Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 September 1978 — Page 10

pageio’h^na^*^"

Believe Me.. When I Tell You

■OT WOMACK SR.

Con Funk Shun’s gold came easy

Hi There Fuss: SHERMAN HEMSLEY. star of the popular television series, “The Jefferson” was once a street fighter who participated in many savage gang wan during his formitive yean. “Twenty-yean ago, I was dodging bullets just to keep alive; guzzling wine to try and forget how crummy it all was,” stated Hemsley, now 39, known to millions as the dapper, social - 'climbing, acid-tongued George Jefferson on CBS-TV. His father was demised and his mother worked in a garment factory while he roamed the streets of South Philadelphia with his many young friends, namely: “The Twentieth Street Gang." According to Hemsley, “you had to belong to a gang where I lived, or you got your head knocked-off. The name of the game in my neighborhood was survival, and from the time I was 14,1 belonged to the gang." “I used to go to school for only the first 15 minutes, just long enough to check in at roll-call (homeroom), then Fd split to the streets and bum around with the gang.” said the star, who today neither smokes nor drinks. Also he was in and out of street fights for three-years, but he kept his head and rarely got hit. He also went on to relate, “the stupidity of it all struck me when I was 17. I suddenly found myself dodging bullets when the other gang started shooting. Then, the • ‘fuzz’ showed up and they started shooting too. I hid under a parked par, and that’s when I said to myself: Hell, this is crazy! If I ever get out of here alive, Fm quitting all this stuff for good. I decided to go into the Air Force. I didn’t have to worry about quitting school because they’d just thrown me out!”..(smile). Hemsley took to the Air Force a lot better than he’d taken to school. “I put in four-years in Japan and Korea, and when I came back to Philly I started to go after what Fd always wanted to do - act.” In 1970, he finally landed a good role in “Purlie,” a Broadway musical. Norman Lear, a TV producer dug the show which led to

-t 1

SHERMAN HEMSLEY with Isabel Sanford in ‘Jeffersons’ Hemsley’s audition for the part of George Jefferson. He got the part and overnight was a TV star as Archie Bunker’s neighbor in “All In The Family.” And then, almost as quickly, he had his own show. Hemsley, a casual dresser, admits he owes a lot to natty George Jefferson, but privately confides he doesn’t like the character “George Jefferson can have his arrogance," he said. “And I let him have it, but only when Fm on the set ACTING.” Recently in a telephone interview with this reporter, Hemsley related, “There’s a night club act in’ his immediate future, but he insists that he has NO plans to step down from “The Jeffersons.” As long as the viewers want to see George Jefferson, I will be there to play him.’’....And “That’s The Black Truth!”... Believe Me! SPOT NEWS: Esther Rolle, actress returned to “Good Times” recently to preside TURN TO PAGE 18

By LYNN FORD Musical life’s been child’s play for CON FUNK SHUN. The seven-man group came up with two gold records and more highly accepted songs by following a formula best described as “nursery rhyme funk”. Lead singer MIKE COOPER, who has had a hand in writing, or, has written, the bulk of the group’s hits, says he’s aimed his lyrical assault at the younger set. That’s where catchy songs are as indelible as T ‘Jack and Jill” or “Hey Diddle Diddle.” “A four-year-old, three-year-old, two-year-old, or a one-year-old can hum something like ‘Ffun, Ffun, Ffun’,’ he says, using the chorus from the band’s first gold single as an example, ^and never know exactly what he's doing. But he can depend on the ‘Ffun, Ffun, Ffun’ rolling around again. If you can write where a child can remember it (a song), it’s gotta be easier for older people.” Which is probably why those who’ve passed the nursery rhyme-chanting age were hooked into buying more than a million copies of Con Funk Shun’s second Mercury album, "Secrets," and the single, "Ffun,” conquered rhythm and blues charts before eventually earning a gold disc as a crossover pop hit. Cooper, who co-wrote Con Funk Shun’s initial single on Mercury, “Sho Feels Good,” and handled all writing chores on "Ffun,” “Confunkshunizeya,” and "Shake and Dance With Me” and “So Easy,” from current album “Loveshine,” says the group’s easy sucess has drawbacks he just happens to love. "You (an act) become a number once you’re successful. You’re a big marketing trip to a record company. You’ve got to get out on this road and do promotions, interviews (he glances at the microphone and injects a sheepish laugh), and

