Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson

Paul Newman, The Man Behind the Baby Blues

Merv Griffin, A Life in the Closet

Brando Unzipped

The Secret Life of Humphrey Bogart

Katharine the Great: Hepburn, Secrets of a Life Revealed

Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel

And Coming Soon:

Steve McQueen, King of Cool (Tales of a Lurid Life)

Blood Moon's Guide to Gay & Lesbian Film (Volumes One & Two)

Hollywood Babylon-Its Back!

Butterflies in Heat

Marika

Venus

Razzle-Dazzle

Midnight in Savannah

Rhinestone Country

Blood Moon

Hollywood's Silent Closet

Many editions of The Frommer Guides to Europe, the Caribbean,
California, and parts of America's Deep South

by Darwin Porter

"Michael Jackson is mass culture, not pop culture-he appeals to
everybody. No one can deny that he's got a tremendous voice
and plenty of style and that he can dance like a demon. He
appeals to all ages and he appeals to every kind of pop listener.
This kind of performer comes once in a generation."

The New York Times

Michael Jackson at the peak of his "Thriller" fame in the 1980s was probably
the most famous person on earth. Undeniably, thanks to his reign as the King
of Pop, he was the world's biggest superstar. He was also the most famous
African-American entertainer in the history of show business.

But after the turn of the millennium, the front pages of such tabloids as The
New York Post were screaming: PETER PAN OR PERVERT?.

How could Michael Jackson's career and personal life have gone so wrong?

To answer that, you have to look at Michael's roots in the grimy industrial city
of Gary, Indiana, "murder capital of the U.S." Here on the scorching night of
August 29, 1958, Michael Jackson entered the world.

"When Michael Jackson sings, it is with the voice of angels,
and when his feet move, you can see God dancing. "

--Sir Bob Geldof

"I grew up in a fishbowl. I will not allow that to happen to my
son. "

--Michael Jackson

"Sure he's a little afraid of people. When you have people that
from the time you're a little kid, want a part of you, they want
your clothes, they want your hair--you're going to get a little
nervous around people. "

--Vince Paterson, choreographer

"He is one of the last living innocents who is in complete control of his life. I've never seen anybody like Michael. He's an
emotional child star. He's in full control. Sometimes he
appears to be wavering on the fringes of the twilight, but
there is a great conscious forethought behind everything he
does. He's very smart about his career and the choices he
makes. I think he is definitely a man of two personalities. "

--Steven Spielberg

"He really feels that the audience deserves the best he can
give them. He really has a very strong sense of responsibility, a strong sense of showmanship. "

--John Landis

"If it weren't for my desire to help the children of the world,
I'd throw in the towel and kill myself. "

--Michael Jackson

It can be said that Michael's musical career began when he was only three
and a half years old. His soft-spoken mother, Katherine, was in her small
kitchen in Gary, Indiana, washing clothes on an old Maytag wringer machine
that squeaked, rattled, and rolled, having seen better days. She'd come home
early from her dreary job as a clerk at Sears.

As she turned around, she noticed her toddler singing and dancing almost
like a professional. For one brief moment, she flashed on his becoming a black
version of Shirley Temple before quickly ruling that out. Like her older boys,
her youngest son belonged to the world of music.

When her gruff husband, Joe, returned home from a hard day's work as a
crane operator in a local steel mill, she planned to tell him that yet another of
his sons was musically talented. She had a gut instinct that Michael's talents
might one day surpass those of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon.

Michael was the seventh of her children, as she'd recently given birth to
not only her boys, but to two girls, Maureen and La Toya. Randy and Janet
were yet to come.

"I remember seeing Michael dancing like it was yesterday," Katherine
recalled. "He was singing at the top of his voice with powerful lungs I didn't
know he had developed. I sensed he was not only born to dance but to sing as
well. There was a joy I saw on his face that afternoon that I was never to see
again. His singing and dancing were spontaneous. When he was forced to sing
and dance under threat of a beating from my husband, Joe, that same joy wasn't there. But there was enough of it left to thrill the world."

Since the day he'd entered the world, Michael had grown up listening to
rock 'n' roll and The Blues. Little Richard's voice was often broadcast
throughout the house, singing "Tutti Frutti" or "Good Golly Miss Molly." In
his wildest dreams, Michael could not have imagined that he'd eventually own
the rights to both of those songs. The sounds of Chuck Berry or Otis Redding
also echoed throughout the small bungalow.