Michael Jackson

by J. Randy Taraborrelli

  Ironically, and unbeknownst to Michael and Joseph, the new CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff had already decided to drop The Jacksons from the label. In his view, The Jacksons were no longer commercially viable. With that thinking, he was on the same page as Ewart Abner at Motown!

  The two CBS albums were not successful enough to warrant a third, said Walter Yetnikoff. Bobby Colomby, then head of Epic's West Coast artist relations, recalled, ‘The people I was working with at CBS really wanted me to get them out of the deal with The Jacksons. They wanted me to try to buy them [The Jacksons] out. But I felt so bad for these guys. I liked them. I said to myself, “My God, if I give these people a hundred thousand dollars to go away, they're going to take it, pay their bills and then be out of the music business for ever.”’

  Imagine the humiliation Joseph and his sons would have suffered if, after all they had gone through to sever their ties with Berry Gordy, the new label's president were to them drop them from his roster. Bobby Colomby was right; the setback probably would have finished The Jacksons for good, and Joseph would have been blamed for the act's demise.

  Luckily for all concerned, Bobby Colomby managed to convince his bosses to give The Jacksons one more chance at Epic. This time, the brothers would have more involvement in their work. If they failed, they would have no one to blame but themselves. So, when Michael put forth just that proposition at the meeting, Ron Alexenberg agreed to it. It was a done deal, anyway, before Joseph and Michael even got to the meeting. However, father and son apparently needed to show the label executives that they had the incentive and drive to take on a project of their own before they would be guaranteed the company's full support.

  ‘That went pretty well, didn't it, son?’ Joseph said in the elevator after the meeting. He emphasized the word ‘son’. They were descending in a car full of CBS executives and employees during lunch hour. Michael was observed smiling bitterly at his father. He later recalled that the subsequent ride back to the hotel was ‘a silent one’. When they got back to the hotel, as Michael recalled it, Joseph put his arm around Michael's shoulder as they walked through the lobby. ‘You're a winner, Michael,’ he told him. ‘All my boys are winners. Every single one of 'em. You got that?’

  ‘I got it, Joseph,’ Michael said. ‘I got it.’

  The Wiz

  By 1977, nineteen-year-old Michael Jackson happened to find himself on the same career path as his mentor, Diana Ross. He wanted to begin making decisions regarding his own future, just as Diana, who had been dominated by Berry Gordy for seventeen years, was beginning to break his hold on her. Determined to be a film actress, she was anxious to find a property in which to star, and one she could claim responsibility for finding – unlike her previous two opuses, Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, both Motown discoveries.

  At the same time, through a production deal with Universal, Berry Gordy's Motown Productions had acquired The Wiz, a musical based on L. Frank Baum's classic, The Wonderful World of Oz. The Wiz, an all-black production, had opened on Broadway in January 1975 and gone on to win seven Tony awards.

  By 1977, Rob Cohen, a twenty-four-year-old white wunderkind who headed Motown Productions, had been trying to launch The Wiz for some time. He recalled that the project was intended to be a low-budget film featuring Stephanie Mills, who had starred in the Broadway play. Stephanie had also been a Motown artist, though her experience at the company was less than satisfying for her; her one album for the label, For the First Time (produced by Burt Bacharach and Hal Davis), was a commercial disaster when issued in 1975, despite the fact that it was an excellent recording. Appearing in the motion picture version of The Wiz would have been a coup for her. However, when Diana Ross decided that she wanted to play Dorothy, it was all over for Stephanie Mills. ‘I absolutely believed in Dorothy and in her search to find who she is,’ recalled Diana. ‘It seemed so very parallel to who I am.’

  To Diana, this film presented an opportunity to demonstrate to Berry that she had not only talent but creative vision, as well. Berry disagreed. He thought casting her in The Wiz was a dreadful idea which only encouraged Diana to want the role even more. A tug-of-war ensued between Svengali and protégé. Eventually Diana prevailed.

  Practically everybody at Motown agreed that, at thirty-three, Diana was too old to, as Berry put it, ‘play anybody's damn Dorothy’. Still, Berry and Rob Cohen secured a million-dollar contract with Universal for her. ‘I wanted to do this project, and I honestly didn't care what I was going to be paid,’ Diana said at the time. ‘I was very happy, though, to be paid what, at this point in my life, I should be getting paid.’

