Mary Wilson Talks to "Gay Times" About Dresses and "Dreamgirls"

Last week, Rod 2.0 previewed The Story of The Supremes from the Mary Wilson Collection at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a retrospective which showcases dozens of the beautiful and elegant performance costumes of The Supremes, as well as sketches of the original gowns and archival video. The fabulous Mary Wilson, one of the original members of The Supremes who remained with the group into the 1970s, is interviewed in the current issue of Gay Times (PDF) and dishes supreme fashion and "Dreamgirls."

On comfort and the weight of the gowns:
Once you put them, they weren't as heavy as when you held them. And some were like 35 pounds!

On keeping track of the original gowns:
Quite a few were stolen in different places. Many of them are gown, but many have shown up on eBay, which I've been able to buy back. ... Very shocking. But it's been really great because the fans, in a couple of cases, have helped me buy them back You know, you have to get them immediately, and so the fans jumped in there and helped me out tremendously. ... Once our bus was broken into and gowns went missing there. We had a fire in a nightclub in Mexico, and some were burned there. And THEN some were stolen from our dressing room in San Francisco.

On the Dreamgirls screen adaptation:
I absolutely thought it was wonderful as a movie, and speaking about that time period, but it wasn't the story of The Supremes. ... The gentlemen who wrote the original Broadway play were probably inspired by The Supremes, and I think as much as they could use our storyline, they did, but then they created their own story around that. But I do think in the beginning that it was based on The Supremes. That was unauthorized!

Oh, and on several occasions, Mary Wilson refers to Miss Ross as "Diane." Ouch.

Some Background ...
The Fashion of The Supremes at the Victoria and Albert Museum [R20]

Comments

[Duwayne]

I love me some Mary. I have always found it funny Mary still to this day calls Diana "Diane". It's too bad that they can't work things out and have a final tour along with Cindy Birdsong.

[Roberto S]

LOL Mary sure does call Diana 'Diane', seeing that is the name her mother gave her and they grew up together in Detroit. Honey, she is keeping it real. I would love to see them tour again, but, sadly, that did not happen. Maybe once more for old time's sake.

[ATL KID]

Love it, love it, love it. Thanks for the updates on the Supremes and this show, wish I were in London to check it out.

[freeleo]

roberto, "diana" is on diana ross' birth certificate. people in her neighborhood called her diane. i'll be right at the hollywood bowl this summer when ms diana ross takes the stage. can't wait. it's a great time.

[Jim]

I found this to be the most interesting part of the article on Mary from Gay Times:

Interviewer: So what’s next for Mary Wilson?

Mary: I’m recording a new CD, and also one of the major projects I’m involved in is that I’m the new spokesperson for The Landmine Clearances. Since the passing of Princess Diana, the Humpty Dumpty Institute has asked me if I wanted to be the spokesperson for it. I gave them my “Yes, I would.” I’ve just got back from Sri Lanka and I’m supposed to go to Cambodia and Vietnam, so that’s my newest project. I’m really pleased about it, because I’m helping a lot of children who can’t now go to school. Just imagine if there were bombs lying around in America or the UK. You couldn’t go to work, you couldn’t DO anything—it would be just horrible. And it takes a company like Humpty Dumpty to go in there, raise the funds and help blow up these things so we can get them out of those areas. And people can live!

[Roberto S]

From IMDB

Date of Birth
26 March 1944, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Birth Name
Diane Ernestine Earle Ross USA

Freeleo, the 'people in the neighborhood' and from Detroit call 'Diana' Ross, umm, 'Diane', because that is what her mother named her and is on her birth certificate. 'Diana' Ross is a stage name. Go to any biography or just Google 'Diana Ross' and 'birth name.' I love Diana Ross and have said many times she is an icon, but, the story of her stage name is more than 40 years old. I have no idea why some Diana Ross fans continually try to pretend it is not true.

[freeleo]

my bad..i'll shut up for now, right after i fire my fact checker...

[Glenn Green]

I love Mary Wilson. She has class, style and a heart of gold. Hey Rod, since you are on The Supremes kick, have you heard anything about that new bio on Florence Ballard.

[Dluv]

The thing about Dreamgirls is people automatically assume it's about the Supremes because they were the most successful girl group of all time. But it's really about girl groups in general. Diana Ross wasn't the first lead singer to sleep with the svengali (hello Ronnie Spector) and she certainly wasn't the last. There's a piece of every girl group in that story from the ones with many hits to the one hit wonders. There are hundreds of Effies and Dinas in music history.

[Xico]

hey rod, thanks for an always informative and beautiful blog.

if you have a moment check my own new blog, id love to have your opinion, it talks about, art, love and eye candy, LOL

http://xicodecadoro.blogspot.com

thanks and cheers from Xico

[Roberto S]

Freeleo, no prob. I've had a few problems myself in other threads with my fact-checkers, lol.

[mitch4000]

To clarify all of this comments. Diana Ross even refers to herself as Diane. Check out when she received her star at the BET Walk of Fame Awards. Bob Johnson was handing her the award and he called her Diana. She let him know that he could call her Diane, which her family and close friends do.

It's not a biggie. Just a choice she made based on the birth certificate and saw it as an opportunity to use for stage purposes. It seemed to work. I like Diana Ross better than Diane Ross.