Mary Wilson will always be known as a founding member of the Supremes — the best-selling "girl group" of the 20th century — but there’s a serious side to the Motown "dream girl" many fans may not know about.
Wilson has taken a leading role in a national campaign to prohibit unethical music groups and promoters from exploiting the names and likenesses of famous acts. And she’s campaigning internationally to raise public awareness of the dangers posed by land mines.
"As long as there are wars out there, we’ll continue to have them," Wilson said by phone Tuesday morning in Los Angeles while taking a taxi to the airport. She said she doesn’t expect land mines will ever be banned, but expressed hope that more will be removed from war zones after conflicts end.
She also aims to have a federal truth-in-advertising law put in place that would prevent bogus groups from misrepresenting themselves as iconic acts such as the Platters or the Coasters.
"They say that imitation is flattery, but these (impostor) groups went too far," Wilson said. The law would require that at least one original member belong to any group claiming such an iconic name.
Wilson will be that link for Supremes fans when she performs this evening with Matt Catingub and the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra in the Blaisdell Concert Hall.
"I am so excited about it," she said. "I’ll be bringing two singers with me and I’ll be doing all the Supremes songs and a few extra things."
The Supremes began in 1959, taking the name the Supremes when Wilson, Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Barbara Martin signed with Motown in 1961. (Martin left in 1962.) It took more than two years for the Supremes to reach the Top 40, but of the 15 singles released between "Where Did Our Love Go" in 1964 and "In and Out of Love" at the end of 1968, 14 reached the Top 10 and the other stalled at No. 11.
The Supremes officially disbanded in 1977.
Wilson is active as an entertainer, author and recording artist. Her next recording, "Life’s Been Good to Me," is due out next month. She is also the curator of a collection of more than four dozen Supremes gowns that document the trio’s role as fashion trendsetters for much of the ’60s.
Looking back to the Supremes’ beginnings, Wilson says it "doesn’t feel like 50 years."
"I’m 68, and I have no problems admitting it, but it feels like yesterday. I was actually yesterday at a family reunion for ‘Dancing with the Stars’ because Gladys Knight is on, and they had a ‘Motown Night’ … Berry Gordy was there. The Pips sang, of course. Martha Reeves was there. Duke (Fakir) of the Four Tops. Holland-Dozier-Holland was there. It was almost like a family reunion, like we were all cousins."
