Often you hear of “overnight success stories” in the entertainment industry, when in fact, many times those who we assumed were “overnight success stories”, had been paying their dues to the industry long before we knew their name. Frequently they were the “behind the scenes guy” or in the case of Tupac Shakur, a roady to another group.
I’ve been a writer for a nationally publicized entertainment magazine for many years. In that time, I’ve come to understand the industry; the bells and whistles; the pits and falls. For this reason I found the article about Eric Wheelwright (shown to the right of the photo, with Berry Gordy) tled, “Eric Wheelwright, Who Is He?” incredibly intriguing. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Wheelwright a few years ago at a BET award ceremony. Before then, much like the writer of the article, I had never heard of him, however, he was well acquainted with some of the biggest names in Television and Film as well as the recording industry. It was obvious that he was someone worth getting to know, or at least finding out about. So I began to ask around and what I discovered was that people in the entertainment industry knew him, while many outside of the industry did not. The reason for this was, Eric had been involved in a number of major projects, ranging from T.V. shows to actual movies. He had, however, never received recognition for his contributions and so the public never knew that he had his hand in over 150 movies and television shows, one of those films being “Electra”. In the film “Electra”, he did receive a mild level of recognition by a writer of the film. If you’ve seen the film Electra, you’ll recall the house that she was staying in was the “Wheelwright” house and you’ll also notice that writer was quite obvious about wanting to promote the name “Wheelwright” as it was mentioned, unnecessarily, quite often in the movie.
I also found out that Eric was quite the go to guy for many people in the industry. “If there was anything you needed or wanted information about, call Eric Wheelwright”, is what I was told. It didn’t matter what it was. Karla Gordy Bristol, (niece to Berry Gordy and daughter of Johny Bristol; world renown singer and songwriter), was to fly to Detroit, Michigan to attend the annual “Men Of Motown” event. She had tried booking a reservation for a rental car, but because it was so last minute and there were so many people flying to Detroit that weekend, she was unable to reserve a vehicle. Later that evening, while speaking to good friend, Eric Wheelwright, she mentioned her dilemma regarding the rental car. Eric told her that he would call her back and when he did he had a reservation number for a rental car he had booked for her, which included a drastically discounted rate.
In another example, Internationally know Bishop Andrew Merritt told Eric one day that there was something he wanted to do and as he sat and thought about who could help him get it done, he thought to himself, “I know who I can call, I’ll call Eric Wheelwright”.
These are only two examples of a long list of stories that I’ve heard regarding Eric Wheelwright and how he’s helped so many in various ways. So, to read what the other writer who actually shadowed Wheelwright for a day, wrote, I wasn’t surprised at all. Take a look at Eric’s My Space page (www.myspace.com/ericwheelwright) and see what other’s are saying about him.
As I’ve previously stated, I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting Eric Wheelwright once, but it is obvious by the many things I’ve heard about him, he is someone worth getting to know, no matter what line of business you are in. Expect to hear great things from and about Eric Wheelwright.
-Amanda Adams
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