SOUL SOUNDS

five years playing on sessions behind the then-almighty Stax Records roster. “We tried to sell ourselves to Stax,” Cooper remembered before opening a concert for the COMMODORES, "but they turned us down flat every time. They never gave us any reason.” They finally sold themselves to a label. Changing its name to Con Funk Shun, the band did three singleslor Freetone Records: “Now and Forever,” “Clique," and a version of BOB DYLAN’S “Mr Tambourine Man.” Pardon the pun, but none “Cliqued.” Con Funk Shun moved on to Mercury, and, well, you’re probably Freakin’, Slidin’, Spankin’ and Bumpin’ to the rest. **• Following are the week’spick Soul Sounds: “Betcha Can’t Love Me Just Once”--RAYDIO; “Ride On” b/w “Big Foot”PARLIAMENT; “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”--NATALIE COLE; “Do What You Want. Be What You Are” -DRAMATICS; and “Flying High”-COMMODORES.

COMMODORES lead riager Lionel Richie stayed hi schoollong enough to earn an ecoomics degree, which will benefit him long after Ms days of singing “Easy" and “Three Times a Lady" are over. Why don't you join The Indianapolis Recorder, WTLC, Indianapolis Education Association, and National Council of Negro Women, and be like Lionel: STAY IN SCHOOL!!!!

Enfertain merit MORE ON PAGE 18

‘One City Under a Groove’

By a SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHICAGO It wasn't exactly “One Nation Under a Groove,” but thousands of Chicagolanders were dancin’ in the aisles of Soldier Field last Saturday, as the first annual Chicago Funk Festival unfolded, which benefitted the United Negro Collge Fund. Headlining the'open-air conert was Parlia-ment-Funkadelic, which more than satisfied a crowd disappointed by the announcement that Bootsy's Rubber Band leader Bootsy Collins had called off his appearance, and was resting in a Los Angeles hospital alter complaining of nervous exhaustion. George Clinton's masters of funk more than sledgehammered the crowd with his hits like "Flash Light," “One Nation Under a Groove,” and “Free Your Mind, and Your Will Follow’’ and, yes, the mothership landed again. Concert offered shades of Stax Records’ Wattstax concerts in Los Angeles, but the tickets were cheaper back then. A dollar got you in the Los Angeles Coliseum to see acts like Isaac Hayes, the Emotions, Bar-Kays (who just happened to be on this bill), and the Sou) Children while $11 was all it took to see

PERFORMANCE

this show, which included A Taste of Honey, Parlet, and Con Funk Shun. Of each ticket sold, 25 cent went to UNCF. Con Funk Shun shows promise as a performing act, and their music is perfect for firing up an audience. They did “Ffun,” “Shalce-and Dance With Me,” “Cbnfuhkshun- - izeya,” and others. Stirring up a lot of constructive criticism this summer has been A Taste of Honey, a four-member group fronted by guitarists Janife Johnson (bass) and Hazel Payne (lead). The band rocked this crowd with “Boogie Oogie Oogie," and had the ladies shouting approval with a short speech by Miss Johnson, who offered reasons why women are more than just “homebodies.” Bar-Kays, of course, were sensational. They have a multitude of experience under their belts, as well as a multitude of hits. Songs with which lead singer Larry Dodson fired up the crowd were “Let’s Have Some Fun,” ‘Shake Your Rump to the Funk," and “Attitudes.” Sorry, but we missed Parlet, three female backup singers for Parliament, who have a potential hit in the single “Pleasure Principle.”

