In the mid-1980s, I directed a TV series entitled The Disney Family Album. Michael Jackson was a fan of the series, as he was of all things Disney. He was particularly interested in the episode about the Sherman Brothers, Richard and Robert, who had written the music for Mary Poppins and a lot of other Disney music, including hit pop songs for the superstar Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello.
One day, Michael’s assistant called my office and asked if my producing partner, Cardon Walker Jr., and I would come to lunch, and could we bring the Sherman Brothers with us? The four of us spent a very interesting afternoon with Michael at his house in Encino.
This week, on the evening Michael died, I commemorated the story of our visit that day by tweeting it. In the interest of brevity, I wrote it as a two-person scene between Michael and me.
The tweets are all hashtagged as #michaeljackson. Here they are in chronological sequence:
mid 1980s, Michael invited me to lunch at his house in Encino. He was a fan of a TV series I directed, Disney Family Album
A few hopeful moms and pre-teen daughters were waiting outside the iron gated driveway entrance with autograph books ready
His assistant greeted me and led me to the trophy room. Gold and platinum records, every magazine cover you could imagine
A big glass case held Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs statues built by Disney Imagineers
michael wasn’t there. after awhile I had to pee. I went and found the assistant, who showed me a hallway bathroom.
it was a small bathroom. paintings of naked cherubs on the walls. gigantic doorknob that I could barely get my hand around
I remember thinking at the time, a child would have a hard time opening this door with this gigantic doorknob
when i walked back into the trophy room, michael was there. i remember thinking, He’s wearing his makeup from the Wiz.
because his nose was a different color (darker) from the rest of his face.
we talked for about half an hour, all about Disney, and the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins) music
I told him I liked the music from Ben. He said he liked it too. He said the songwriter had written more music for him
He sang part of one of the songs. It was called Not Now. His voice was so pure and beautiful (and it was HIM) I got chills
He asked if I wanted to eat. I said yes. He led me into a very big dining room with a very long table.
The food was at one end. We sat at the other end. He was very shy. He did not look me in the eye.
He said the music publishing was a good business to get into, like someone would say a Swatch watch is a good investment.
He said that when he was buying the Beatles catalog, he’d visit Paul. He and Paul watched cartoons while Linda made soup.
After we finished eating, he asked if I wanted to see his bedroom. I said sure. We walked upstairs.
We came to his bedroom door. He knocked very softly, and then listened. He repeated this a few times.
He said, She’s supposed to be out of there. And I’m thinking WHAT is going on here???
I forgot to tell this part about what happened at lunch. A phone in the next room kept ringing and no one answered
This happened three or four times. The phone ringing for minutes each time.
He said quietly to himself, with only us in the room, I wish that phone would stop ringing.
The phone stopped ringing. And I had the sudden thought, He’s wearing a mike and someone is listening to him!
The chef and server was a beautiful Scandanavian looking woman in all white wearing a white turban.
I forgot to mention this about lunch, too. At one point, as if on speakers, we could hear children laughing.
michael got instantly alert. Are they okay? Is someone watching them? he asked the radiant woman in white.
They’re okay, Michael, she told him, reassuringly. Where those children’s voices were coming from was not clear.
One more thing about lunch. The news the day before had said that Animal Control had taken away his giraffe, Jabbar.
I asked him if he was worried about Jabbar. He said no, the lawyers were taking care of it.
Now back up to the bedroom. He listened again at the door. Finally he said, We can go in now. He opened the door.
Waiting for Michael inside the bedroom, dressed in a red polo shirt and blue overalls was Bubbles, his little chimp
Bubbles! Michael said. Bubbles jumped into his arms. We played with Bubbles and looked at some of his stuff.
he showed me a sculpture behind glass built into a wall of the bedroom. It was a scene from Disney’s Peter Pan
It showed Peter and the Darling kids flying over London.
he said, Come look at this, and pointed to a window in the miniature Darling house
through the window, inside the tiny house, you could see all the miniature furniture crafted by Disney artists themselves
It was exactly like the movie scene, with one exception. Above the fireplace was a teeny tiny portrait of Michael Jackson
I just loooove that, he said.
The window in the Darling house was the perfect height for a child standing up to see through.
in a minute he asked if I wanted to see his recording studio. i said yes i did.
We left Bubbles behind, and exited the bedroom through the back door. He shaded his face with his hand.
he said, I’m not supposed to be in the sun. we walked across the driveway to the entrance to his studio.
The entrance was through a storefront like a Disney shop on Main Street, with gold lettered windows and flowers in planters
the entrance led to a kitchen, and every single square inch of space on counters, shelves, sinks, contained candy
every kind of candy you could imagine. he said, Go ahead, take some. So I took a Sugar Daddy and some M&Ms.
we went upstairs to the Museum and rehearsal studio. there were four life-size wax statues of michael in the Museum
for a second, I had vertigo. the room seemed to spin as the fifth michael moved
there were six spangled gloves in a glass case. People like to see them, he said
he said, There’s a joke, whatever happened to Michael Jackson’s other glove? I laughed, he said. I have a sense of humor.
I asked him, Well, what happened to it? he said, Ohhh, noooo. I can’t say that.
For the rest of the time I was there, I teased him about telling me. What happened to the other glove, Mike? I’d ask
He’d giggle and say, Noooooo! I can’t say! It’s ruuuude!
In the rehearsal studio a Panasonic 35mm camera and lighting was set up by a dance floor.
A film crew would come in every evening and film him rehearsing. He’d watch the dailies, just like a feature.
On the way out, downstairs in the recording studio, I saw sheet music for ‘Smooth Criminal’ on the console.
