Fifth Dimension's LAMONTE MCLEMORE Reflects On His Photographing JET Beauties For 40 Years

Jet, Sept 6, 1999

Back in 1959, six years before he started the Fifth Dimension, LaMonte McLemore took a chance and allowed a friend to send a couple of the pictures he'd shot of pretty girls around Los Angeles to JET Magazine. And he's been shooting and sending ever since.

With his God-given talent, shooting so many of the JET Beauties over the years has made him quite popular.

"People see the pictures in JET and tell me their wives are just as pretty or their sisters are," he said. "And they want me to shoot them. They stop me on the streets. I'm very famous at airports. Porters stop me and ask, `Who's that girl in JET?' I tell them `Y'all better get in line. I got too many and all kinds of help.' People ask if I need help holding lights. I've been shooting in my driveway and the mailman has come by and offered to help hold the reflector. Women stop me."

He is quick to point out that "I am not the JET photographer. I do freelance."

As far as his personal taste in women goes, McLemore jovially reveals that he likes two types--"foreign and domestic."

McLemore said he always knew he wanted to be a photographer. In fact, he went into the service in the 1950s hoping to go to photography school, but was discouraged. "When I got in the Navy, they tried to assign Black people to be stewards," he said. "I didn't want to be a steward. I wanted to be a photographer. They made me wait two years and had me taking all kinds of tests, sending me to Alaska."

His patience exhausted, he took his love of photography to the streets of Los Angeles, shooting kids and attractive women similar to those he'd always seen in JET. "I decided to imitate some of the things I saw in JET," he recalled. "I said, `I can do this, even better,' I thought."

Initially, he was reluctant to submit anything to the magazine since he knew it had its own photographers. "I said, `they got their own photographers. They probably won't even look at anything I have. My buddy said, `Your stuff looks just as good. Give me a couple of pictures.' He sent them in to JET, I didn't. They used one and sent me a check. They said `We're interested.' So, I just kept sending them pictures after that."

Photography had to compete with professional baseball for his attention. After the military, he got to play baseball with the L.A. Dodgers farm system. "I broke my arm; I happened to be a pitcher," he said. "In the off-season, I didn't have anything to do. So I just got back into photography."

After baseball, photography had to compete with the field that brought McLemore his greatest notoriety--singing. In the early 1960s while he was shooting pictures for such organizations as Motown and Harper's Magazine, so many of his buddies were in groups, they urged him to sing as well. "I hated singing with a passion. My folks used to beat me to try and get me to join the glee club. But, I started signing and the girls would gather around and cheer us." Suddenly, his assessment of singing changed dramatically.

He shot Marilyn McCoo in a local beauty pageant and soon was in a group with her and his childhood buddy Ron Townson. He shot Florence LaRue in the same pageant later. When Billy Davis Jr., another childhood buddy, came out, there was more serious consideration to music. All five had contemplated solo careers, but figured group singing would be okay while waiting for things to take off. "We did it just for harmony. Then one day, Florence said, `If this is a hobby, why are you buying uniforms?' I said, `We got a job down at a club on Crenshaw' So, I bought some red turtleneck sweaters. Some agent saw us and the rest is history. The Original Fifth Dimension was together for 10 years, and we won nine Grammy Awards."

Among the group's most popular songs are Up, Up And Away, Aquarius, One Less Bell To Answer and Stoned Soul Picnic.

Even though they're not together as performers, McLemore said all five are still superclose friends.

When it comes to his photography, many identify him with JET, but he pointed out that he shoots for other magazines. And besides sexy centerfold beauties, he shoots kids, animals or whatever strikes him.

Reflecting on his 40 years of shooting for JET, McLemore said: "I've been very blessed. I know I'm lucky. Every night, I get on my knees and thank God." And he said he'll continue to shoot as long as he has the skills.