Michael Jackson (19 page)

In truth, Joseph had also become disenchanted with Hazel when he realized how much influence she had on Jermaine. He felt
that she could be manipulative and, therefore, might interfere with group dynamics. Also, she had her dad's ear. There was
no telling how things would work out, and Joseph couldn't help but be concerned.

At the reception, in the hotel's Lanai Room, show-business luminaries such as Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Lola Falana, Diahann
Carroll and Billy Dee Williams mingled with other notables such as Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther. Katherine forced
herself to act as if nothing was wrong, even though she was so unhappy. No matter how hard she tried to conceal it, her sadness
was apparent. As soon as the photographers finished taking pictures of her and Joseph, she would pull away from him. At one
point a concerned Michael asked her if she would like a glass of punch. Katherine shook her head absentmindedly as she gazed
over her son's head at Joseph. ‘I don't feel like dancing, honey,’ she said. Michael watched, his eyes full of warmth for
her, as Katherine turned away and walked into the crowd. To even the most casual observer, she seemed very alone.

It wasn't long before Diana Ross became the centre of attention, posing and preening for photographers as only she can. ‘I
brought him to Mr Gordy's attention,’ she said, pulling Michael into the frame, ‘and now look where he is today.
Everybody
wants to have their picture taken with this cutie,’ she said. ‘It's amazing.’ Diana squeezed Michael tightly, as if he were
a trophy. A mixture of love and pride illuminated her face. ‘And just look at his little suit,’ she said, tugging at Michael's
lapel. A flicker of annoyance crossed his face.

‘You're awfully grateful to Miss Ross, aren't you, kid,’ a reporter asked Michael, ‘for discovering you?’

‘Uh… yeah,’ Michael said. He must have wondered how long he was going to have to live with the fabrication that Diana Ross
had ‘discovered’ him.

‘Oh, isn't he sweet?’ Diana cooed. ‘You see, how it happened was, I was in Gary, Indiana, and I saw this group perform, and
I said to myself…’

Joseph Jackson was always competitive. However, he seemed even more so after Jermaine's wedding, as if his son's new alliance
with Berry Gordy had caused Joseph to consider himself a ‘David’ determined to slug it out with Motown's ‘Goliath’. To make
more of an impression on the entertainment industry, Joseph formed his own record company, Ivory Tower International Records,
and signed a female quartet from Ashtabula, Ohio, called M.D.L.T. Willis. The company and the group would not go far, which
only served to reaffirm Berry's feeling that Joseph was well-meaning, but inept.

However, one goal Joseph had that seemed to not occur to Berry, or to his right-hand man at Motown, Ewart Abner, was to break
his sons out of the teen-idol mould and into a more secure niche. He realized that the careers of most teen idols last about
two years before newer stars come along to replace them. Joseph wanted to change The Jackson 5's public image before it was
too late.

Joseph and Berry disagreed about the state of The Jackson 5's career. Joseph thought it was in trouble, citing the recent
string of poorly selling records. However, Berry felt that the group was still popular, and he cited their latest record ‘Dancing
Machine’, a rhythmic production by Hal Davis.

As the onslaught of disco began to homogenize the pop-R&B scene, The Jackson 5 managed, with ‘Dancing Machine’, to maintain
their originality while capitalizing on the new trend. A high-spirited Michael bantered the lyrics above his brothers' strong
choral chants, all to an infectious beat. In the pop-music world, the Jackson brothers were clearly holding their own alongside
the likes of The Temptations, The Spinners and The Four Tops, who were no longer idols, but peers. The Jackson 5 were many
years ahead of their time and on to the electric sound of the eighties – the style of ‘Dancing Machine’ is similar to a sound
that, a dozen years later, would be known as ‘techno-pop’.

As puberty set in, Michael's voice changed. Gone was the pubescent shrill popularized on ‘I Want You Back’, ‘ABC’, and ‘The
Love You Save’. It was replaced by a clearer, more refined tone, as heard on ‘Dancing Machine’.

