Did Berry Gordy accidentally ruin Diana Ross’ chances of winning an Oscar?
In an ideal world, the Academy Awards would be an even playing field in which the best and brightest of Hollywood vied for the most prestigious honours in the game. Unfortunately, though, this isn’t an ideal world, and the history of skullduggery behind the scenes of Hollywood’s biggest night has sometimes become pretty unsavoury. Indeed, Oscar campaigning has been a factor in the awards almost since their inception, and it often seems like the studio with the deepest pockets stands the best chance of winning instead of the most deserving actor/film. Sometimes, though, campaigning too hard can backfire – which may have been what happened when Berry Gordy inadvertently torpedoed Diana Ross’s chances in 1973.
In 1972, Ross made her screen acting debut in Lady Sings the Blues, a biopic of the legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday. It was produced by Motown Productions, the television and film production arm of Gordy’s Motown Records label. Ross had a long history with this label, signing for Motown as part of the Supremes, which became its biggest-selling act in the ’60s. In 1970, she embarked on a solo career, and in ’72, tried her hand at acting – both strategic moves designed to make her an A-list star.
While Lady Sings the Blues received mixed reviews, Ross’ performance was widely praised, with the Los Angeles Times’ Charles Champlin calling it “one of the truly fine screen performances, full of power and pathos and enormously engaging and sympathetic.”
Ross wound up receiving an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress,’ and most observers believed it was a two-horse race between her and Liza Minnelli for Cabaret. Gordy was determined to give his shining star the best chance of winning, though, so he engaged in a publicity onslaught that might seem perfectly normal today but was very much not the done thing at the time.
Gordy paid for nine full-page advertisements to run in industry publications over a two-and-a-half-week period. Each ad charted Ross’ performance in the movie from a fresh-faced ingenue to a drug-addled troubled soul. Finally, all nine of these images were then combined on one page, with a full-colour image placed overleaf of Ross as Holiday signing triumphantly on stage. The copy read, “Diana Ross, an extraordinary actress.”
It’s believed that many important voices in Hollywood saw this ad campaign as a tasteless, hard sell by a record label executive with little to no experience in the movie business. This may have worked against Ross in the long run because Oscar voters were reportedly put off the idea of her winning. Minnelli walked away with the trophy on Oscar night, and Ross was decidedly miffed.
“I really worked hard on that goddamned film,” Ross said after losing out to Minnelli, “and I really felt that I deserved that Oscar. But just because I didn’t get it doesn’t mean to say I won’t try again.”
Perhaps Gordy and Motown pushed so hard for the Oscar win that Ross began to believe it was a foregone conclusion, and the disappointment of not winning was hard to take for a star who was only used to success. Whatever the case, she only acted four more times in the next 27 years before hanging up any thespian ambitions for good.
