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19611964196519681970

Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross smiling together in 1965
Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross at the Hilton, Amsterdam, 30 September 1965. Photograph by Jack de Nijs for Anefo (Nationaal Archief). Jack de Nijs for Anefo · CC0

The Supremes

Three girls from a Detroit housing project who became Motown’s biggest act: Sunday nights on Ed Sullivan, a spring in Paris, the Copa in July. Run a finger over the sequins.

Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross in Amsterdam, 30 September 1965. Jack de Nijs for Anefo, Nationaal Archief (CC0).

Detroit, the 1950s

Brewster-Douglass, where it began.

Florence Ballard, Diana Ross and Mary Wilson met as children at the Brewster-Douglass housing project. The V&A describes it as America’s first federally funded housing for African Americans.

Four tall housing towers in Detroit in 2010, before they came down
The Frederick Douglass towers seen from the Brewster mid-rises in 2010, before demolition. Photograph by Albert duce. Albert duce · CC BY 3.0
The brick Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center in Detroit, 2025
The Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center on the former Brewster-Douglass site, Detroit, 2025. KRONKDETROIT · CC BY-SA 4.0

Then: the last towers, four years before they came down.

2700 St. Antoine Street, Brush Park, Detroit

At its peak it housed almost 10,000 people. Demolition finished in 2014.

The site, 2700 St. Antoine Street in Brush Park, is being rebuilt as the Brewster Wheeler redevelopment, with 210 homes listed.

Mary Wilson said three young Black women from the Brewster Projects helped change how the world saw Black people.

The towers are gone and the land is being rebuilt. See it from the streets round the Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center; the new homes are private.

Sources
The three Supremes holding a Dutch pop magazine in 1964
The Supremes with a copy of the magazine Hitwezen at the Hilton, Amsterdam, 14 October 1964. Photograph by Ben van Meerendonk / AHF, IISG collection. Ben van Meerendonk / AHF, IISG collection · CC BY-SA 2.0

  1. 1943–1944

    Three girls

    Florence Ballard is born on 30 June 1943, Mary Wilson on 6 March 1944, and Diana Ross twenty days after Wilson.

    Sources

  2. 1959

    The Primettes

    Betty McGlown, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross start singing together as the Primettes.

    Sources

  3. Early 1960s

    Five-dollar pearls

    Their first string of pearls comes from Woolworths for $5; Wilson and Ross sew some of their own gowns, as their school’s home economics classes taught them.

    Sources

2648 West Grand Boulevard, 1960–1967

Hitsville: stop the line.

Gordy wanted a hit factory, modelled on the assembly line at the Ford plant where he had worked. Every act rode it: an audition, a contract, lessons, a routine, a record. Raise a hand to stop it where you like.

  1. 01The auditionSummer 1960
  2. 02Signed15 January 1961
  3. 03The hit factory1959–1968
  4. 04Artist development1960s
  5. 05Stop!1960s
  6. 06Five in a row1964–1965

The line is moving: station 1 of 6.

Summer 1960

Raise your hand to read this station.

Sources
The white Hitsville U.S.A. house on West Grand Boulevard in December 2025
Hitsville U.S.A., 2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, in December 2025. Photograph by Michael Barera. Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Hitsville U.S.A. house with its sign, 2006
Hitsville U.S.A. in June 2006. Photograph by Chris Butcher. Chris Butcher (Blob4000 at English Wikipedia) · Public domain

Hitsville U.S.A., West Grand Boulevard

The museum says visitors stand where the Supremes first recorded “Stop! In the Name of Love”, in Studio A.

Berry Gordy bought the two-family flat in 1959 and made its ground floor Hitsville U.S.A., Motown’s headquarters until 1968. Studio A keeps original instruments and recording equipment from 1959 to 1972.

Florence Ballard leaves and Cindy Birdsong takes her place; the group becomes Diana Ross & the Supremes.

Guided tours paused on 20 January 2026 for building work, with a reopening planned for spring 2027. See the house from West Grand Boulevard, and check motownmuseum.org first.

Sources
Motown Museum

Motown Museum, Hitsville U.S.A.

Detroit, Michigan · Reopening planned for spring 2027

Guided tours of the house and Studio A paused on 20 January 2026 while the museum builds; it plans to reopen in spring 2027. Watch the booking page for dates.