‘Dancing Machine’ would eventually hit number two on the
Billboard
charts and sell 2,170,327 copies, the most single sales for the group since ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’. Therefore, as far as
Berry was concerned, all was well in the Jackson 5's world. Most of those sales, though, were in America. In Europe, the song
was not as successful, and in Britain it didn't even make the Top 50! (Future single and album releases in the UK would have
such poor sales that they're not even worth mentioning further.) But Joseph didn't like such spotty sales; it was becoming
impossible to predict when Motown would get behind the group and when it would not be supportive of the act. Joseph wasn't
happy about any of it.

In the winter of 1974 during a family meeting, Joseph made the announcement, ‘Boys, we're gonna play Las Vegas.’

‘But Vegas is the thing you do when you don't have hits,’ Jackie said, ‘when you don't have a choice.’

‘The brothers thought hangin' out in the hotels with white people would be no fun,’ Michael recalled later. ‘But I wanted
to play Las Vegas. To me, Las Vegas was part of show-business tradition. At that meeting, our father told us two things: first,
he said he was trying to show the world that we were every bit as good as The Osmonds; then he told us about Sammy Davis and
what he went through so that guys like us could play Las Vegas.’

Joseph explained to his sons that in 1945 when Sammy Davis, Jr., his father, Sammy, and his uncle, Will Mastin, were booked
into the El Rancho Vegas hotel in Las Vegas for five hundred dollars a week. At the time, Las Vegas was the new show-business
Mecca. However, even though the Davis act was invited to appear in the El Rancho showroom, they were not permitted to stay
at that hotel because they were black. Rather, they had to check into a boarding house with the black porters and dishwashers
who worked at the hotels. This was not unusual. Even a major star like Billy Eckstine, who was also working in Las Vegas at
the same time, could not stay at the hotel at which he appeared. The showrooms and casinos were also off-limits to black patrons;
blacks could entertain but not gamble or socialize with whites.

In years to come, Sammy Davis, Jr., would break through these barriers by virtue of his talent and persistence – and, also,
a little help from Frank Sinatra, who used his influence to open certain doors for his pal, Sammy. Sammy went from being a
member of the Will Mastin Trio to being a solo star, paid over $175,000 a week in Las Vegas. By using his celebrity power
and refusing to take no for an answer, ‘Mr Show Business’ was instrumental in de-segregating the town so that blacks could
not only appear but also vacation and have fun there. By attending city hotel board meetings and working
within
the political system instead of against it, Davis also made it possible in the late fifties for more blacks to be hired at
the Sands, where he performed. When Sammy died in May 1990, the Las Vegas strip went dark for ten minutes in his memory.

‘I wanted more than anything to be a part of that great tradition,’ Michael said years later when recalling his first Las
Vegas engagement. He had been a Sammy Davis admirer since the age of ten. ‘To me, it was important. It was a giant step.’

When it was finally confirmed that the Jackson 5 would open in Las Vegas in April at the MGM Grand, the newest and most prestigious
hotel in the city, the Motown brass was unimpressed. ‘If you decide to do this thing, you'll be doing it on your own,’ Ewart
Abner told Joseph. ‘Motown won't be involved. These kids aren't ready for Las Vegas.’ Later, Berry telephoned Joseph, personally,
‘You're makin' the biggest mistake of their career,’ he said.

‘Butt out!’ was Joseph's response. ‘These are
my
goddamn kids. Las Vegas has a good tradition, and I want them to know about it. It's time for them to grow.’

‘Hey, man, that's my son-in-law's career, too. I'm worried about him, about all of them.’

Joseph hung up on him.

Certainly, Berry understood the value and prestige of a successful engagement in Las Vegas for any performer. After all, he
was the one who had championed the Las Vegas breakthrough of The Supremes in 1966. However, that engagement occurred only
after years of carefully honing the trio's act to sophistication. Berry wanted his Motown performers to appeal to adults,
especially to white adults, but he was certain that the Jacksons would fail miserably because of their lack of experience
with the kind of material necessary to please a middle-of-the-road, predominantly white audience.

