It’s tempting to think that not only ABC but also Motown lost a major opportunity by not trying something like this. But we’ll never know what might have been. ABC Records, lacking imagination, lacking a tradition of developing its own musicians, and lacking a quick hit from the Lost Supreme, merely kicked the fallen Flo to the curb.

Flo’s alter ego in the
Dreamgirls
movie, Effie Melody White, resuscitates her music career in part by performing solo at a small Detroit club and putting out a solo record, “One Night Only,” on a small label. The song is soon covered by the Dreams, the film’s version of Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Finally, the Diana Ross character forces the Gordy character to put out Flo’s original recording, apparently ensuring her solo stardom. In the real world, happy endings are rarer than they are in Hollywood, and none of the above occurred.

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leeced
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gain

Where in the hell the check went I’ll never know.

I never saw it.

—Florence Ballard

Flo’s career with
ABC produced nothing except two records that didn’t sell and an album that wouldn’t be released until long after she died. Adding insult to injury, she never received the advance that ABC had promised her.

ABC had agreed to pay her $15,000 when she signed her contract, but

“Where in the hell the check went I’ll never know. I never saw it,” Flo said.

“Leonard Baun picked it up some kind of way or something. And when I asked Leonard Baun, he said he got it. . . . I don’t know what happened to the $15,000 check or how it was cashed, for that matter.”

Baun had also never given Flo the money Motown had given him, as Flo’s legal representative, under the second separation agreement. “They sent the settlement check to Leonard Baun, and Leonard Baun cashed the check and used the funds,” Flo said. “I never received the settlement check.”

When Flo returned home after giving birth to her twin girls, Michelle and Nicole, on October 13, 1968, Baun, who had been entrusted with the management of Flo’s $160,000 just eleven months before, told her that all the money he had received on her behalf from Motown and from ABC had been spent. What should have been the start of a career-reviving year for Flo 119

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turned to ashes. On March 17, 1969, Flo, in a state of shock and accompanied by her brother Billy, went to Baun’s office and demanded that he return all her documents to her so that she would at least have a chance to determine what had happened to all her earnings from her Supremes years, as well as her ABC advance. Baun gave her some of the documents but refused to give her others. On April 2, Flo fired him as her attorney and sent a copy of his termination letter to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

Flo and Billy spent the next year trying to find another attorney to sue Baun. Baun called the accusation that he had mismanaged Flo’s money ridiculous and was quoted as saying, “She will be flat broke after she pays her taxes.”

To say the least, Flo found this difficult to believe. But when she tried to find someone in power to help her, she was turned away at every attempt.

Essentially, she was trying to find one attorney to attack another in a way that would certainly damage and possibly destroy the attacked attorney’s career, and possibly the attacking attorney’s career as well.

Flo and Billy also tried to interest the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office in prosecuting Baun. A Detroit police lieutenant named Boggs told them he would investigate the matter but never got back in touch with Billy or Flo. Infu-riated, Flo wrote the police department’s Citizen Complaint Bureau the next month and received a reply saying she and Billy should insist on an appointment with the assistant county prosecutor, Jay Nolan, to discuss Flo’s complaint against Baun. But Nolan said he would have to disqualify himself from the case because he knew Baun. He suggested that the Michigan State Bar would be the proper forum for Flo’s complaint, and the next month Flo filed a complaint with the Bar’s Grievance Board.

Later that month, however, impatient, nearly out of money, and fearing that the wheels of justice would grind so slowly that she would be living on the street before receiving recompense, Flo paid a $200 advance to attorney O. Lee Molette to obtain the missing money and papers from Baun. Molette soon decided he could not or would not handle the case. Shortly thereafter, Flo paid another $200 retainer to attorney Joseph Louisell. A few days later,

Lost Supreme_8 page insert 11/19/07 4:53 PM Page 1

The Supremes: Diane Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson.
Roger Williams

Lost Supreme_8 page insert 11/19/07 4:53 PM Page 2

The iconic Supremes.

Author’s collection

Florence Ballard, Queen of Motown.

The Andrew Skurow Collection

The Supremes were the Primettes before they became the Supremes. Their male equivalents were the Primes—later named the Temptations. Seated is Otis Williams, with whom Flo had a brief relationship.
Al Abrams