Barbara Mcnair

Posted January 27, 201411 yr

I'm subscribed to Motown Junkies and he's just put up a snippet of the back story on Barbara and I'd never heard it before so I don't think he'll mind me re-posting the paragraph here in case it's news to others.

"Ms McNair, who we’re meeting for the first time here on Motown Junkies, is one of the more fascinating characters we’ve come across so far in the Motown story. By the time she signed with Motown, she was already famous, a veteran actress and variety performer of stage, screen and TV, and even without the Motown connection her life would make for compelling reading. Here’s some edited highlights: she was one of the first African-American entertainers to get her own televised variety show (the unimaginatively-named The Barbara McNair Show), she flew to Vietnam to entertain the troops (striking up an unlikely friendship with Bob Hope in the process), her showbiz mogul husband was later murdered by the Mafia amid dark rumours of FBI involvement, and — if all this wasn’t interesting enough — she also became one of the earliest black women to pose naked for Playboy. Oh, and she also found the time to cut some records."

https://motownjunkies.co.uk/2014/01/26/658/

P.S. Don't know how to get rid of the shading.

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January 27, 201411 yr

Shading gone

"Ms McNair, who we’re meeting for the first time here on Motown Junkies is, one of the more fascinating characters we’ve come across so far in the Motown story. By the time she signed with Motown, she was already famous, a veteran actress and variety performer of stage, screen and TV, and even without the Motown connection her life would make for compelling reading. Here’s some edited highlights: she was one of the first African-American entertainers to get her own televised variety show (the unimaginatively-named The Barbara McNair Show), she flew to Vietnam to entertain the troops (striking up an unlikely friendship with Bob Hope in the process), her showbiz mogul husband was later murdered by the Mafia amid dark rumours of FBI involvement, and — if all this wasn’t interesting enough — she also became one of the earliest black women to pose naked for Playboy. Oh, and she also found the time to cut some records

January 27, 201411 yr

I think her version of "Lone Lonely Town" is the best one.....

Ian D

January 27, 201411 yr

Thanks for the link! Hope you enjoyed the piece - I've been so busy with radio stuff these past weeks I haven't had the time to properly dedicate myself to the blog, so it was great to just sit down and write.

That backstory capsule really is just scratching the surface. When I was researching this so many interesting things came up - she's like a fascinating onion, you peel off one bizarre layer and something else pops up to make you do a double-take. Someone has to make a movie of her life story some time.

(If anyone ever wants to copy anything from my site in future (please go ahead!), it's best to paste it into Notepad first and then re-copy and paste it from there, otherwise that weird shading thing seems to happen, I don't know why.)