SIXTIES

In 1961, few people could have been predicting the explosion in popular music that was about to engulf the city of Detroit. However, two people were watching developments closely from the sidelines. They were Ed Wingate and JoAnne Bratton.

Wingate was born the first of seven children to the late Eddie and Eaddy Wingate in Moultrie, Georgia on November 1919. When his Father fell ill in 19 32, Ed left school to provide for siblings. In the late thirties he moved to Detroit to work in several positions within the Ford Motor Company.

From savings accumulated there, over the next twenty years he opened a string of businesses in the service sector. He had a garment cleaning business , a barber shop, a restaurant and a part ownership in America's longest running Taxi Company, City Cabs, on the lower east side.

Wingate also built and operated the Twenty Grand Motel with his friend and partner Ernest MacKey in the mid sixties.

Another close friend of Ed's was a lady by the name of JoAnne Jackson who had been married to champion boxer Johnny Bratton, a former NBA World Welterweight Title holder.

JoAnne was also a success in business and has been described by her contemporaries as a very beautiful woman. Ed and JoAnne would become partners in the Thoroughbred Racing Industry and eventually married.

Berry Gordy's success with Jackie Wilson had not gone unnoticed. Nor had his procurement of a Photographers studio on West Grand Boulevard.

Ed's business concerns were now successful enough to provide him with some spare capital and the music industry was beginning to look like a good place to invest it.

In the early part of 1961, Ed paid Berry Gordy a visit to find out some more.

JoAnne recalls "It was still early days for Berry and he was looking for some additional funding. He asked Ed if he would like to become a partner.

However, my own advice to Ed was to forget it. They both had extremely powerful personalities, and I just could not see it working out. To this day, we have no regrets on that front."

In Berry's book, he talks of cash flow problems emerging from his first million seller "Shop Around", which was issued in October 1960. The more copies he pressed, the bigger his debt.

The distributors held the key, but unless you could string a couple of million sellers together, it would always be a struggle.

JoAnne continues...

"After Motown had been in place for 2 or 3 years, Ed decided that he was ready to make a move.”

Continued