‘Fine, then, let 'em go into Las Vegas if they want,’ Berry reasoned to one of his aides. He was still stung by Joseph's reaction
to him; few people ever hung up on him. ‘I'm afraid that they'll fail there,’ he added, ‘but maybe it'll teach Joseph a lesson.
Too bad the boys have to suffer on his account, especially Jermaine.’

Joseph was anxious to teach Berry a lesson of his own. At his urging, the entire family rallied together to prove Berry mistaken.
‘We knew that Motown didn't believe in what we were doing,’ Jermaine recalled. ‘My father was out to prove them wrong, and
the brothers were behind him one hundred per cent. I was torn. I had a suspicion that Berry was right.’

To make his family's show unique for Las Vegas, Joseph followed an example set by The Osmonds. That group had brought in younger
brother, Jimmy, and sister, Marie, for their Caesars' engagement, and to great acclaim. Not to be outdone, Joseph recruited
LaToya, seventeen, as well as Randy, twelve, and Janet, seven. (Rebbie was also expected to perform. However, when she sprained
her ankle, her debut with the act was postponed a few months, until June.)

None of the new additions to The Jackson 5 show was overwhelmingly talented, but their marginal ability did help gloss up
the overall show. It was Katherine's idea to have Randy and Janet do impressions of Sonny and Cher, rhythm-and-blues stars
Mickey and Sylvia, and even Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. Janet also did a cute Mae West in a backless, pink satin gown
and feather boa, which
Variety
would call ‘hilarious’.

LaToya joined the tap dancing routine to ‘Forty-second Street’. There was a bit of a problem with LaToya, though. She wanted
to sing a solo in the act, but had limited vocal talent. ‘She wanted the spotlight’ remembered a friend of hers. ‘She would
rant and rave, cry and throw fits. Joseph told her that all she would be allowed to do was mouth the words of songs on stage
in group numbers, acting as if she were singing but not really singing at all. She didn't like that, but she had no choice.’

On stage, the MGM Grand orchestra loomed large behind the Jackson family on opening night, 7 April 1974. It was the kind of
oversized orchestra that could never fit on most stages. A small group of musicians – Motown's rhythm section – was added to the
mix to help re-create the sound of the familiar Jackson 5 hit records. Bright and colourful firework patterns burst across
a pale blue backdrop as the Jacksons appeared on stage, much to the excitement of their audience.

Although The Jackson 5 had, for the most part, built their reputation on rhythmic music, for their Las Vegas show they showcased
a variety of song styles, as typified by a centre-piece medley which they introduced on opening night. The presentation was
different, for them. Instead of dancing, the brothers sat on tall stools side by side, with mikes in front of them. Their
outfits could best be described as ‘mariachi-band mod’. The waist-length jackets worn over ruffled, white, open-neck shirts
were reminiscent of those that draped strolling Mexican musicians, but the resemblance ended there. These costumes had sequin-scrolled
lapels and were in untraditional colours: olive, green, pumpkin, pink, purple and gold. The bell-bottom trousers were light
olive green, pale orange, maroon, lavender and brown. White patent shoes had clunky two-inch heels.

The medley began with Tito strumming on guitar, he played his solo instead of singing it, followed by Michael with a fluid
rendition of Roberta Flack's ‘Killing Me Softly’. On the last line, Michael turned to Jermaine, who sang a gentle version
of Glen Campbell's ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’. Midway through that number, Michael and Jermaine harmonized the chorus.
It seemed so effortless, their voices blending together to create a sound so natural, so right. They turned to Jackie. The
music then segued into the classic, ‘Danny Boy’, an excellent choice for Jackie's falsetto voice. As Marlon joined in, the
two sang as one. Though there was none of the vocal interplay shared by Michael and Jermaine a moment earlier; still, the
two voices – sounding like one – created a full-bodied, clear-as-a-bell tone. The set ended with the three-song selections being
interwoven – a line here, a line there, each one joining the other. It was obvious the brothers had devoted themselves to perfecting
such an intricate, beautiful arrangement, one that did not just feature Michael. The audience could feel the closeness between
them as brothers, much more than just fellow performers. The standing ovation was loud and long.