Check reopening

The gown

Sequin the gown.

Their early chiffon and velvet dresses give way to skin-tight sequinned gowns made for strong studio lighting; beaded and sequinned outfits cost thousands of dollars each. Brush across a band, or press its button, and its sequins catch the light: each band is a city, and a finished band opens its places.

Nothing sewn yet.

Detroit sits at the bodice; Las Vegas at the hem.

1697 Broadway, 1964–1969

Twenty Sunday nights.

Between 1964 and 1969 they made 20 appearances on the show. The Supremes first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on 27 December 1964, singing “Come See About Me”.

  1. 27 Dec 1964
  2. Appearance 2
  3. Appearance 3
  4. Appearance 4
  5. Appearance 5
  6. Appearance 6
  7. Appearance 7
  8. Appearance 8
  9. Appearance 9
  10. Appearance 10
  11. Appearance 11
  12. Appearance 12
  13. 19 Nov 1967
  14. Appearance 14
  15. 5 May 1968
  16. Appearance 16
  17. Appearance 17
  18. Appearance 18
  19. Appearance 19
  20. 21 Dec 1969
The Supremes singing on a television stage in 1966
Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross on The Ed Sullivan Show, 20 February 1966, performing My World Is Empty Without You. CBS Television publicity photograph. CBS Television · Public domain

On 19 November 1967 they swapped hits with the Temptations; on 5 May 1968 they sang an Irving Berlin medley with Ethel Merman.

On 21 December 1969 they sang “Someday We’ll Be Together”, and Sullivan announced that Diana Ross was leaving.

The evening after Martin Luther King Jr. is killed, the group sings “Somewhere” on The Tonight Show.

Sources
The Ed Sullivan Theater marquee and facade on Broadway
The Ed Sullivan Theater, 1697 Broadway, in November 2021. Photograph by Epicgenius. Epicgenius · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Ed Sullivan Theater

The theatre was landmarked in 1988 and must stay in use as a theatre; CBS has announced no plans for it since the Late Show ended.

The Late Show left in May 2026 and no new use has been announced. See the front and the marquee from Broadway.

Sources

Paris, April 1965

Down the Champs-Élysées, until the gendarmes came.

In Paris the Supremes were filmed skipping down the Champs-Élysées, miming to “Where Did Our Love Go” and dodging the traffic.

Skip 1 of 5

At the bottom of the avenue, camera rolling.

Mary Wilson remembered gendarmes coming at them, shouting, and not impressed by their explanation.

Sources
The Olympia music hall front with its red lettering, Paris
The Olympia, 28 boulevard des Capucines, Paris, in 2009. Photograph by Elliott Brown. Elliott Brown · CC BY 2.0

L’Olympia, Paris

The Supremes played the Olympia on 13 April 1965, on the Motortown Revue’s first trip to Europe.

The bill also had Martha & the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and the Miracles, backed by the Earl Van Dyke Six. The after-party also launched Tamla Motown in France.

A working music hall. Guided tours in French take in the stage, the wings and the dressing rooms; they start at Le Petit Olympia, 6 rue de Caumartin.

Sources
L’Olympia

Guided tour of L’Olympia

Paris 9e · Book on olympiahall.com · under-12s by phone

Behind the curtain to the stage, the wings and the dressing rooms of the hall the Supremes played in April 1965. In French; about an hour to an hour and a half; meet at Le Petit Olympia, 6 rue de Caumartin.

Book a visit
The long straight Champs-Élysées seen from above, lined with trees
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, May 2013. Photograph by Jebulon. Jebulon · CC0

The Champs-Élysées

That April they were also photographed in their own clothes in front of the Eiffel Tower.

A public avenue: walk it from the Rond-Point up to the Arc de Triomphe.

The three Supremes in matching gowns at the 1965 Grand Gala du Disque
Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross at the Grand Gala du Disque, the Netherlands, 2 October 1965. Photograph by Eric Koch for Anefo (Nationaal Archief). Eric Koch for Anefo · CC0

10 East 60th Street, July 1965

The Copa: a queue round the block.

The Supremes made their nightclub debut there in July 1965. She said Sammy Davis Jr. and Lena Horne had played it before them, and that they were among the first pop groups to sing there.

