Motown at 50
Alan Light, MSN.com, January 2009
FIFTY YEARS AGO this month in Detroit, a 29-year-old African-American songwriter named Berry Gordy, Jr – a former boxer, autoworker, and Army veteran – borrowed $800 from his family. That's not usually an auspicious start to a story. But with that money, Gordy founded a company called Tamla Records, which would soon transform into Motown Records, the best-known and best-loved record label of all time.
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