De Passe Surpasses
KUDOS IN CLEVELAND FOR A REMARKABLE CAREER
Tomorrow evening (19) at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse arena, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will honour its latest inductees – and one of the most accomplished women of Motown will be among them.
“As long as you’re honest with me,” Berry Gordy once recalled telling Suzanne de Passe, “everything will be fine. If I ask for an opinion, don’t hesitate to be critical – even of me. Never say something just because you think that’s what I want to hear. Be yourself. I pay people for their ideas, not mine.”
The Black Enterprise cover star, 1981
De Passe’s ideas evidently served both her and Gordy well: she worked for and with the Motown founder in one way or another for almost a quarter-century. And so it is that her talent and skills are being recognised this year by the Hall of Fame – although, to be honest, she has already received a great many accolades over the years, including Emmys (for the Motown 25 TV special and Motown Returns to the Apollo), a Golden Globe (for the Lonesome Dove TV miniseries) and, of course, an Oscar nomination for co-writing the screenplay of Lady Sings The Blues.
Then there’s that moment in time, 52 years ago, where de Passe publicly blasted another dispenser of awards – the record industry academy, NARAS – for its voting practices. “I haven’t the slightest doubt that big blocks of votes are placed by individual companies and that even the trading of votes by several companies is commonplace,” she said. The context? NARAS voters did not award Grammys to any of the nominated Motown artists for 1970-71, who included Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, the Jackson 5 and Gladys Knight & the Pips.
Of course, de Passe’s professional life story is familiar to anyone who follows the arc of Motown history, including her persuasion of Gordy to audition the Jackson 5, despite his dislike of working with talent so young; her challenging duties with the group as they exploded worldwide; her time running the record company’s creative division, signing the Commodores and Rick James, among others; and her move into Motown’s TV and film division, with the hits (and misses) produced there.
‘TALL, STRONG AND INDEPENDENT’
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this career is that de Passe, who is now in her late seventies, has never completed an autobiography. There reportedly once was a deal for one, with Random House, but nothing materialised. Still, she has done dozens of media interviews over time. Among the most candid was a Black Enterprise cover story in July 1981, headlined “Motown’s $10 million gamble,” focusing on her then-recent appointment as president of Motown Productions, navigating new media as well as the well-trodden paths of TV and movie production.
“Some people want to say that the only reason I am in my position is because I slept with somebody,” de Passe told the article’s writer, Joel Dreyfuss. “I never did, and nobody wants to believe that, either. That’s their problem. I would never have had to work so hard if I were Berry Gordy’s old lady.”
For Dreyfuss, author Jill Nelson (whose novels include Sexual Healing and Let’s Get It On) recalled her days with de Passe at New York’s New Lincoln school, described as bringing together “well-off white liberals and middle-class blacks.” Nelson said, “[De Passe] was the kind of black woman you aspired to be – worldly and very sophisticated. All the women in her family were like that. Tall, strong, and independent. They were feminists before it was fashionable.”
Tutoring the J5: from left, Michael Jackson, Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, Suzanne de Passe
De Passe could also be honest. “I knew we shouldn’t have done that show,” she was quoted as saying (in a Harvard Business School case study, no less) about NBC-TV’s The Motown Revue Starring Smokey Robinson, “but I let myself get talked into it by the network. They came to me and said, ‘It’s now or never,’ and I am not an idiot – never means never knowing when you will get another shot.”
An amusing anecdote popped up in Jan Gaye’s 2013 memoir, After the Dance: My Life with Marvin Gaye. Riding in the singer’s car in Hollywood one time, Jan remembered being pulled over by the police when the couple had been smoking weed. Marvin persuaded the cops to let him make a phone call, and it was to de Passe.
“It only took ten minutes for a tall, beautiful light-skinned black woman to pull up besides us,” wrote Jan. “She was no-nonsense. She gave me a look as if to say, Wow, two stoned idiots. She was friendly but stern with Marvin before moving quickly to address the police. I couldn’t hear what Suzanne was saying, but she was obviously effective, because within minutes, the cops were leaving the scene. There were no tickets, no repercussions. Marvin got off scot-free.”
WHO WAS BOBBY TAYLOR?
