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same reasons.
    But for black people, LA wouldn’t have been as attractive without Motown’s example. Berry Gordy’s pioneering record company had made surprising inroads on network TV, coproducing a number-one-rated NBC special (1968’s TCB, also known as Taking Care of Business with Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations ), making alliances with big talent agencies, and carefully moving the record company west between 1968 and 1971. The Jackson Five, though signed in Detroit, would be relocated to Los Angeles and would, in clothing style and positioning, reflect the sun-kissed Hollywood environment.
    Motown’s move to LA would ignite a historic shift in black entertainment. Starting in the 1970s, LA would become the de facto headquarters for popular black music. Motown moved to a building on Sunset Boulevard, and scores of artists, producers, and industry professionals from Detroit, Memphis, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago moved west as the major record labels were, influenced by Motown’s success, investing heavily in black music. All the LA-based labels (MCA, Warner Bros., Capitol), as well as those in New York, inaugurated black music departments, expanding their rosters of artists and staff and raising the value of recording contracts and, increasingly, salaries in the field.
    A kind of media civil rights movement, a delayed reaction to the real civil rights movement, was under way, which led previously reluctant mainstream businesses to distribute black content and banks to invest in products aimed at black consumers. The 1960s had been a time of marching and protests, political activities that opened doors for black advancement that had never before existed in the United States. For many, the 1970s would be a time to capitalize on these new opportunities. A popular phrase at the time was “black capitalism” (though President Richard Nixon’s use of the term made many question its value). Publications aimed at upscale black audiences ( Essence and Black Enterprise ) were founded, and FM stations that featured soul and funk artists debuted in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and other major markets—many of them black owned.
    Blaxploitation movies, driven by dynamic soundtracks composed by Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Willie Hutch, and others made box-office noise while creating a stable of sepia movie stars. A new generation of black record labels, led by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s prolific Philadelphia International Records, were having massive pop hits. Don Cornelius’s weekly show would be part of this shift, but not while it was based out of a small studio in a Chicago business building.
    Soul Train ’s move to LA didn’t mean abandoning Chi-Town. For a while Don traveled between the two cities, continuing to host the local Chicago version while launching the national show. Even after stopping that killer schedule, the Chicago show was broadcast throughout the seventies with Don’s associate Clinton Ghent hosting. Don would, in manner and style, remain a Chicagoan the rest of his life. One of the subtexts of moving Soul Train to LA would be his own sometimes-humorous adjustment to life in the City of Angels.
    One overarching theme of Soul Train in Chicago that set the stage for the show’s future was Don’s ability to build alliances. Just as the radio innovator Al Benson had formed strong ties between himself and the various radio stations and advertisers of postwar Chicago, Cornelius built partnerships with talent (the O’Jays, Jerry Butler) and business folks (George Johnson) at the tail end of the civil rights movement that would sustain him and his enterprise for years.

Chapter 2

Love, Peace, and Soul
    ON AUGUST 11, 1965, Marquette Frye, a young black man in his twenties, was pulled over in the Watts section of Los Angeles by a California Highway Patrolman on suspicion of driving drunk.