EAST 60TH STREETEAST 61ST STREETFIFTH AVEMADISON

0 in line

The street is empty. Join the line.

Mary Wilson remembered a room of about 200 seats, with queues round the block.

Sources
Fifth Avenue at East 60th Street in summer, looking north-east
Fifth Avenue at East 60th Street, by the block where the Copacabana stood, in 2014. Photograph by MartinThoma. MartinThoma · CC0

The Copacabana, East 60th Street

The Copacabana opened at 10 East 60th Street in 1940 and closed in 1973. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole played it; Carmen Miranda’s fruit headpieces became its symbol.

The club closed in 1973. See the address from East 60th Street, a few steps from Fifth Avenue and Central Park; there is no club to go into.

The Plaza (Fairmont)

The Plaza, New York

768 Fifth Avenue, New York · Book direct · +1 212 759 3000

The hotel on Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, a block from where the Copacabana stood on East 60th Street. 282 rooms, 102 of them suites. Pictured: Fifth Avenue at East 60th Street.

Check rooms
A 1965 trade magazine cover with the three Supremes
The Supremes on the cover of Cash Box, 31 July 1965, the month of their Copacabana debut. Motown, for Cash Box · Public domain
David Geffen Hall lit at dusk behind the Lincoln Center fountain
David Geffen Hall, formerly Philharmonic Hall, behind the Lincoln Center fountain, March 2024. Photograph by D. Benjamin Miller. D. Benjamin Miller · CC0

Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, 15 October 1965

Joseph Eula designed a poster for the Supremes at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, on Friday 15 October 1965.

The poster turns the three profiles into a near-abstract silhouette. The hall opened in 1962 as Philharmonic Hall, and has been David Geffen Hall since 2015. It reopened on 8 October 2022 after a $550 million renovation.

Now David Geffen Hall. Its public spaces open daily; the box office is open Monday to Saturday 10am–6pm and Sunday from noon.

Sources

Argyll Street, London

18 November 1968

On 18 November 1968 Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong played the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.

Between songs Ross spoke for tolerance between the races, and tied it to the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr., killed seven months before.

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, the Queen Mother, Princess Anne and Prince Charles were in the audience.

Sources
Cindy Birdsong, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross at a 1968 press conference
Cindy Birdsong, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross at a press conference at the Hilton, Amsterdam, 15 January 1968. Photograph by Jack de Nijs for Anefo (Nationaal Archief). Jack de Nijs for Anefo · CC0
The columned front of the London Palladium on Argyll Street
The London Palladium, Argyll Street, in August 2021. Photograph by No Swan So Fine. No Swan So Fine · CC BY-SA 4.0

The London Palladium

A working West End theatre on Argyll Street, by Oxford Circus: go to a show.

Las Vegas, January 1970

The Frontier, and after.

Motown announces that Diana Ross is leaving and that Jean Terrell will succeed her. They sing “Someday We’ll Be Together” on Sullivan’s show, and he announces Ross’s solo career.

The Supremes performing on the Frontier Hotel stage in 1969
Cindy Birdsong, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross on stage at the Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, 19 January 1969. Las Vegas News Bureau photograph. Las Vegas News Bureau · Public domain
Rubble and machinery on the cleared New Frontier site in Las Vegas
The New Frontier site on the Las Vegas Strip being cleared after demolition, January 2008. Photograph by Adam Kent. Adam Kent · CC BY 2.0

The Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas

Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong gave their farewell shows at the Frontier Hotel in January 1970, before Jean Terrell took Ross’s place.

The New Frontier was imploded on 13 November 2007. The 34.6-acre lot across from Wynn and Encore is vacant, and Wynn leases it out for events. Wynn holds approved plans for an 1,100-room resort on the site.

The hotel is gone and the lot is private land. Not mapped here.

Sources
The portico of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Catherine Street, in April 2013. Photograph by Elisa Rolle. Elisa Rolle · CC BY-SA 4.0

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 12 June 1977

The Supremes gave their last show at Drury Lane on 12 June 1977; Mary Wilson then retired the name.

With Jean Terrell, “Up the Ladder to the Roof” and “Stoned Love” reach the Top 10. The Supremes are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

A working West End theatre on Catherine Street, Covent Garden: go to a show.

