Clare Hollingsworth’s ‘scoop’ of the century, William Styron’s ‘mistakes,’ the Temptations, and reader reaction: newsletter, May 8, 2020

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Clare Hollingsworth: A newbie reporter get the ‘scoop of the century’

During the last week in August 1939, Clare Hollingsworth had been a full-time newspaper reporter for less than a week. She had been hired by the London Daily Telegraph to cover Poland, and she was based in the western Polish town of Katowice.

She asked the British consul there if she could borrow his chauffeured limo, and in it she drove west toward Germany. The Germans, spotting the British flags on the car, let her pass through the border, and she went to the nearest town and bought some food, wine, and newspapers. On the way back, the Germans had hung camouflage screens along the side of the road, but a gust of wind blew them aside, and Hollingsworth was astonished at what she saw.

“. . . I looked into the valley and saw scores, if not hundreds of tanks lined up, ready to go into Poland,” she later recalled.

The next morning the Daily Telegraph carried a front-page story headlined, “1,000 Tanks Massed on Polish Border: Ten Divisions Reported Ready for Swift Stroke.” The byline for the story was simply, “From Our Own Correspondent.”

It was the first real indication that Hitler was indeed planning on invading Poland. Four days later it happened. Those German tanks that Hollingsworth saw came screaming across the border, and what became World War II had begun. Hollingsworth called the British embassy in Warsaw and told them what was going on. They didn’t believe her. She held the phone out of her hotel window so they could hear the sounds of the rumbling tanks, the explosions, and the gunfire.

It was the first word that the British Foreign Office had that the real war had begun.

(If you have been watching the current PBS series “The World on Fire,” some of this might sound familiar to you. The character in the series, radio reporter Nancy Campbell, is based in part of Clare Hollingsworth.)

Hollingsworth stayed in Poland, reporting on what she saw until the nation succumbed to the German invasion. She then went to Bucharest and later Greece to continue her war correspondence. She then made her way to North Africa to report on British forces under General Bernard Montgomery. Montgomery ordered her to return to Cairo, but she defied him — as she had done previously with attempts to censor her reporting — and went to Algiers to cover forces under General Dwight Eisenhower for the Chicago Daily News.

Subsequent travels took her to Palestine and Persia, where she became the first journalist to interview the Shah of Iran,

Born in 1911, Hollingsworth grew up near Leicester, England, and she showed an early bent toward writing. When she became an adult, she won a spot at Zagreb University to study Croatian. During that time, she sent articles to the New Statesman, and when the Munich Agreement was signed in 1938, she went to Warsaw and helped thousands of refugees from the Sudetenland obtain British visas. At that point, she was hired by the Daily Telegraph to report on events in Poland.

She continued her reporting career after the war, covering wars in Palestine, Algeria, China, and Vietnam. In 1963 she was in Beirut, Lebanon as a correspondent for The Guardian when she found out that a top British intelligence officer, Kim Philby, was last seen on a ship headed to Russia. She wrote the story, but the editors of her paper held it for three months, fearing legal action against the paper. Finally, Philby’s defection was confirmed by the government, and Hollingsworth had another big scoop.

Hollingsworth took up residence in Hong Kong in 1981 and gradually reduced her reporting activities. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1982. She died in 2017 at the age of 105.

Temptations: soulful voices, close harmonies, and choreography that made you want to dance

No group that Motown produced exemplified the Motown sound better than the Temptations.

Throughout the decade of the 1960s, the Temptations dominated the charts with their deep, soulful rhythms, the near-perfect blend of their harmonies, and most of all their mesmerizing choreography. Those guys could dance, and if you saw them either live or on television, they made you wish you had just half the moves they did.

They started, of course, in Detroit, the combination of two rival singing groups: Otis Williams, Elbridge “Al” Bryant, and Melvin Franklin and Otis Williams & the Distants, and Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams of the Primes. Motown founder Berry Gordy knew about these groups because he was good at scouting local talent, and in 1961 he signed them to a contract. Because of previous recording contracts, Gordy told them to get a new name.