De Passe also made an appearance in Rick James’ second memoir, Glow, as he described a Motown meeting. “She was a pretty, light-skinned sista with the no-nonsense manner of a high-powered exec. Jeffrey [Bowen] said Gordy considered her a genius. After my buddy Bobby Taylor discovered the Jackson 5, de Passe was the one who signed them – and fashioned the story that Diana Ross had discovered them. Jeffrey said that helped the Jacksons break through.”
Motown’s Barney Ales confirmed as much. “Suzanne took over the Jackson 5, she dressed them and made them up, and the idea of Diana finding them,” he once explained to me. “Which was a great idea. Who the hell knew who Bobby Taylor was?”
De Passe has reprised her considerable credentials during many Q&As, including one published just days ago by Gary Graff in The Oakland Press. It notes that, having co-written the Lady Sings The Blues screenplay, she remained an integral part of the leading lady’s team at Motown. De Passe told Graff, “I think for me, working with Diana Ross as a solo artist and pulling together songwriters and projects for her was probably…I wouldn’t say rewarding as much as I would say engaging. It really was a full-time sort of effort.” (When Ross left Motown for RCA Records in 1981, de Passe resigned from the board of directors of Diana Ross Enterprises.)
Suzanne de Passe, poolside in 2008 (photo: Annie Leibovitz Studio for Vanity Fair)
The names of Ross and Jackson are likely to be cited when de Passe accepts her Hall of Fame statuette this weekend: the Ahmet Ertegun Award for Lifetime Achievement. She will be the fifth woman to receive that since its 1986 inception, and only the second to do so solo (the first was Sylvia Robinson).
The late Ertegun, of course, was co-founder of New York’s Atlantic Records, a centrifugal force in the evolution of rhythm & blues to rock & roll and beyond. When interviewed in 1997, he made an interesting point about its difference to Motown. “We saw artists when we were recording them,” he told me. “We didn’t have a meeting place. That was a different thing. Detroit, by comparison, was a small town. New York doesn’t have that sort of thing. Our artists, they had their own life [beyond the record company].”
The Jacksons aside, de Passe’s most notable accomplishment while running the creative division of Motown Records during the ’70s may have been to sign the Commodores. “Their manager, Benny Ashburn, was a friend of my mother’s,” she recalled for Variety a couple of years ago, “and I saw him at a Thanksgiving party, and he got me to go see them when he heard I was at Motown.” Ashburn, who had spent time in the liquor business, may also have been acquainted with de Passe’s father, who worked for whisky giant Seagram.
“I actually didn’t do as much with [the Commodores], but I did put them on tour with the Jackson 5,” continued de Passe. “We needed another opening act, so we had them on first, then they backed Yvonne Fair, and then the kids came on. Although I do remember very distinctly having to fight for them to stay at the company, because [initially] they didn’t have a hit.”
All of which only underscores how much material Suzanne de Passe has for that so far-undelivered autobiography. “I am,” she told Variety, “the laziest person that you have ever met in your life when it comes to my story, but I do have the bones of it – I’m a reluctant writer, but I am one! At one point, the USA Network wanted to do a series based on those early days in New York and Motown, but [it never got past planning stages]. I keep thinking I have more time than I do, but I think eventually this thing will come together. I have a book agent and all that stuff, but it’s terrible when you’re so much more interested in other stories than your own. But I’ve had a pretty good run, I’d say.”
Amen, Suzanne, amen.
Induction notes: in addition to Suzanne de Passe, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is inducting Norman Whitfield this year. The late Motown writer/producer/magician is thoroughly deserving of such recognition, and WGB looked at his career in 2020.
Movie notes: next year’s Michael Jackson biopic, directed by Antoine Fuqua, naturally features de Passe among the cast of characters. She will be portrayed by Laura Harrier, previously known for roles in BlacKkKlansman and Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Judicial notes: if she gets around to finishing her autobiography, de Passe might include the back story to Shorty Long’s “Here Comes The Judge,” which she co-wrote with Motown’s Billie Jean Brown and Long himself.
Brown notes: on the subject of remembering, de Passe once bought the film rights to the autobiography of Elaine Brown, onetime leader of the Black Panthers. (The movie appears never to have been made.) Brown also recorded briefly for Motown’s Black Forum label, and an album was released.