Tried that and still not working...
Finally came up with an alternative, crude, but it worked...

Apparently, VFP now almost INSISTS!!! on making the first detail item print on the first page, REGARDLESS of title page, group headers, etc before it gets to the detail. If it couldn't get to the point of printing the first detail item, the report would choke and not show at all... even in development mode. As soon as I shortened a band juuussssst enough to get the detail line to show, the report worked.

So... here's my work-around.
I had to force an index to retain the natural SQL-Select / Order by first. Then, I added a record with a the primary data group entered (ie: client id) and left all OTHER components blank. For simplicity, I added a column to act as a flag for "bogusEntry" so I could add a print-when NOT bogusEntry. The group headers, labels, textboxes, etc were all flagged appropriately. This way, the detail band could be reached, printing a "blank" value, then allowing the rest of the report to properly "break" to new page on other groups and remainder of details....

Booyyyy.... what a PITA to resolve this one, but thanks for your suggestion.