Charles “Cholly” Atkins (13 September 1913 – 19 April 2003) was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label.
Cholly Atkins worked with Motown artists such as The Supremes, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Night, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations. He also worked with The O’jays, Love Committee and Aretha Franklin to name a few. He taught us to command the stage in ways that would enhance our performances and “sell” our songs. Not only did he teach…but he constantly educated our minds……teaching us respect for our craft, respect for other artists, and pride in who we are what we have to offer as entertainers. Cholly was a true unsung hero and second father to many in the music industry.
In 1989, Atkins received a Tony Award for choreographing the Broadway show Black and Blue. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003, Atkins died of the cancer on April 19, 2003 Las Vegas, Nevada at 89.
Charles Cholly Atkins was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the Motown label.
Charles Honi Coles was an American actor and tap dancer Known for his high-speed rhythm tapping on the streets of Philadelphia.
In 1940, while dancing with Cab Calloway’s band, Charles “Honmi” Coles met and teamed with Charles “Cholly” Atkins. As Coles & Atkins, their routine opened with a fast-paced song and tap number, followed by a precision swing dance, a soft shoe, and a tap-challenge. Their partnership lasted nineteen years.
Class Act: the jazz life of choreographer Cholly Atkins,
by Cholly Atkins
BACK TO FREELANCING
We had a lot of success with Artist Development un-
til the groups started to feel their prosperity. In other
words, after three or four years, most of the acts became
complacent because they were making more money, had
more fame, and everything was a big party. We’d schedule the different
artists and they wouldn’t show up, so the personnel department started
asking why certain tunes weren’t choreographed. Then they would get
on the artists about it.
Finally, Berry sent individual notices to everybody informing them
that the company had decided to stop providing those services and if
they felt they wanted grooming in the future, they would have to pay
for it. Well, all the artists were upset about it, but his decision was
final. So that’s the way it was set up in ’70, and by the end of ’71 most
of the lesser artists just stopped going to Artist Development altogeth-
er because Motown started to concentrate solely on the ones that were
making it.
The Jackson Five had come into the picture. I never
worked directly with them, but they used to stand in the wings during
performances, and at Motown they would sit on the stairs and watch
me rehearse the other groups. Marlon had such a photographic mem-
ory he could duplicate the moves almost immediately. The Temps
came to me and said, “You’ve given them all our routines!”
Motown was not a normal company. P. Diddy told me he wouldn’t have been able to do what he’s done had it not been for us. But most of them think that I was a gangster, and I have to tell them, “You’re on the wrong track.” People in gangsta rap come up to me and say, “They got Gotti, but they couldn’t get you,” and I say, “Wait a minute—if you think that’s how Motown was built, you’re wrong, because the principles have to be totally different.” The Motown legacy is there to show them—there is another way. —Berry Gordy, May 15, 2008.
I never talked to the Mafia, but the rumor was so strong that I was a part of the Mafia that one time the F.B.I. called me down to their office. So when they called me down to the F.B.I. in Detroit, to the division that handles organized crime, well, who wouldn’t be scared? I was concerned, although I knew I wasn’t [involved in] organized crime unless I was being framed, which wasn’t out of the question. They asked me if I was in the Mafia, and I said no. Then they took me to a board and showed me pictures and charts of the Detroit Mafia families. They said, “We’ve been studying you for years, and we cannot find you in any of these charts or families.” And they said either I was the smartest person they knew or I had no ties to the Mafia.
SUZANNE DE PASSE AND LIONEL RICHIE The Glitz Squad
De Passe: executive, movie and television producer, screenwriter.
De Passe: two Emmy Awards and one Oscar nomination (for co-screenwriting Lady Sings the Blues).
Richie: singer, songwriter, musician, and ambassador of love.
Richie: 16 solo albums (four gold, two platinum, three multi-platinum) and 19 albums with the Commodores (three gold, three platinum); four Grammys; one Oscar for best original song, for “Say You, Say Me” (1985, from White Nights).
With her model looks, swish of blond hair, and Rodeo Drive wardrobe, de Passe is the Jackie Collins heroine of the Motown saga: a smart, pretty girl who started out as a booker at New York’s Cheetah Club and worked her way up into Hollywood’s inner circle. Joining Berry Gordy’s staff in early 1968—just ahead of the label’s L.A. years—de Passe cut quite the swath, signing and grooming a young act called the Jackson 5 and a funk band called the Commodores. Subsequently, she spearheaded Motown’s expansion into film and television, co-writing the 1972 Billie Holiday biopic, Lady Sings the Blues, and producing 1983’s landmark Motown 25 TV special, the high-water mark of Michael Jackson’s career.
Diana Ross is thought by many to have discovered the Jackson 5. But longtime Motown promotions man Weldon McDougal remembers it differently.
Having just been bumped up to director of special projects at the label, McDougal was in Chicago making preparations for a Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers show. They had a record out called “Does Your Mother Know About Me?”
“So I [went] to Chicago [to] make arrangements at the club they were playing to take about four or five of the tables up front for VIP tables … things like that,” remembers McDougal. “Got it all situated so that when the main night came, which was a couple nights later, they would greet our guests.”
There to handle everything on a Wednesday, McDougal found out the club was having a talent show that evening. The winner would open for Taylor two nights later. The Jackson 5 stole the show, and they reminded McDougal of an act called The Twilights that were on the Harthon label in Philadelphia. McDougal was a partner in the label. “They used to do a little skit on James Brown, like Michael was doing,” he explains. “I thought, ‘He’s doing just what The Twilights was doing, and they used to get over.”
Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 would emulate great acts like GK and The Pips. Click here to see Tito Jackson and Gladys Knight in concert in 2009.
Life After Motown
“Midnight Train to Georgia” is a 1973 number-one hit single by Gladys Knight & the Pips, their second release after departing Motown Records for Buddah Records. Written by Jim Weatherly, and included on the Pips’ 1973 LP Imagination, “Midnight Train to Georgia” won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus and has become Knight’s signature song.
Michael Peters choreographed Dreamgirls the Broadway Musical
Dreamgirls premiered on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre on December 20, 1981 and closed on August 11, 1985. The production was directed by Michael Bennett, produced by Bennett, Bob Avian, Geffen Records, and The Shubert Organization, and choreographed by Bennett and Michael Peters. The music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. Based upon the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Supremes, The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson and others…
However, Tom Eyen denied that he had the Supremes in mind when he wrote the book. “I didn’t grow up with the Supremes, I grew up with the Shirelles. Dreamgirls isn’t about any one group. It’s a cavalcade of black Motown singers…”
Bennett and Michael Petersshared a 1982 Tony Award for Best Choreography for their work on the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.
Michael Peters also choreographed “Thriller”, directed by John Landis, and “Beat It” directed by Bob Giraldi.
I reckon this is the stuff that inspired Joe Jackson
Vee-Jay was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken (later that year, Mr. & Mrs. Bracken), who used their first initials for the label’s name. The first song they ever recorded made it to the top ten of the national rhythm & blues charts. In a short time, Vee-Jay was the most successful black- owned record company in the United States. By 1963, they were charting records faster than some of the major labels.
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