Newspaper Page Text
Famous Flames Jesse Jackson Richard Pry u. and Bush
reunite to do sues black paper wins $3,000,000 to address
new album for $3,000,000 from ex-manager black Republicans
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Volume 12 Number 24
Beauty
I
of the Week
“Pamela Cortina Rouse is a 102-lb.
Leo.
She is studying to be an executive
secretary at Augusta Tech.
A former majorette for the West
side Marching Band, she enjoys
reading, dancing, singing and playing
all kinds of sports.
Photo by Charles Larke
PUSH sues paper for $3 million
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, president
of Operation PUSH, said recently he is
suing a black St. Louis, Mo.,
newspaper for $3 million for
defaming his character when it
published an editorial accusing him
of demanding SSOO from
businessmen.
As an on-going economic plan
where Rev. Jackson is attempting to
"balance the trade deficit” in the
black community, Jackson has
targeted Anheuser-Busch Brewery as
the next company to obtain equity.
Over a week ago, at the request of
several black St. Louis businessmen,
Jackson went to Missouri and
speaking before 100 merchants, said,
“Jou must pay to play. You cannot
ride to freedom in pharoah’s chariot,
and you cannot expect corporate
America to finance our investigation
in corporate America’s economic ac
tivity in the black community.”
In the August 5 edition of the St.
Louis Sentinel, owned by Mrs.
Howard B. Woods, Jackson said the
editorial, reportedly written by Mike
Williams, misquoted him. Jackson is
suing the Sentinel.
The editorial said, "...the Rev.
Pryor wins $3 million lawsuit
Richard Pryor, the top comedian
of the past decade, was recently
awarded $3.1 million in a lawsuit
filed against his former agent and
manager David McCoy Franklin.
Franklin had played an integral
role in the marketing of Pryor as a
fop box-office draw. According to
Commissioner Carl G. Joseph of the
California State Labor Commission,
Franklin was found “guilty of serious
moral terpitude” and had “willfully
misappropriated” monies that should
have been paid to Pryor for services
rendered as an artist.
Franklin had been Pryor’s con
sultant from 1975 through 1980. The
judgement stated that Franklin inter
cepted more than $215,000 from
Columbia Pictures for the movie
“Stir Crazy” and SBOO,OOO from
Warner Bros. Records. Franklin was
also ordered to forfeit over $750,000
in wages that Pryor had paid him
over the 5-year period he was acting
in the comedian’s behalf.
Augusta News-Seutew
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Jesse Jackson stated, ‘lf you want to
play, you have to pay.’ In other wor
ds, if anyone wants to benefit from
the deal 1 cut with Seven-Up, you
have to pay me SSOO each.”
Jackson had recently closed a
multi-million covenant with the
Seven-Up Company that benefited
the black community., Jackson says
At Saturday’s PUSH meeting the
Rev. Jackson said, "We are going to
court because our self-respect is at
stake.” Jackson said Anheuser-Busch
was behind the editorials and said,
“If black people allow whites to use
them, they will have to pay the
price ”
Jackson said he objected to some
of the wording in the August 5
editorial, especially words referring
to him as “self serving,
defrauding...minister or charlatan....
Jackson’s wheeling and dealings are
dangerous...and Jackson’s kick-back
approach to the black community...”
In his suit against the St. Louis
Sentinel and publisher Jane Woods,
Jackson said the “maliciously written
editorial damaged PUSH and
destroyed its “effectiveness before
the general public,” and made a
According to Pryor’s lawyer Jay
Lavely, Pryor proclaimed that he was
“very pleased” with the decision. But
the occurence was “yet another pain
ful reminder that a person whom he
had trusted and relied on for five
years grossly abused that trust.”
The actor-comedian, who has
been in Europe shooting another
feature film, has become the most
sought-after entertainer on the
national show business scene.
Pryor’s motion picture debut
began in the suspense spoof “Busy
Body.” His portrayal as ‘piano man’
in the highly acclaimed ‘Lady Sings
The Blues’ (’72) is the movie that gave
Pryor credibility not only as a great
comedian, but as an accomplished ac
tor.
After his schedule became more
demanding, Pryor hired Franklin to
serve as his assistant. The decision
was heralded in the entertainment cir
cles as unfortunate that Franklin
proved distrustful to his client.
Mayor sets tone for freshmen
Mayor Edward M. Mclntyre is not
on the faculty at Paine College. But
he taught the new freshman class a
few lessons Tuesday night.
“Some of you came here looking
for the easy way out,” he said at the
Freshman Orientation Banquet, “but
I don’t know anybody that’s been
successful looking for the easy way
0ut....1f you are looking for the easy
way out, you’re at the wrong place at
the wrong time, and you’ll not be
here long.”
The mayor urged the new students
to register to vote and to run for
public office. “I need you to be
thinking of running for public office.
Elected officials control everything in
this country that is not controlled by
God almighty.
“Whenever we elect one of us, it’s
progress for all of us,” Mclntyre
said, noting that blacks still make up
less than one percent of the elected
officials in this country.
deliberate effort to circulate the
editorial to 150 black publications
nationwide.
Jackson said the editorials have
caused PUSH “to suffer damage to
its reputation, integrity and has
seriously hampered its ability to
acquire funding for its various social
programs in that its integrity and
purpose has been unjustly and falsely
questioned by the defamatory ac
cusations.”
