For his biography of
Florence Ballard, former Detroit Free Press reporter Peter Benjaminson went back to the
lengthy transcripts of the interviews he conducted with her himself, before her
death in 1976 at age 32. Ballard—who was memorably ousted from The
Supremes for challenging Diana Ross, for having a less radio-friendly voice, or
for being an alcoholic, depending on who's relating the story—is back in the
spotlight after 2006's movie musical Dreamgirls, making Benjaminson's The
Lost Supreme: The Life Of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard somewhat timely. But he
turns his first-rate primary source into a second-rate defense of Ballard, with
his voice coming in louder than hers.
Though Ballard, Diana
Ross, and Mary Wilson began on equal footing in The Primettes (later The
Supremes), the group's first number-one hit, "Where Did Our Love Go," pushed
lead vocalist Ross into the foreground, if she wasn't already pushing herself.
Ballard tried to channel her frustration, pleading with Motown founder Berry
Gordy for more leads and adding saucy onstage banter, but wound up booted from
the group she had named. Unable to establish herself as a solo artist, she sank
into poverty, unsuccessfully suing Motown and Gordy several times for back
royalties.
Benjaminson's reporting,
which furnishes the bulk of the book, provides details Ballard couldn't or
wouldn't discuss, from the Motown legalese which trapped its artists in
rigorous, low-paying contracts to the identity of the man who raped Ballard
after a high-school party. (This diligence lets him refrain from quoting the
more salacious details from Mary Wilson's Dreamgirl, which explicitly blames
Gordy's sexual relationship with Ross for Ballard's ouster.) But his case would
already be strong enough without the way he rushes to Ballard's defense at
every opportunity, dismissing her alleged bad behavior while she was still in
The Supremes, and glossing over some of her post-Motown highlights to close in
on the humiliations of losing her car and house. This straw-fangirl approach
lets him avoid questioning his subject's more puzzling anecdotes, like her
description of attending an AA meeting and being shocked by how much everyone
else was drinking. Emblematic of his petty tone is the way he refers to Ross as
"Diane"—the name her friends and family used, although her birth
certificate read "Diana"—throughout most of the book. While The Lost
Supreme
doesn't condemn Ross entirely, it also quotes Ballard as saying she forgave her
former rival. Unfortunately, Benjaminson undermines both his subject and her
absolution.