Sources

Where it is now

9 places you can visit, from Detroit to Covent Garden. The Brewster-Douglass site is being rebuilt and Hitsville’s tours are paused until spring 2027; the Frontier is gone, its lot private, and it is not mapped.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The towers are gone and the land is being rebuilt. See it from the streets round the Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center; the new homes are private.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Guided tours paused on 20 January 2026 for building work, with a reopening planned for spring 2027. See the house from West Grand Boulevard, and check motownmuseum.org first.

  1. The brick Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center in Detroit, 2025
    The Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center on the former Brewster-Douglass site, Detroit, 2025. KRONKDETROIT · CC BY-SA 4.0

    2700 St. Antoine Street, Brush Park, Detroit

    Brewster-Douglass, Detroit

    Florence Ballard, Diana Ross and Mary Wilson met as children at the Brewster-Douglass housing project.

    The towers are gone and the land is being rebuilt. See it from the streets round the Brewster-Wheeler Recreation Center; the new homes are private.

    Sources
  2. The white Hitsville U.S.A. house on West Grand Boulevard in December 2025
    Hitsville U.S.A., 2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, in December 2025. Photograph by Michael Barera. Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0

    2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit

    Hitsville U.S.A., West Grand Boulevard

    Berry Gordy bought the two-family flat in 1959 and made its ground floor Hitsville U.S.A., Motown’s headquarters until 1968.

    Guided tours paused on 20 January 2026 for building work, with a reopening planned for spring 2027. See the house from West Grand Boulevard, and check motownmuseum.org first.

    Sources

Stay

A room by the Copa.

On Fifth Avenue, a block from East 60th Street.

The Plaza (Fairmont)

The Plaza, New York

768 Fifth Avenue, New York · Book direct · +1 212 759 3000

The hotel on Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, a block from where the Copacabana stood on East 60th Street. 282 rooms, 102 of them suites. Pictured: Fifth Avenue at East 60th Street.

Check rooms

Go there

Behind the curtain.

The Olympia’s backstage tour, Hitsville’s reopening, and music walks in Detroit, New York and Paris.

Motown Museum

Motown Museum, Hitsville U.S.A.

Detroit, Michigan · Reopening planned for spring 2027

Guided tours of the house and Studio A paused on 20 January 2026 while the museum builds; it plans to reopen in spring 2027. Watch the booking page for dates.

Check reopening
L’Olympia

Guided tour of L’Olympia

Paris 9e · Book on olympiahall.com · under-12s by phone

Behind the curtain to the stage, the wings and the dressing rooms of the hall the Supremes played in April 1965. In French; about an hour to an hour and a half; meet at Le Petit Olympia, 6 rue de Caumartin.

Book a visit
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Detroit Motown tours

Detroit

Live marketplace results for Motown and Detroit music tours. Hitsville’s own tours are paused, so check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours
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New York music history tours

New York

Live marketplace results for music history walks in Manhattan. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.

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Paris walks on the grands boulevards

Paris

Live marketplace results for walks along the Champs-Élysées and the grands boulevards. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.

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What’s on

The Royal Variety, 2026.

The show they played at the Palladium in 1968, this year at the Royal Albert Hall.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

A poster, a memoir, three LPs.

Joe Eula’s Lincoln Center poster, Mary Wilson’s book and three Motown records of 1964–66.

Printed Originals · Our poster store

The Supremes at Lincoln Center — Joe Eula (1965)

Joe Eula’s silhouette poster for the Supremes at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center; 24 × 36 inches, rolled, listed as mint.

Listed in our store · check stock on the poster page

View poster
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme

Mary Wilson

Mary Wilson’s own account of the group, from Detroit onwards.

Find the book
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Where Did Our Love Go

The Supremes · LP, Motown, 1964

The first album of No. 1s; the title song is the one they mimed on the Champs-Élysées.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy
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At the Copa

The Supremes · LP, Motown, 1965

The 1965 LP named for the Copacabana.

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I Hear a Symphony

The Supremes · LP, Motown, 1966

Released in February 1966, the month of the Sullivan photograph on this page.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The full record

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

10 of 10 places · 34 of 34 Moments

  • Brewster-Douglass, Detroit

    2700 St. Antoine Street, Brush Park, Detroit

    • Three girls

      Florence Ballard is born on 30 June 1943, Mary Wilson on 6 March 1944, and Diana Ross twenty days after Wilson.