After I’d gone I felt a little sorry for him. He seemed all alone in a world he built and only he inhabited. RIP, mikey
One day, Michael’s assistant called my office and asked if my producing partner, Cardon Walker Jr., and I would come to lunch, and could we bring the Sherman Brothers with us? The four of us spent a very interesting afternoon with Michael at his house in Encino.
This week, on the evening Michael died, I commemorated the story of our visit that day by tweeting it. In the interest of brevity, I wrote it as a two-person scene between Michael and me.
The tweets are all hashtagged as #michaeljackson. Here they are in chronological sequence:
mid 1980s, Michael invited me to lunch at his house in Encino. He was a fan of a TV series I directed, Disney Family Album
A few hopeful moms and pre-teen daughters were waiting outside the iron gated driveway entrance with autograph books ready
His assistant greeted me and led me to the trophy room. Gold and platinum records, every magazine cover you could imagine
A big glass case held Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs statues built by Disney Imagineers
michael wasn’t there. after awhile I had to pee. I went and found the assistant, who showed me a hallway bathroom.
it was a small bathroom. paintings of naked cherubs on the walls. gigantic doorknob that I could barely get my hand around
I remember thinking at the time, a child would have a hard time opening this door with this gigantic doorknob
when i walked back into the trophy room, michael was there. i remember thinking, He’s wearing his makeup from the Wiz.
because his nose was a different color (darker) from the rest of his face.
we talked for about half an hour, all about Disney, and the Sherman Brothers (Mary Poppins) music
I told him I liked the music from Ben. He said he liked it too. He said the songwriter had written more music for him
He sang part of one of the songs. It was called Not Now. His voice was so pure and beautiful (and it was HIM) I got chills
He asked if I wanted to eat. I said yes. He led me into a very big dining room with a very long table.
The food was at one end. We sat at the other end. He was very shy. He did not look me in the eye.
He said the music publishing was a good business to get into, like someone would say a Swatch watch is a good investment.
He said that when he was buying the Beatles catalog, he’d visit Paul. He and Paul watched cartoons while Linda made soup.
After we finished eating, he asked if I wanted to see his bedroom. I said sure. We walked upstairs.
We came to his bedroom door. He knocked very softly, and then listened. He repeated this a few times.
He said, She’s supposed to be out of there. And I’m thinking WHAT is going on here???
I forgot to tell this part about what happened at lunch. A phone in the next room kept ringing and no one answered
This happened three or four times. The phone ringing for minutes each time.
He said quietly to himself, with only us in the room, I wish that phone would stop ringing.
The phone stopped ringing. And I had the sudden thought, He’s wearing a mike and someone is listening to him!
The chef and server was a beautiful Scandanavian looking woman in all white wearing a white turban.
I forgot to mention this about lunch, too. At one point, as if on speakers, we could hear children laughing.
michael got instantly alert. Are they okay? Is someone watching them? he asked the radiant woman in white.
They’re okay, Michael, she told him, reassuringly. Where those children’s voices were coming from was not clear.
One more thing about lunch. The news the day before had said that Animal Control had taken away his giraffe, Jabbar.
I asked him if he was worried about Jabbar. He said no, the lawyers were taking care of it.
Now back up to the bedroom. He listened again at the door. Finally he said, We can go in now. He opened the door.
Waiting for Michael inside the bedroom, dressed in a red polo shirt and blue overalls was Bubbles, his little chimp
Bubbles! Michael said. Bubbles jumped into his arms. We played with Bubbles and looked at some of his stuff.he showed me a sculpture behind glass built into a wall of the bedroom. It was a scene from Disney’s Peter Pan
It showed Peter and the Darling kids flying over London.
he said, Come look at this, and pointed to a window in the miniature Darling house
through the window, inside the tiny house, you could see all the miniature furniture crafted by Disney artists themselves
It was exactly like the movie scene, with one exception. Above the fireplace was a teeny tiny portrait of Michael Jackson
I just loooove that, he said.
The window in the Darling house was the perfect height for a child standing up to see through.
in a minute he asked if I wanted to see his recording studio. i said yes i did.
We left Bubbles behind, and exited the bedroom through the back door. He shaded his face with his hand.
he said, I’m not supposed to be in the sun. we walked across the driveway to the entrance to his studio.
The entrance was through a storefront like a Disney shop on Main Street, with gold lettered windows and flowers in planters
the entrance led to a kitchen, and every single square inch of space on counters, shelves, sinks, contained candy
every kind of candy you could imagine. he said, Go ahead, take some. So I took a Sugar Daddy and some M&Ms.
we went upstairs to the Museum and rehearsal studio. there were four life-size wax statues of michael in the Museum
for a second, I had vertigo. the room seemed to spin as the fifth michael moved
there were six spangled gloves in a glass case. People like to see them, he said
he said, There’s a joke, whatever happened to Michael Jackson’s other glove? I laughed, he said. I have a sense of humor.
I asked him, Well, what happened to it? he said, Ohhh, noooo. I can’t say that.
For the rest of the time I was there, I teased him about telling me. What happened to the other glove, Mike? I’d ask
He’d giggle and say, Noooooo! I can’t say! It’s ruuuude!
In the rehearsal studio a Panasonic 35mm camera and lighting was set up by a dance floor.
A film crew would come in every evening and film him rehearsing. He’d watch the dailies, just like a feature.
On the way out, downstairs in the recording studio, I saw sheet music for ‘Smooth Criminal’ on the console.
After I’d gone I felt a little sorry for him. He seemed all alone in a world he built and only he inhabited. RIP, mikey
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