Fan remembering the Victory Tour, July 1984
My strongest memory from the night was when one of the Jackson brothers ripped off Michael’s white t-shirt with fringe at the bottom (this was 1984) and tossed it into the crowd. My mother was holding me and standing on her chair, and my father was holding my brother; my parents dropped both of us as they leaped up and grabbed the t-shirt. Two guys behind my father also had their hands on the t-shirt and they would not release their grip. I was crying on the floor. My brother was crying on the floor. My father was fighting for the Michael Jackson t-shirt. Finally my mother picked us up, and my father decided that the only solution was to split the t-shirt with the guys.
Hot balloon flight, October 1984
“We were flying fairly low,” Bansemer said, “and we flew over what looked like an elementary school with children playing in the playground, and he started to sing to them, and of course they had no idea who that was. Who would think, ‘Hey, that’s Michael Jackson?’ We were high enough that he wasn’t highly recognizable.”
“Captain Eo” set, usenet, 12th August 1985
Gossip-from-friend-of-friend-of-coworker-of-occasional-tennis-player-buddy-of-guy-who-works-on-set-(how else does anything spread around Hollywood?) Department:
Harrison Ellenshaw (Disney special effects ace) reports that Michael’s buddy-buddying up to all the technical people on the shoot (much to their amusement). I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy and all, but it _ i_ s a little disconcerting. So Harry comes home and his kids are in an uproar; they can’t believe it! Seems that Michael Jackson called him up at home to just chat, you know? Toss around some ethereal ideas and such. Left a message in his unmistakable tones on the answering machine. So his kids spend the rest of the evening calling all their friends and playing back Michael’s message from the answering machine.
Diana Dawn at the Lucasfilm Picnic, 86
A little later I was walking down the dirt road at Skywalker Ranch and I saw a Fire Engine coming down the road and it’s bells were ringing and it’s horn was blowing, so I moved over closer to the ditch, thinking they needed more room to pass by, since it was a narrow road, and to my surprise, they blew the horn again and when I turned to look back at them I saw Michael hanging out the passenger side of the truck and waving excitedly, so I looked behind me thinking he was waving to someone else, but no one was there, so it suddenly dawned on me that he was waving to me. So I smiled and waved back, and he seemed to be as excited as a kid would be riding in a Fire Truck for the first time.
Shaye Areheart, editor for Moonwalk 1983-1988
The last room we toured had a very large glass terrarium with a lid on it. It was a low table, and it was hard to see what was inside. Jackie and I were looking around admiring some very beautiful birds in cages, oblivious to what Michael was up to, when suddenly he turned from the terrarium and said with a sweet smile, ”Here, Shaye, you want to hold Muscles?”
Languishing across his outstretched hands was a very pretty boa constrictor. I took it. It felt like damp silk and, much to my surprise, began to move sideways, so that I was in danger of dropping it. I exclaimed to that effect, and Michael protectively retrieved his snake with a look of abject disappointment on his face. It was only much later, when he teased me about it, that I realized he was hoping — wildly hoping — for a shriek from me and, maybe, a hysterical dash out of the room. He was a kid at heart — then and always.
[..]
In the evenings, we would sometimes see a movie in the screening room. I remember him taking his friend and advisor Karen Langford and me to the L.A. County Children’s Museum, which they kept open for us after hours. We exhausted ourselves leaping against Velcro walls, standing in front of spinning lights, and throwing ourselves into the pools of plastic balls. On the way home, he asked his driver to pull over somewhere near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and jumped from the car to dance on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, singing some perfect little bit of a song before leaping back in, and off we went into the night. It was exhilarating to be in his presence. He was exciting and funny and brilliant.
Sheryl Crow, Bad Tour 1987-88
“It was really surreal. I was lucky in that I got to hang out with him on a number of occasions by myself,” she recalled, “He invited me to his hotel room in Tokyo and we watched ‘Amos & Andy’ videos and the movie ‘Shane,’ just completely unexpected.
“He was funny, he had a big laugh, he loved practical joking and I can remember vividly going to Disneyland and going on a ride with him and he wouldn’t let the ride stop and by the end of it I was just absolutely ill. And he thought that was the funniest things he’d ever seen.”
