Motown Mama was born the palest soul sister ever to emerge from The Motor City, back in the day when cars were all American and only American made ― real automobiles― 20 feet long and pressed from three tons of 16-gauge steel; clad in bright, hard-enameled two-tone colors, festooned in gleaming chrome. Motown Mama's momma was none other than Rosie the Riveter (or was it Rosie the Ravager?), and her daddy was scandalously rumored to be old John Henry, himself.
"Mo" worked her way up the assembly line at GM's historic Flint, Michigan plant, where she first called attention to her astonishing musculature by pushing completed truck chassis, two at a time, across the factory floor. She really rose to notoriety when she strong-armed her way to becoming the first woman union boss of the United Auto Workers. In 1954, Motown Mama filed suit against her employers on the grounds that GM had blatantly copied her personal physique when a few years earlier they had introduced the fashionable and highly successful twin-bullet front end. By 1956, the suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount of damages, plus an additional stipulation that GM would also add increasingly exaggerated tail-fins to the back ends of their vehicles to help diminish any visual similarity. Motown Mama always asserted her right to dignity.
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