  After the Ross casting, Berry decided to give full responsibility for The Wiz to Rob Cohen. Rob then recruited director Sidney Lumet, whose film credits included Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon and Equus. He'd never before directed a musical.

  Sidney Lumet's concept was to make the film a modern-day Manhattan fantasy using actual New York locations. Diana would play a twenty-four-year-old school teacher – Dorothy – who is whisked into Oz by a blizzard. The late Ted Ross and Nipsey Russell were hired to play the Lion and Tin Man, respectively. Richard Pry or and Lena Home were also featured players. It was also Sidney's idea to cast comic Jimmie Walker, best remembered for his overblown portrayal of the loud-mouthed J.J. on television's black sitcom Good Times, as the Scarecrow. However, Rob Cohen wanted Michael Jackson for the role.

  ‘I was always impressed by Michael,’ Rob recalled. ‘He struck me as being so polished, yet still pure. Plus, he could sing – which Jimmie could not do – and this was a musical.’

  When Rob suggested to Diana that Michael might be right for the part, she agreed, whole-heartedly. It was she, then, who suggested it to Michael. Though he'd seen the Broadway play a half-dozen times and, obviously, loved it, Michael was reluctant. He felt that Berry Gordy might use his influence to have him rejected because of the bad blood that still existed between Motown and the Jackson family. Diana reassured him that he would be given a fair chance. A few days after Michael auditioned, Sidney Lumet telephoned him at the Encino estate to tell him that he had the job.

  Joseph did not want Michael to have the kind of solo attention a major movie would generate for him. Since family prosperity through unity had always been Joseph's goal, he was never one to encourage individuality within the group. When Michael recorded solo albums at Motown, it was with the understanding that Jermaine and Jackie have the same opportunity. (Tito and Marlon also worked on solo album projects for Motown, though the records were never released.)

  Of course, Joseph knew that without Michael's voice, personality and charisma, The Jacksons would be a completely different kind of act, and maybe not a good one, either – especially now that Jermaine was gone. Working with his brothers had never been a problem for Michael in the past; he was always group-minded. However, now that he was older, he was beginning to feel constricted by the group's democratic mentality. And, the fact that they were all so unsupportive of his solo dreams made him feel that, at the core, they were just being selfish.

  Though Joseph had been trying for years to find a property that would star all of The Jacksons, the brothers didn't really care about making movies as much as Michael. ‘I watch movies constantly and envision how it would have been if I could have been the star,’ he recalled. ‘I wanted nothing more than to be a movie star.’ As much as he wanted the role of the Scarecrow, accepting it was not easy for him. In order to do so, Michael had to defy Joseph and risk the disapproval of his entire family. Also, he was going to have to perform in a strange medium. A weekly TV variety show that he loathed doing was insufficient preparation for a major movie role. Michael, always the perfectionist, wondered if he would be up to the challenge. Though he agonized over what to do, in the end he decided to follow his heart. ‘I'm doing the movie,’ he told Joseph. ‘I hope you'll support me.’

  ‘Well, if I can't talk you out of it, then go ahead and do it,’ Joseph said. ‘But don't say I didn't
warn you. It's a big mistake.’

  Michael became upset. ‘You're the one always telling us about winners and losers,’ he said, according to his later recollection. ‘Now you're telling me not to do this thing when I know I can be a winner at it.’

  Joseph had to think about that comment for a moment. ‘It's a gamble, Michael.’

  ‘Sure,’ Michael said. ‘Just like all the gambles you took, Joseph. Just like the one when you brought us out here.’

  ‘You're right,’ Joseph said with a smile. ‘Do the movie, Michael. Take a shot. You're the man. But always remember one thing?’

  ‘Winners and losers?’ Michael asked, referring to his father's credo.

  ‘No,’ Joseph said. ‘Remember that you are a member of this family, and a part of a singing group with your brothers, no matter what you do. Family, Michael, that's everything.’