CON FUNK SHUN all kinds of stuff. You’re almost trapped into what you've created. After a while you’re not running it; it’s running you, but I love it. I helped create it.” And that was alongside drummer LOUIS McCALL. Cooper and McCall formed Project Soul, a two-man band out of a Vallejo, California high school. They later added KARL FULLER (trumpet), PAUL “MACEO" HARRELL (saxophone). CEDRIC MARTIN (bass), FELTON PILATE (lead singer, trumpet and keyboards) and DANNY THOMAS (keyboards) and ventured to Memphis, where they spent

Based on May 1978 U.S. Government Report: Box or menthol: 11 Cariton have less tar than 1 Merit. Carlton Box. less than 0 5 mg "tar and 0 05 mg. nicotine. Carlton Menthol tar less than.1 mg notme 0 1 mg Men! tar 8 mg nicotine 0 6 mg 01 all brands, lowest Ca'iton Bo» 'ess than trb mg tar and 0 05 mg nicotine 'Carlton is lowest.

Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health.

Box Less than 0 5 mg tar. 0 05 mg nicotine Soft Pack and Menthol 1 mg tar 0 1 mg mcotme av per cigarette, FTC Report May 78

‘Sanford’ on 4

“Sanford and Son,” the now defunct weekly situation com edy starring Redd Foxx and ■Damask JWilsbn, tnitf bb ^ beginning September 18 at 5:30 p.m. weekdays on WTTV 4. Recently cancelled “Six Million Dollar Man" series will also be syndicated run on WTTV September 18, airing weekdays at 6 p.m.

:ch ■ * «I Ha

ABC sues Foxx LOS ANGELESComedian Redd Foxx was hit with a $5 million breach of contract suit recently by American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. Included in the suit were the former “Sanford and Son” star production companies, and ABC sought an injunction preventing Foxx from working for anyone else. Foxx and his Redd Foxx Productions, Inc. and Redd Foxx Enterprises, Inc. were charged in the Superior Court suit with breaching an October, 1975, contract to provide ABC with a pilot for his now defunt comedy-variety series. ‘Musical mamas’ the thing on fall television

LOS ANGELESTelevision’s lineup of still won’t be intact when this fall’s television season kicks off. Esther Rolle will return to CBS’ "Good Times,” thanks to the producer’s desire to marry off television daughter Thelma Evans (BernNsdette Stanis), while Mable King will leave ABCs "What’s hsppeningtt!!” Miss Rolle returns to the series with the opinion that the J.J. character (played by comedian Jimmie Walker), has matured, and is less of a buffoon, which die dismissed him as when she left the series last year. She was written out as leaving the Evans’ Chicago household of Arisons with her husband. Mias RoOe. who plays Florida, a character born on the "Maude series, will return only for a visit during Thefana’s wedding, and decide to stay when she realises there’s no place like home. "ft’s time these producers •top kflHngjfblack life and •uMtituting what they feel is TURN TO PAGE 18

SUNSHINE AND ELECTRIC FACTORY PRESENTS

RICHARD PRYOR "THAT NIGGER'S CRAZY" "BICENTENNIAL NIGGER" "IS IT SOMETHING I SAID"

WITH SPECIAL GUEST PATTI LABEUE "SOME GNUS". "JOY TO NAVE YOUR LOVE". "ISN'T IT A SHAME" SUNDAY, SEPT. 10-8 PM. INMANAPOUS CONVENTION CENTER ALL SEATS RESERVED $7«50 -$8.50 TICKETS ON SALE NOW ROSS 0 BABCOCK TICKET AGENCY ROSS A YOUNG ALL I~S. AYRES LOCATIONS

' ; v

Dusk To Down Twin West Dr. In Exclusive FREE POSTERS TO V00 CARS Friday-Snturday Only 1 To A Cnr

THAT MAN FROM “ENTER THE DRAGON” IS BACK TO BUST YOU... AND THEN BUST YOU APART!

MOVIETIME FILMS a HARRY HOPE production JIM KELLY IN

ALSO STARRING GEORGE LASENBY ALDO RAY GUEST STAR TERRY MOORE • HAROLD “ODD JOB” SAKATA OMECTEOBY PRODUCED BY EXECUTIVE (WOUCERS AL ADAMSON • HARRY HOPE • DICK RANDALL«. OSCAR NICHOLS • METRO COLOR MGM introducing MYRON BRUCE LEE BaTnuiims hh m t w ** ■ HE'S MEAN. TOUGH AND DEADLY llOVOnC riLTU