PUSH is seeking $550,000 in
damages and $1,000,000 in punitive
damages for the Rev. Jackson,
$500,000 in damages and $1,000,000
in punitive damages on behalf of
PUSH.
Recently a St. Louis businessman,
Sam Tidmore, spoke at PUSH in
defense of Rev. Jackson. He called
the “shakedown” charges nothing
more than “contrived controversy,”
and said the unnamed businessmen
were engaged in an “open season of
character assassination on Jackson.”
Jackson said, “Since they (the St.
Louis Sentinel) won’t or can’t
produce one black person who said I
asked for a shakedown, then let them
produce one before a judge.”*
Richard Pryor
September 18,1982
ir W I
PRESIDENT William H. Harris introduces mayor Edward M.
Mclntyre. Mrs. Juanita Mclntyre is at left.
The mayor also cautioned the ap
proximately 200 freshmen to be
satisfied being themselves. “When I
studied music appreciation, they
taught me Beethoven, Bach, and
Chopin. Nobody taught me to ap
preciate the blues, spirituals and
Jackson added, “PUSH is a volun
tary organization and our PUSH In
ternational Trade Bureau has a mem
bership. The people who join
obligate us to provide priority ser
vice to them. To demand services
without paying its tantamount to
slavery.”
“The term ‘pay to play’ is notning
more than black talk and is nothing
threatening.”
Jackson has targeted Anheuser-
Busch because out of 780
distributors, only one is black-owned.
Jackson said his efforts to obtain the
employment picture of Anheuser-
Busch has been met with un
cooperativeness.
Last August, PUSH signed a $34
million covenant with National Coca-
Cola, and recently signed a multi
million dollar covenant with Hublein
in which over $lO million will be
pumped into the black community by
the end of the fifth year. The plan will
create 9,000 jobs for blacks and
economic assistance to open 113 Ken
tucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Two weeks ago, Jackson signed a
s6l million covenant with the Seven-
Up Company.
Less than 75 percent Advertising
gospel—my own music.
“It’s time for black people to start
being satisfied being black and stop
trying to be something else.”
Mclntyre, who attended Paine
before graduating from Morehouse
College, is a member of the Paine
Famous Flames reunited
for recording sessions
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—America’s
pioneering soul band, James Brown’s
legendary Famous Flames, has
reunited for-recording sessions here,
this week.
The Famous Flames led the way in
black music’s transition from rhythm
& blues to funk & soul in the 19605,
and continues to be one of pop
music’s most durable touring groups.
Three 19-year veterans of the band
organized this week’s sessions at
Pollyfox Studios, Music Row’s most
aggressive young facility.
Original Famous . Flame mem
bers Bobby Byrd, Johnny Terry, and
Bobby Bennett are here, as are such
long-time group members as Fred
Wesley, George Woods, Maceo
Parker, and Alfred Ellis. Byrd is the
co-writer of such James Brown soul
smashes as Lost Someone (No. 2,
1962) and Sex Machine (No. 2, 1970).
Terry is the co-writer of the immortal
Please, Please, Please, the song that
launched James Brown’s career in
1956.
Ellis co-wrote the pop and soul
chart-topper Cold Sweat in 1967
Fred Wesley’s most successful tune
for James Brown was Hot Pants in
1971; and he intially led the group
when it parted ways with the black
superstar in the 19705.
As Fred Wesley & The J.B.s, The
Famous Flames had a string of soul
hits from 1972 to 1974. They were last
heard on black radio in 1977 (Get Up
for the Down Stroke) and 1980
(House Party).
Byrd plays keyboards and sings
lead. As a solo artist, he has had
records on King and Warner Brothers.
His sons Tony Byrd (drums) and Bar
tlett Anderson (keyboards,
arrangements) constitute The Famous
Flames rhythm section today. Wife
Vicki Anderson is an artist as well.
Her last release was on Miami’s T-K
Records, the home of K.C. & The
Sunshine Band; and she, too, is
recording again.
“Tell the people that The Famous
Flames have returned!” crowed Byrd
at the recording sessions. He has
good reason to boast, for in the mid-
College Board of Trustees, and his
daughter is a student at Paine.
He also encouraged the students to
go into business for themselves. “Un
til we become producers where we can
hire our own people, we’ll always be
the last hired and the first fired, he
said, telling the students they should
think toward working for themselves
instead of somebody else.
The mayor also urged the students
to support the small businesses in
their communities, which, he added,
“educated black people,” tend not to
do.
The most loyal people to the black
community are people on fixed in
comes. “They are the ones who sup
port black beauty shops, restaurants
and insurance companies he said.
Again urging the students to
become independent producers, the
mayor borrowed from a James
Brown song. “I don’t want nobody
to give me nothing, just open the
door and I’ll get it myself.”
i M IWI
Bobby Byrd
1960 s James Brown & The Famous
Flames were role models for black
teenagers from coast to coast. Their
ghetto benefit concerts and good
deeds were widely-publicized.
“We moved to rural Tennessee and
have been taking it easy,” said Byrd,
“But now we’ve regrouped to record
an album’s worth of material, and
we’ll be trying to place that, as well as
Vicki’s LP, with a new record label.”
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