  The two men smiled at each other. If things had been different between them, perhaps they would have embraced but that wasn't how their relationship worked. Michael gave his father a thumbs-up and dashed off.

  The brothers did not share Joseph's benevolence where Michael and The Wiz was concerned.

  ‘To tell you the truth, we thought he was biting off more than he could chew,’ recalled Jackie. ‘We didn't think it was right for him, or good for the group. So, yeah, we kinda wished he wouldn't have done it.’

  However, Michael refused to deny his dream simply because his brothers did not share it. He's a born gambler, though few thought of him in that way at the time. Exhilarated by his imagination, he wanted to take chances. ‘“I have to make this film for personal reasons,” he told me,’ Rob Cohen recalled. ‘“There are things I have to prove to myself, and to a few others.”’

  The Wiz offered Michael a temporary avenue of escape from the negativity of his male siblings and father. When he moved to New York in July 1977 to begin the film, he asked LaToya to accompany him. The two resided in an exclusive two-thousand-dollars-per-month, thirty-seventh-floor apartment located in Manhattan's expensive Sutton Place. These few months would be the first time the two Jacksons had ever been away from the rest of the family. Katherine was nervous about her children being off on their own, but she decided that it would be best if someone could be with Michael, ‘and LaToya's being there was as close to me being there as possible. She and I were so much alike back then.’

  Because LaToya was anxious about her time away, she turned to chocolate for comfort. ‘She ate chocolate the whole time she was in New York,’ Susie Jackson said. ‘She became addicted. She told me that it got so bad, she had such chocolate fits, that she would take Hershey's cocoa and just mix water with it and drink it, that's how addicted she was to it. By the time she came back, she had gained twenty pounds.’

  Though LaToya was apprehensive about being away from home, Michael basked in his new independence. ‘He was nothing like the odd Michael Jackson you hear about nowadays,’ Rob Cohen remembered. ‘Back then, he was great fun; we had the best time. He, LaToya, me and some of the others involved with the project would go to clubs every night to dance. He was not fearful of going out in public, then. He was excited, like a little kid in a playground. The only thing on his mind was work during the day – and I've seldom seen anyone work as hard other than, perhaps, Diana Ross – and play at night.’

  Filming the $24-million movie – at the time one of the most expensive films ever produced – took place from 3 October through 30 December 1977, at Astoria Studios. It was hard work, six days a week. Michael would awake at four in the morning in order to leave for the studio by 5:30. Following her mother's instructions, LaToya would prepare an early breakfast for her brother, usually consisting of orange juice, bacon, buttered toast, herb tea and oatmeal. Michael's makeup for his role as Scarecrow took cosmetologist Stan Wilson five hours to apply.

  ‘I loved it,’ Michael told me after the film was done. ‘I was the Scarecrow from the time the makeup was put on until the time it came off, which I hated.’ Sometimes, he said, he would even go home at night wearing the makeup. It was a welcome cover for his acne, he said. Once it was applied, and his phony nose and fright wig of steel-wool pads were in place, Michael could walk around and not be recognized – though, of course, he drew more attention in that get-up than he would have without it.

  ‘Manhattan was full of excitement for Michael,’ Rob Cohen recalled. ‘He met Jacqueline Onassis at the Rainbow Grill. He talked about her for days afterwards, how glamorous and sophisticated she was, how he hoped one day to know her better. He met Caroline and John Kennedy at the Robert Kennedy Tennis Tournament. He did more socializing then than he does today, sometimes with Diana.’

  There was actually a bit of tension between Michael and Diana during production. In July, the cast began rehearsing their musical numbers at the St George Hotel in Brooklyn. Michael was an accomplished dancer; however, Diana had to work at it. Whereas, Michael could remember the choreographer's direction immediately and execute the step with precision, Diana would have to rehearse for hours and would still have some trouble with it. During one particularly trying session, she pulled Michael aside. ‘You're embarrassing me,’ she said, urgently.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Michael asked. His surprise was genuine.

  ‘You're learning the dances too quickly.’

  ‘I was sort of shocked,’ Michael told me. ‘I didn't mean to embarrass her, that's for sure. So I tried to act like I didn't always know what I was doing, so I could make her feel better.’