The group considered various designations and took suggestions from Motown staffers. The name that stuck was the Temptations, and Gordy approved.

Despite their obvious talent, their success was not assured. They released various singles from 1961 to 1963 without much impact. But somehow, Gordy knew that if their talent could be developed, it could be overwhelming. Al Bryant, for one, couldn’t see that and grew sullen and frustrated at the group’s lack of success. At the end of 1963, following an altercation with others in the group, he quit (or was fired).

David Ruffin, a young Mississippian (shown here in the caricature on the right), had been following the group around, hoping that one day he could join them. Bryant’s leaving gave him his chance. He had a raspy baritone that had developed in the gospel singing churches of the deep South, and he carried that power to the North. In January 1964, the Temptations recorded “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” a song co-written by Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers, and by April the group had broken into the top 20 on the pop charts.

Subsequent recordings were not as big, but Robinson had listened closely to the group — especially to David Ruffin — and thought he could write the perfect song for him. In December 1964, the group recorded “My Girl,” another co-written song by Robinson and Ronnie White, and by March 1965, the Temptations were at the top of the charts again.

That song became the group’s signature piece and ushered them into what is called the Temptations’ “classic period.” They had hit after memorable hit, including “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep,” “I Wish It Would Rain,” and “You’re My Everything.”

By 1967 the Temptations, to the outside viewer, appeared to have everything going for them. Inside the group, it was a different story. Ruffin had taken the lead on so many of their hits that he felt he should get special billing and lobbied Berry to change the name to David Ruffin and the Temptations. Ruffin regularly missed practices and was becoming increasingly dependent on cocaine. Ruffin had taken up with Motown star Tammi Terrell, and his abusive behavior toward her was no secret.

By June 1968, the group had had enough and got together and fired Ruffin. In his place they hired Dennis Edwards, but Ruffin began showing up at their concerts, coming onto the stage, and grabbing the microphone from Edwards. This stunt was repeated several times until Ruffin realized that he was not going to be able to rejoin the group.

With the addition of Edwards, the Temptations ended their “classic” period and shifted to what they called “psychedelic soul,” and they continued to produce hits such as “Cloud Nine” and “I Can’t Get Next to You.” The group also had a number of successful collaborations with Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Throughout the years, the Temptations have continually changed styles and personnel, but their essential brand — highly charged music, close harmonies, and precision dance moves — has remained constant. The original Temptations were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

See these previous posts about Motown:

Fifty years ago, Marvin Gaye asked What’s Going On?

Please, Mr. Postman

Berry Gordy began Motown with an $800 loan from his family

Martha and the Vandellas: Heat Waves, Quicksand, and but always Dancing in the Street

A novel writer’s obligation to the facts?

Two things struck me about Gordy’s genius as we toured the MM. One: having worked in an auto plant he realized that a beautiful end product is achieved by attending to all the particulars in a systematic way. With that in mind he adopted an assembly line approach to developing his acts at Motown. No detail was overlooked as he attended to not only costumes and choreography but also to command of language, etiquette and presentation of self. When an artist emerged from Motown to take to the stage, he or she was a finished product ready for the rigors of touring and living in the public eye. The second insight Gordy had was that creativity does not abide by a time clock. He kept his doors unlocked at all hours and allowed access to his recording studio around the clock. Thus a Smokey Robinson or a Marvin Gaye was as likely to be working on a new tune at 3 AM as 3 PM. 

Gordy had his favorites as you pointed out here, and he had his flaws, but you can’t argue with his finished product. In the end he produced some of the best music in America in the late 50s, 60s, and 70s. 

I’ve been watching after mom and finishing up quilting projects during our quarantine.  I’ve managed to finish and start several more. 

Take care and thank you for the good newsletters.