    • Brewster-Douglass

      Ballard, Ross and Wilson meet as children at the Brewster-Douglass housing project.

    • The Primettes

      Betty McGlown, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson and Diana Ross start singing together as the Primettes.

    • Five-dollar pearls

      Their first string of pearls comes from Woolworths for $5; Wilson and Ross sew some of their own gowns, as their school’s home economics classes taught them.

    • The towers come down

      Demolition of Brewster-Douglass is finished.

  • Hitsville U.S.A., West Grand Boulevard

    2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit

    • The audition

      The Primettes win a talent contest and audition at Motown. No deal follows.

    • Signed

      The group signs with Motown as the Supremes.

    • The hit factory

      Berry Gordy runs Hitsville as a hit factory, modelled on the Ford assembly line he had worked on.

    • Artist development

      Maxine Powell’s finishing school teaches dress, deportment and how to appear on television; Cholly Atkins sets the routines; Maurice King handles the music and the patter.

    • Stop!

      The Supremes record “Stop! In the Name of Love” in Studio A.

    • Five in a row

      “Where Did Our Love Go”, “Baby Love”, “Come See About Me”, “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Back in My Arms Again” go to No. 1 one after another.

    • Cindy Birdsong

      Florence Ballard leaves and Cindy Birdsong takes her place; the group becomes Diana Ross & the Supremes.

    • The Hall of Fame

      The Supremes are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

    • Hitsville rebuilds

      Guided tours at Hitsville pause for construction, ahead of a reopening planned for spring 2027.

  • The Ed Sullivan Theater

    1697 Broadway, between West 53rd and 54th Streets, New York

    • First Sunday

      The Supremes make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, singing “Come See About Me”.

    • Sequins

      Their early chiffon and velvet dresses give way to skin-tight sequinned gowns made for strong studio lighting; beaded and sequinned outfits cost thousands of dollars each.

    • With the Temptations

      The Supremes and the Temptations swap each other’s hits on Sullivan’s stage; NBC gives them two prime-time specials.

    • Somewhere

      The evening after Martin Luther King Jr. is killed, the group sings “Somewhere” on The Tonight Show.

    • Irving Berlin

      With Ethel Merman they sing a five-minute medley of Irving Berlin songs.

    • Last Sunday

      They sing “Someday We’ll Be Together” on Sullivan’s show, and he announces Ross’s solo career.

    • The theatre goes quiet

      The Late Show leaves the Ed Sullivan Theater; CBS announces no new use.

  • The Copacabana, East 60th Street

    10 East 60th Street, New York

    • The Copa

      After Europe comes their nightclub debut at the Copacabana.

    • Round the block

      Mary Wilson remembers a room of about 200 seats and a queue round the block.

    • The Copa closes

      The Copacabana on East 60th Street closes.

  • Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center

    David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York

    • Philharmonic Hall

      The Supremes play Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center, under Joseph Eula’s silhouette poster.

  • L’Olympia, Paris

    28 boulevard des Capucines, Paris

    • The Olympia

      The Motortown Revue plays the Olympia on its first trip to Europe; the after-party launches Tamla Motown in France.

  • The Champs-Élysées

    Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Paris

    • Gendarmes

      Filmed skipping down the Champs-Élysées to “Where Did Our Love Go”, they dodge the traffic until gendarmes arrive, shouting.

    • In their own clothes

      They are photographed in their own clothes in front of the Eiffel Tower.

  • The London Palladium

    Argyll Street, London W1

    • Royal Variety

      Ross, Wilson and Birdsong play the Royal Variety Performance; between songs Ross speaks for tolerance between the races.

  • Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

    Catherine Street, Covent Garden, London

    • Drury Lane

      The Supremes give their last show; Mary Wilson retires the name.

  • The Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas

    Las Vegas Strip, across from Wynn and Encore

    • The announcement

      Motown announces that Diana Ross is leaving and that Jean Terrell will succeed her.

    • The Frontier

      Farewell shows at the Frontier Hotel close the Ross years.

    • Jean Terrell

      With Jean Terrell, “Up the Ladder to the Roof” and “Stoned Love” reach the Top 10.

    • The Frontier comes down

      The New Frontier is imploded, leaving a vacant lot on the Strip.

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