Melvin Childs - Never Would Have Made It: The Rise of Tyler Perry the Most Powerful Entertainer in Black America (And What it Really Took to Get Him There)

I gave up in 1998 and had to be talked into doing one show. Two friends called and said you know you really should do this show. I said no, no, no, I keep losing my job, I been homeless. I got a good job like my mama say, get you a good job making three or four hundred dollars a week and some benefits and youll be great that was her dream for me. So I said no, no, no, and I argued and yelled and cursed and screamed at my friends and I did that one show in 1998 at The House of Blues March 12th CHANGED MY LIFE SOLD OUT.

Tyler Perry

Visionaries: Inside the Creative Mind

OWN Network 2011

The rise of Tyler Perry

the most powerful entertainer in Black America

(and what it really took to get him there)

Melvin Childs

Copyright 2012 by Melvin Childs

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Touch 1 Media, LLC

P.O. Box 21512

Oklahoma City, OK 73156

www.touch1media.com

Ordering Information

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Book design by Stephen Pollard

Cover design by Jamacia Johnson

Editorial assistance by Amanda Poulsen Dix

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011940599

Printed in the United States of America

by Signature Book Printing

www.sbpbooks.com

Publishers Cataloging-In-Publication Data
(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Childs, Melvin.

Never would have made it : the rise of Tyler Perry, the most powerful entertainer in black America (and what it REALLY took to get him there) / by Melvin Childs.

p. : ill. ; cm.

Issued also as an ebook.

ISBN: 978-0-9847115-0-5 (TC)

ISBN: 978-0-9847115-1-2 (TP)

1. Perry, Tyler. 2. African American authorsBiography. 3. African American entertainersBiography. 4. Motion picture producers and directorsUnited StatesBiography. 5. Television producers and directors--United States--Biography. I. Title.

PN2287.P47 C55 2012

791.4/0973/092 2011940599

ISBN: 978-0-9847115-2-9 eBook

For my Nanny, Opal Childs, my living example of what unconditional love is like you told me Daddy would be proud, I hope youre right I love and appreciate you more than I could ever say.

For Nicholas and Melvin, my greatest joy is watching you grow from boys to men. If I leave you nothing else at least you have this. Now you dont have to wonder anymore (smile).

First, I must thank God above all others for blessing me over and over again even though sometimes I know I havent deserved it. You have watched over me time and time again even at times when I thought things couldnt be worse and for that, Heavenly Father, I am so thankful.

Secondly, I want to thank my family, without your support none of this would have been possible. You lived this journey with me and I know it was just as hard, if not harder on you, as it was me. Beverly, John, Verdia, Melvin, Nick, Kristie, Kareem, Karrington, Kendall, Rosalinde, Rick, Milas, Lil Ricky, Alex, Nanny, Mama Bea and the entire Ezell family (Yall know its too many of you to name), I love you all.

Lastly, I would like to thank the members of my extended family who have given me so much help and encouragement: Greg, John and Angela, Gary and Angie, Rhonda C., Verb, Scott B., Orel, Pasha, Cliff (lol), James and Nicole, Dus and Shatara, Walt, Melissa, Scott W., Mike A., Nia H., Greg, Stacey, Dawn, Candace, Marva, Francyne, Christine S., Christine M., Greg D., Timothy Allen Smith, Shon and Rebecca and my entire team love yall.

Special thanks to Thomas and Yvonne, we did it, you both were a pain in the a** the entire way, but I appreciate you more than you can ever know.

She had a cinnamon complexion with long straight hair down to the small of her back. If she had any fat on her, I couldnt see it, and trust me, I could see a lot. If you believe nothing else I am about to say, believe me when I tell you this woman was FINE. In fact, to say she was fine doesnt even begin to do her justice. I had seen many attractive women in my time, but this chick looked like she walked straight off the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, and by the way, she was butt-ass naked.

She was lying on her stomach watching some Spanish-speaking variety show when we walked into the room and, at no time, did she even flinch, much less try to cover herself up. I did my best to play it cool and not stare, thinking my host would quickly usher me into another room to finalize our transaction. I was completely caught off guard when he motioned for me to have a seat in a white leather recliner next to the TV, and left the room.

I stood by the door for a moment, trying to look at least halfway cool. I looked around the room for something, anything I could focus my eyes on and noticed she was burning some kind of apple-scented candle on the dresser. It was weird because you could actually see the fruit inside the candle. I had never seen anything like that where I came from and I wondered to myself what something like that might cost; not that money was an issue. It wasnt not for this guy anyway.

I looked for something else and came up with nothing so when a minute or two had passed, I decided to take my host up on his offer to sit down. Because my assigned seat was next to the television, I found myself face to face with one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. A woman who, by all accounts, seemed to not give a damn that she had no clothes on. I had given up on any pretense of not staring by this point. The way I figured it, if you leave a 27-year-old man alone in a room with a gorgeous naked woman, youre asking him to stare. You could even argue it would be rude not to. At least thats what I told myself.

While I sat there, taking in the sights, I wondered what my partners might think if they were sitting here. I smiled to myself at the thought because I knew one of them wouldve had a fit. Lets just say this wouldnt exactly have been his scenewell get more into that a little later. As for my other partner, well, she was more like me in that she was willing to do whatever it took to get this project going so Im sure she would have sucked it up and dealt with it. As for me, Id be lying if I told you it was a major problem for me to be sitting in a mansion on Miami Beach, less than five feet from a beautiful naked woman. I had been through a few hard times in my life at that point and, I have to be honest, that wasnt one of them.

Whatever their response might have been really wouldnt have changed anything. It wasnt like we drew straws to decide who was going to make the trip. I was there because I was the only one crazy enough to do it. It really was that simple. And since this was an opportunity none of us could afford to pass up, here I sat.

That was fine by me though. There is a reason its called a partnership and each of us had a role to play. As long as everybody did their job, we would all be successful. Somebody had to do the dirty work and, seeing as neither of them had the resources or the stomach for this kind of thing, it fell to me. The obvious perks aside, I never particularly enjoyed doing this type of business. I just knew that without it, there was no way wed be able to keep going. We were literally out of options, so to me, it was worth the risk.