- Great American Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century
Berry Gordy, Jr.
Motown Records Corporation
1959 - 1986
Entertainment & Broadcast Media
| Military Service | Army |
|---|
b. 1929
| Personal | |
|---|---|
| Born-Died | 1929 |
| Birthplace | Michigan (MI) |
| Race | Black or African American |
| Father | Laborer, Skilled |
Gordy’s Motown Records became the most successful African-American enterprise of its time with sales in the early 1970s of $50 million. Gordy’s first gold record came just one year after the founding of Motown - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ 1960 hit “Shop Around.” Diana Ross and the Supremes was Motown’s most successful group in the 1960s, achieving record sales of over $12 million, second only to the Beatles. In the early 1970s, it was the Jackson Five that became Gordy’s most lucrative find.