  Michael had only happy memories to share with the press where Diana and The Wiz are concerned. ‘She would come into my dressing room every day and ask what she could do to make things more comfortable,’ he said. ‘She was like a mother to me. I love her very much.’

  At this time, a nineteen-year-old friend of Michael's, Theresa Gonsalves (whom he first met in November 1974 when she went to Las Vegas to see the group for her sixteenth birthday), telephoned him to say she was going to New York for a visit. They made plans to see each other in New York.

  ‘When I got to the apartment building, he told the doorman to send me up,’ Theresa recalled. ‘'Toya answered the door. She was irritated. “Michael didn't tell me that the two of you made plans,” she said. It was as if he was supposed to check with her before he made plans, and he hadn't.

  ‘So I asked 'Toya where he was, and she said that he was in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies. After Michael and I talked and ate the cookies, I took a look around. The suite had a balcony. Michael used to like to hang over it like he was going to jump. He loved acting like a fool to upset his sister. 'Toya had the most wonderful room, a real showplace with a huge bed and a mirror above it, a penthouse bedroom befitting a star. Michael had a small, simple bedroom with a twin-sized bed in it and a desk. I asked myself, Why does she have such a great room and he's stuck with this?’

  One day, Michael returned from the studio very excited about a new structure that had been built for his character at the studio. ‘Follow me,’ he told Theresa. She followed him into his modest bedroom. As the two of them stood at his desk, he started showing her a scrapbook of photographs of the movie set.

  ‘So what do you think? Great, huh?’ Michael asked.

  ‘Yes, you're so lucky,’ Theresa enthused.

  Michael closed the book and looked into Theresa's eyes, thoughtfully. He tilted his head and leaned over to her, awkwardly. At that moment, LaToya walked into the room. ‘What's going on in here?’ she wanted to know. Michael pulled back nervously.

  ‘So anyway, I uh…’ he stammered.

  Years later, Theresa would recall, ‘I wanted him to kiss me so badly. And I know he would have if 'Toya hadn't surprised us.’

  A Rendezvous with Destiny

  After The Wiz was filmed and before the movie was released, it was back to business as usual for The Jacksons. However, Michael now felt differently about his family and his career. Satisfied with his work in New York, and having been praised by people whose opin
ions mattered to him, he was filled with a new confidence in himself as an individual artist. He wanted to begin work on the solo album he had been promised by Epic as soon as possible, even though the rest of the family wanted to concentrate on the third Jacksons group album for the label. The family won again.

  The group went into the studio to record Destiny, the first Jacksons album said to be written and produced by the group itself. Although the Jacksons did, indeed, write all but one of the songs, executive producer Bobby Colomby and Mike Atkinson did most of the production work. When there was some disagreement as to what credit they should receive, Michael was the only one of the brothers who felt that Colomby and Atkinson should be credited as executive producers.

  Destiny was, by far, the most exciting Jacksons album to date, including all of those recorded at Motown. For the first time, the group put together a cohesively structured album. There were no filler songs; all eight songs were noteworthy.

  What's more Michael had never sounded better than he did on this album. His performance on the dreamy ballad ‘Push Me Away’, with its orchestral sweep and rapturous melody, is carefree and effortless. Yet upon closer inspection, it becomes obvious that Michael's delivery is tightly measured and precise. He knows exactly how to settle his mind on the heart and story of a song in order to create the proper mood. As a result of years in the studio and in front of audiences, and a genuine love for singing, he had become an intuitively brilliant stylist.

  Though off to a bad start with the high-flash pop of ‘Blame It on the Boogie’ (a single that didn't even make the Top 40 in the US, but sailed into the Top 10 in Britain), Destiny would fare much better than Goin' Places. The real showcase was the mesmerizing ‘Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)’, written by Michael and Randy. Released in February 1979, it was the biggest hit of the album, peaking at number seven on the pop charts and selling two million copies globally. ‘Shake Your Body’ personified the contemporary disco trend with its crackling lead vocal by Michael, whip-snapping chorus from the brothers and insistent, persistent backbeat. It is still regarded by many music critics as the perfect dance record and one of The Jacksons' strongest efforts.