Lamonte McLemore

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Lamonte McLemore
The 5th Dimension 1971.JPG
McLemore (top) with The 5th Dimension, 1971
Background information
Birth nameLamonte McLemore
Born (1939-09-17) September 17, 1939 (age 85)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Genres Pop music
Occupation(s) Singer, actor
Website www.lamontephotography.com

Lamonte McLemore (born September 17, 1939) is an American vocalist, composer, and photographer. He was a founding member of The 5th Dimension, a popular vocal group of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was a professional photographer for Playboy , Ebony , Jet , People , and Harper's Bazaar magazines. [1]

Biography

McLemore was the first African American athlete to try out for the St. Louis Cardinals. [2] After he moved to Los Angeles, he was a minor league strong-arm pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a short time, before an arm injury forced him to retire. [3] [2] He co-founded Halmont Graphics with Cliff Hall, and worked there as a photographer beginning in 1958. [4] McLemore was also a photographer for Jet magazine, taking over 30,000 photographs for their "Beauty of the Week" segments. [2] [5] In 1962, he photographed the cover of The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, the first studio album by Stevie Wonder. [2]

In 1963, his group The Hi-Fi's were signed by Ray Charles to Tangerine records. [6] Their name changed to The Versatiles, and in 1966 was a photographer at the Miss Black Beauty Pageant, where he met Florence LaRue, who won the talent section of the competition; she joined Lemore, and with Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., and Ronald Townson formed The 5th Dimension. [3] [7] He co-wrote two songs recorded by The 5th Dimension, A Love Like Ours (with Bob Alcivar) [8] and The Singer (with Elliot Willensky). [9] The group won six Grammy awards for two songs: "Up, Up and Away" and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In". [10]

McLemore retired the band in March 2006, after forty straight years of touring; LaRue continues to tour with the group to this day. [11] [12] In 2014, he wrote and published his autobiography with Robert-Allan Arno, From the Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension - A Life Fulfilled in Baseball, Photography, and Music. [13] [14]

References

  1. ↑ "Lamonte McLemore Photography Website" . Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "LaMonte McLemore". Simon & Schuster. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  3. 1 2 "Lamonte McLemore". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
  4. ↑ Nelson, Laura J. (5 January 2020). "Cliff Hall, an inventor who photographed Los Angeles high society, dies at 94". Los Angeles Times .
  5. ↑ "QUESTIONS & ANSWERS | LAMONTE MCLEMORE: 'There's a soul-to-soul connection' : Las Vegas Black Image Magazine" . Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  6. ↑ Larkin, Colin (1993). The Guinness Who's Who of Soul Music (1st ed.). Guinness Publishing. pp. 84, 85. ISBN   0-85112-733-9.
  7. ↑ Notarianni, Alicia. "For 5th Dimension singer, the tunes mean more 50 years on". Herald-Mail Media. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  8. ↑ "Lamonte McLemore, Bob Alcivar - A Love Like Ours". 45cat.com.
  9. ↑ "Elliot Willensky, Lamonte McLemore - The Singer". 45cat.com.
  10. ↑ "Lamont McLemore | Artist | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  11. ↑ "Lamonte McLemore's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  12. ↑ "The Fifth Dimension". www.classicbands.com. Retrieved 2025-03-08.
  13. ↑ McLemore, Lamonte; Arno, Robert-Allan (2014). "From Hobo Flats to The 5th Dimension". Amazon.com. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  14. ↑ "Interview with Lamonte McLemore". YouTube.com. 10 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
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