Beautiful they were so close.Marvin Junior had a God given voice I am sorry that I did not see them in person.God rest his soul, Johnny Carter and Charles Barksdale.There will never be another group like them. For the members of the rest of their family and the other members of the Mighty, Mighty Dell's family may God continue to richly bless you and may heaven smile upon you.
Baritone, Michael mickey McGill & 2nd Tenor, Verne Allison, are the two Surviving Members of The Mighty Dells McGill is 83 years, and Allison is 84 years old.
Heikki Suosalo12 hours ago Hi! Just a few sentences from my interview with the members of the Dells in the late 1990s: Chuck Barksdale: "This was not supposed to be a story about the Dells from the beginning. This was supposed to be a story about a stand-up vocal group, black, that was gonna be a comedy. Robert Townsend, the director, was brought to our dressing room by a young lady by the name of Kitty Sears, because he wanted to come and ask us, if it would be okay for him to use "Stay In My Corner" and "Oh What A Nite" in this up-coming comedy. When he mentioned 'comedy', Marvin Junior chimed in and said 'hey, wait a minute, ain't nothing funny about being a black stand-up vocal group. It's a major struggle, and the struggle continues today.' Robert said 'well, tell me more', and asked 'wait a minute, are you guys on tour now?' We said 'yes, we're on tour for the next six weeks.' He said 'do you mind, if I travel around with you. I like what I'm hearing so far.'" He travelled with us for the next six weeks. He watched our comradery, he heard us argue, saw us work on stage, riding on a bus, have dinner together. He took that and literally changed the script." Marvin Junior: "That was 85 % our story. When it was in the theatres, it was not that successful, but then they put it on video and on television, then it became very popular. The company didn't know how to handle that. They were so busy with the black movies with the killing and drugs and the whole bit - and here came a movie about entertainers, and they didn't quite know how to handle that." Michael McGill: "Don't ever let any other group or anybody else tell you that the movie was about them. Robert Townsend travelled with the Dells. Marvin told Robert things, and he was taking it all in --- so the story came from the Dells. This is History, so now you know _ THE 5 HEARTBEATS WAS BASED ON THE DELLS ....View The Dells 'EMMY WINNING DOCUMENTARY' ON RU-vid - PART 1 2 3
Glad you posted this, because while promoting his documentary on the making of "The 5 Heart beats movie, Townsend hardly mentions the Dells. A lot of people were confused, so thank you for the info.
"Spending Our Christmases Together" Publisher: Las Go Round Music Writers: Michael & Rose McGill To Order: - Go to CDBABY.COM and 'Download To Your Hardrive' Long Live .....The Mighty Dells
"Spending Our Xmases Together" Producer: Marvin Junior Jr. Arranger: Iddo Madison. Publisher" Las Go Round Music(dells publ. Co) Video Producer:Marvin Junior Jr. Video Producer: Linda McGill
@@pghpookie Yes, That's My Brother Lucius McGill, who started with the group when we were The El-rays, and left us to join The Marine Corps in 1955 Michael McGill...
