| Author | Message | ||
     Kola Moderator Username: Kola Post Number: 782 Registered: 02-2005 Rating: N/A |
Well, Mahogany----the film "Lady Sings the Blues" was a HUGE hit in 1972 and Diana Ross was nominated for Best Actress. And don't forget---DORIS DAY was originally set to star in the film----Berry Gordy bought the film rights and insisted that Diana Ross would be a better choice and he FINANCED the picture with Paramount distributing. Most of the objections to Ross starring in the film came from Jazz people (and they were right---Ross was NOTHING like Holiday)......and most of the objections came BEFORE the film was released. For instance....the famous James Baldwin essay was written because, ORIGINALLY....he campaigned against Ross being cast in the film. He loathed Diana Ross and couldn't just couldn't see it----but after the film was RELEASED...he became a huge fan of Ross. The fact is...."Lady Sings the Blues" is really not about Billie Holiday. Berry Gordy has always admitted that when he created MOTOWN....he used MGM, the legendary movie studio, as his pattern. And when he ordered the script for "Lady Sings the Blues"----he took a series of JOAN CRAWFORD film scripts of the 1930's ("Mannequin" and "Dancing Lady") and had them Re-tailored for Diana Ross (he saw her as a modern day Crawford---you would have to see Joan's early films to understand this, but he was right). They fashioned a "Crawford-like rise and fall love story" script and then they USED Billie Holiday and her music to infuse the script with a "selling point". The autobiography "Lady Sings the Blues" is VASTLY SUPERIOR to the story depicted in the Berry Gordy movie. And in actuality---Billy Dee is playing Clark Gable's role in "Dancing Lady" and Diana Ross is playing Joan Crawford's role in "Mannequin". By the way...Clark Gable and Joan Crawford starred in 9 films together. They were a dynamite team. Their 1933 film "Dancing Lady" is one of my all time favorite romances---mainly because so much of "Lady Sings the Blues" was STOLEN from it and it's fun watching two white actors acting out the Billy Dee-Diana Ross romantic scenes. Fred Astaire and the Three Stooges are also in the film. |