Que Sera, Sera — Adam White

MARY WILSON TOUCHED MILLIONS, THE WORLD OVER

It was a promotional schedule perhaps as intense as any in the days of the Supremes.

On August 22, 2019, the “glam” began early for Mary Wilson: hair and make-up, that is, at her central London hotel. The sun had barely risen. The star had to be prompt at the BBC’s television studios, west of where she was staying, for a breakfast show appearance, immediately followed by Q&As back across town at one of Britain’s largest broadcasting networks (“radio interviews will be filmed for online purposes,” noted the itinerary). There were three of the latter to do that Thursday morning, five minutes apart. “This is our Gold breakfast show,” advised the schedule about one of them, unequivocally, “where we play all the greatest hits of all time.”

***Mary Wilson, in London for the first time, October 1964***

Next up, a book signing at one of London’s larger entertainment stores. “The displays are all on wheels,” detailed the promotional paperwork, “so the shop’s interior can be re-arranged to accommodate the signing, queue-system, etc.” On this day, Wilson’s signature was required for copies of Supreme Glamour, her newest book and the reason she was in Britain. She was to wield the pen at lunchtime, so it was just as well that her lunch had been arranged for late morning. Then again, the star had been up since dawn.

This was London, but the afternoon diktat called for an interview with the New York Times. Wilson was ready. “She was wearing all black — leggings and a stretch top with cold-shoulder cutouts — and one of her many wigs, a dead-straight chestnut number with full bangs,” observed the journalist. Evidently, that morning’s “glam” had paid off.

It wasn’t tea-time yet, so Wilson had to be ready for a live streaming session with Facebook. This time, according to the itinerary, her interviewer was to be a young singer, the first unsigned artist to win a particular BBC music prize. “It would be interesting to see how [Wilson’s] experiences have shaped the landscape for future artists,” added the schedule notes.

Shaped the landscape? That’s a nice piece of British understatement.

Two nights earlier, during that jam-packed week in London, Wilson had chatted before an audience at the Victoria & Albert Museum, a building stocked with centuries of the cultural landscape. At the V&A, she laughed about her age when having to ask the interviewer to repeat a question. “I’m 75 and a half.” The crowd in the museum’s Lydia & Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre applauded, adoringly – and that moment will have been remembered by many of them on Tuesday, February 9, when the tragic news of her death the previous day travelled around the globe.

BEING DORIS DAY

Here, you’ve no need to read once more about Wilson’s beginnings, her accomplishments, her place in Motown – and music – history. Instead, perhaps, just a few reminders of her character, individuality and warmth. Asked at the V&A about a specific photo of the Supremes, posing among fake Roman plinths and taken by James Kriegsmann, she joked, “Who knew I had blond hair back in 1967?” Then, adding that she admired blonde Doris Day, she broke out into song with “Que Sera, Sera,” perfectly. Within moments, the audience was singing with her. “I really thought I was Doris Day,” added Wilson. “Every time I would open the refrigerator, I would sing, just like Doris Day did.

***Reflections on the past: Mary at the V&A***

“That’s what I liked about the music back in those days, because you could hear all kinds of music on the radio stations. It really was a wonderful time, it wasn’t segregated like it is now: only country here, only blues here, rap here. Music was everywhere.”

And that photograph? “We liked James Kriegsmann. You notice that Diana was up there, taller there. We were looking up at her.” The audience chuckled. “As we should.” Chuckles turned to laughter.

On the topic of the many gowns illustrated in Supreme Glamour, Wilson explained, “[At] eight years old, I really enjoyed dressing up, but Diane, Florence and I were always dressing up. Singing was part of it, but, you know, dressing up as adults – we loved it. A lot of people think that Motown made us dress up, but Motown did not. We came there with pearls on from the five & dime. We were 15 years old and we were wearing cheap pearls from the five and dime – that’s who we wanted to be: very grown-up women.”

Five years before the V&A interview, Wilson had connected with another generation of teenagers. These were students from three London school districts, assembled at a small theatre, hoping to hear words of inspiration to help shape their adulthood. “What is important, first of all, is you must dare to dream,” she told them, “and then you’ve got to work hard to make this dream come true. You can be very talented and very creative, but doesn’t mean you’re going to make it to the top.” Then Wilson personalised this candour. “I look back and see how many better singers there were than us. But I knew we were special. I became one whole person with the other Supremes.”

‘DRESSED TO THE NINES’

That sense of the trio’s oneness was reinforced this week as TV news bulletins worldwide spun footage of their “Stop! In The Name Of Love” choreography. The three young women were aligned – not one ahead of the others – as they struck those arresting poses and projected their voices. “I think what made us special was the look,” Wilson told the Victoria & Albert crowd in 2019. “Everything was different to what anyone else was doing that it only enhanced us. Three black women up there, dressed to the nines. I think it only enhanced our image.”

***Supremely glam: Mary in London, August 2019***

It did more, of course. In particular, the Supremes’ frequent presence on The Ed Sullivan Show took Motown’s graceful girls to an audience beyond teenagers – and beyond race. “His was the kind of programme every American watched on Sundays,” Wilson told me for Motown: The Sound of Young America. “You didn’t have a lot of programmes with black people on them and, all of a sudden, here’s this musical programme that everyone watched, whether you were black or white. And you started seeing more black people on it.”

In that regard, Wilson’s single most powerful anecdote was one about an admiring audience member in Miami, a white woman who approached her after a show to enthuse that every time the Supremes appeared on Ed Sullivan’s broadcast, “I allow my family to watch you.” Before Sullivan, said Wilson, “white people didn’t want to watch and adore black people.”

Those fortunate enough to have spent time in her company over the years will speak of exactly that: the time Mary Wilson took to listen, to connect, to share; her grace under pressure; her warmth and humour, no matter the hour. Meanwhile, in the wider world, she did more to sustain and insure the Supremes’ legacy – the group’s righteous place in cultural history – than anyone else alive.

That’s why the lady was up at 5:00am in London for “glam,” and willing at the age of 75 (“and a half”) to spend so many hours in a day to meet and greet, to recall and remember, to inform and to charm, to promote and impress. No wonder that one of her favourite sign-off lines was “Touch.”

She did, the world over.

Music notes: “Now singing my first solo album,” Mary Wilson wrote in liner notes for that Motown release in 1979, “I must say it feels good.” In its review, trade magazine Cash Box felt good, too: “The album is chock full of emotionally charged dance numbers and intense R&B workouts.” Produced by Hal Davis, the seven-track set has been unavailable for years, but was being prepared for digital reissue when arrived the news of Wilson’s death. When it comes out again – as now it must – the album may include unreleased tracks from her Motown solo sessions, including those produced by England’s Gus Dudgeon. In the meantime, there’s this West Grand Blog playlist, with Wilson on lead vocals (sometimes sharing them) from Supremes recording dates; a couple of her post-Motown sides; and one pre-Motown: “Pretty Baby,” the flipside of the Primettes’ first 45.