Berry Gordy is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
35 Facts About Berry Gordy
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Berry Gordy was known for carefully directing the public image, dress, manners, and choreography of his acts.
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Berry Gordy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama in 2016, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2021.
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Berry Gordy's grandfather, named Berry Gordy I, was the son of James Gordy, a white plantation owner in Georgia, and a woman he enslaved.
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Berry Gordy II was led to Detroit both by the job opportunities offered by the booming automotive businesses, and by worries over the atmosphere in the American South where black men were lynched "with chilling regularity by the Ku Klux Klan"; in the first twenty years of the twentieth century, 1,502 lynchings were reported, most in Southern states.
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Berry Gordy's father opened a grocery store, owned a plastering and carpentry business, and a printing shop.
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Berry Gordy dropped out of Northeastern High School in the eleventh grade to become a professional boxer in hopes of becoming rich quickly; he boxed professionally until 1950, when he was drafted by the United States Army in 1951 for service in the Korean War.
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Berry Gordy later became a chaplain's assistant, driving a jeep and playing the organ at religious services at the front.
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Berry Gordy obtained a GED, which is equivalent to a high school diploma.
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Berry Gordy developed his interest in music by writing songs and opening the 3-D Record Mart, a record store featuring jazz music and 3-D glasses.
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The store was unsuccessful, and Berry Gordy sought work at the Lincoln-Mercury plant, but his family connections put him in touch with Al Green, owner of the Flame Show Bar Talent Club, where he met the singer Jackie Wilson.
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In 1957, Wilson recorded "Reet Petite", a song Berry Gordy had co-written with his sister Gwen and writer-producer Billy Davis.
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Berry Gordy reinvested the profits from his songwriting success into producing.
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Originally, Berry Gordy wanted to name the new label Tammy Records, after the song recorded by Debbie Reynolds.
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In 1972, Berry Gordy relocated to Los Angeles, where he produced the commercially successful biographical drama film on Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross, Richard Pryor, and Billy Dee Williams.
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However, Berry Gordy, known for his tenacity, eventually prevailed, and the film established Williams as a major movie star.
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Berry Gordy sold his interests in Motown Records to MCA and Boston Ventures on June 28,1988, for $61 million.
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Berry Gordy later sold most of his interests in Jobete publishing to EMI Publishing.
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Berry Gordy wrote or co-wrote 240 of the approximately 15,000 songs in Motown's Jobete music catalogue.
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Berry Gordy was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
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Berry Gordy was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2009.
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When Berry Gordy received the Songwriters Hall of Fame's Pioneer Award on June 13,2013, he was the first living individual to receive the honor.
23.
On March 20,2009, Berry Gordy was in Hollywood to pay tribute to his first group and first million-selling act, the Miracles, when the members received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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At the age of 79, Berry Gordy spoke at the memorial service for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles on July 7,2009.
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On May 15,2011, it was announced that Berry Gordy was developing a Broadway musical about Motown.
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Berry Gordy hoped that the musical would improve the reputation of Motown Records and clear up any misconceptions regarding the label's demise.
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Berry Gordy, who was married and divorced three times, has eight children with six different women.
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Berry Gordy's publishing company, Jobete, was named after his three eldest children: Joy, Berry and Terry.
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Berry Gordy had three children with his first wife, Thelma Coleman, whom he married in 1953 :.
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Berry Gordy had a daughter with Motown artist Diana Ross, with whom he had an intimate relationship from 1965 through 1970:.
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Berry Gordy's eighth and youngest child is a son born to Nancy Leiviska.
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Berry Gordy is known by his stage name, Redfoo, as one member of the duo LMFAO :.
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Berry Gordy married Grace Eaton on July 17,1990; they divorced in 1993.
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Berry Gordy is related to former US President Jimmy Carter.
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Berry Gordy owned the colt Powis Castle whom he raced under the nom de course Vistas Stables.