My strongest memory from the night was when one of the Jackson brothers ripped off Michael’s white t-shirt with fringe at the bottom (this was 1984) and tossed it into the crowd. My mother was holding me and standing on her chair, and my father was holding my brother; my parents dropped both of us as they leaped up and grabbed the t-shirt. Two guys behind my father also had their hands on the t-shirt and they would not release their grip. I was crying on the floor. My brother was crying on the floor. My father was fighting for the Michael Jackson t-shirt. Finally my mother picked us up, and my father decided that the only solution was to split the t-shirt with the guys.
Hot balloon flight, October 1984
“We were flying fairly low,” Bansemer said, “and we flew over what looked like an elementary school with children playing in the playground, and he started to sing to them, and of course they had no idea who that was. Who would think, ‘Hey, that’s Michael Jackson?’ We were high enough that he wasn’t highly recognizable.”
“Captain Eo” set, usenet, 12th August 1985
Gossip-from-friend-of-friend-of-coworker-of-occasional-tennis-player-buddy-of-guy-who-works-on-set-(how else does anything spread around Hollywood?) Department:
Harrison Ellenshaw (Disney special effects ace) reports that Michael’s buddy-buddying up to all the technical people on the shoot (much to their amusement). I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy and all, but it _ i_ s a little disconcerting. So Harry comes home and his kids are in an uproar; they can’t believe it! Seems that Michael Jackson called him up at home to just chat, you know? Toss around some ethereal ideas and such. Left a message in his unmistakable tones on the answering machine. So his kids spend the rest of the evening calling all their friends and playing back Michael’s message from the answering machine.
Diana Dawn at the Lucasfilm Picnic, 86
A little later I was walking down the dirt road at Skywalker Ranch and I saw a Fire Engine coming down the road and it’s bells were ringing and it’s horn was blowing, so I moved over closer to the ditch, thinking they needed more room to pass by, since it was a narrow road, and to my surprise, they blew the horn again and when I turned to look back at them I saw Michael hanging out the passenger side of the truck and waving excitedly, so I looked behind me thinking he was waving to someone else, but no one was there, so it suddenly dawned on me that he was waving to me. So I smiled and waved back, and he seemed to be as excited as a kid would be riding in a Fire Truck for the first time.
Shaye Areheart, editor for Moonwalk 1983-1988
The last room we toured had a very large glass terrarium with a lid on it. It was a low table, and it was hard to see what was inside. Jackie and I were looking around admiring some very beautiful birds in cages, oblivious to what Michael was up to, when suddenly he turned from the terrarium and said with a sweet smile, ”Here, Shaye, you want to hold Muscles?”
Languishing across his outstretched hands was a very pretty boa constrictor. I took it. It felt like damp silk and, much to my surprise, began to move sideways, so that I was in danger of dropping it. I exclaimed to that effect, and Michael protectively retrieved his snake with a look of abject disappointment on his face. It was only much later, when he teased me about it, that I realized he was hoping — wildly hoping — for a shriek from me and, maybe, a hysterical dash out of the room. He was a kid at heart — then and always.
[..]
In the evenings, we would sometimes see a movie in the screening room. I remember him taking his friend and advisor Karen Langford and me to the L.A. County Children’s Museum, which they kept open for us after hours. We exhausted ourselves leaping against Velcro walls, standing in front of spinning lights, and throwing ourselves into the pools of plastic balls. On the way home, he asked his driver to pull over somewhere near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine and jumped from the car to dance on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, singing some perfect little bit of a song before leaping back in, and off we went into the night. It was exhilarating to be in his presence. He was exciting and funny and brilliant.
Sheryl Crow, Bad Tour 1987-88
“It was really surreal. I was lucky in that I got to hang out with him on a number of occasions by myself,” she recalled, “He invited me to his hotel room in Tokyo and we watched ‘Amos & Andy’ videos and the movie ‘Shane,’ just completely unexpected.
“He was funny, he had a big laugh, he loved practical joking and I can remember vividly going to Disneyland and going on a ride with him and he wouldn’t let the ride stop and by the end of it I was just absolutely ill. And he thought that was the funniest things he’d ever seen.”
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