by Donald Bogle
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At the same time, some members of the Jackson family may not have felt completely happy about Michael’s relationship with Taylor. The parents had always been wary of outsiders. Joe Jackson discouraged his sons from having friends in their Gary, Indiana, neighborhood and later in Los Angeles. He didn’t even like the idea of his daughter Rebbie marrying. The same was true of Katherine. And he wasn’t overjoyed when his sons married. Jermaine recalled that once Tito married, Joe “thought he was losing us. . . . Bottom line in our house: marriage wasn’t celebrated as the joy of two people coming together, it was initially viewed as a wedge driving apart a winning team of brothers.” Their Encino compound was maintained like a family fortress that others could never really penetrate, perhaps never really comprehend.
As uncomfortable as the parents may have felt with outsiders—including the brothers’ wives—they also knew when they had to back off. When Michael was younger, Joe and Katherine had to deal with his fixation on Diana Ross. All the family was awed by her glamour, her talent, by her ability to transfix an audience, by her coverage in the press. The family accepted his infatuation with Ross no doubt as a boyhood fantasy. The family also knew that Ross had a full, busy life, touring and then raising her own family. So Ross ultimately did not pose a great threat.
But perhaps now came a combatant (from their vantage point) they could in no way battle. Or ignore. Elizabeth Taylor was simply too great a star, too great an international phenomenon. Like the rest of America, Joe and Katherine, while still in Gary, had read of her scandalous romances and marriages to Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher, and Richard Burton. In Hollywood, she was considered the queen, one of those rare stars who turned the heads of other stars; who, whether young or older, slim or heavy, still could enter a room and have every eye focused on her. Even Diana Ross probably didn’t relish the idea of Elizabeth as a rival for Michael’s attentions. A story made the rounds of an evening when Michael planned to have dinner with Ross—until he heard from Elizabeth, who also wanted to have dinner. Not quite knowing how to handle the situation, Michael was advised by Elizabeth to invite Ross to join Michael and her at a restaurant. When Michael told Ross, she was reportedly not pleased. “This is not the way to do things, Michael,” Ross told him. In the end, she reportedly told him they’d have to do dinner another time without Elizabeth Taylor. For Michael, it had to have been a thrill to have two high-voltage, high-powered women vying for him.
Like everyone else, Joe and Katherine might have preferred for Elizabeth to go away, that she not in any way influence Michael. It was said that they even blamed Michael’s reliance on medication on Elizabeth. Joe and Katherine might not have wanted Michael to spend too much time with her—or worse, to share secrets with her.
Still, special as Elizabeth and Michael’s times together were, everyone knew that such occasions were not everyday occurrences. Both had full schedules. In some ways again, it was like Elizabeth’s days with Montgomery Clift—periods when they couldn’t get together, then intense reunions.
Chapter 15
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THE YEAR 1987 was a great one for Michael. His album Bad was released in August and was another sensation. Again he had worked with Quincy Jones, exploring themes of paranoia, racism, the media, and world peace. Though he hoped to see it shoot past the sales of Thriller, that didn’t happen. Still, Bad was hugely successful, with five number one singles: “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “The Man in the Mirror,” and “Dirty Diana.” The album shot to number one in the United States and twenty-seven other countries. During its first year, Bad sold seventeen million copies. In short, the album certified again that he was the most important artist in music. He also shot videos for it, two of which had a particularly personal significance.
The first was the video for “Smooth Criminal,” a song he’d written. The video was shot between February and April in 1987. Directed by Colin Chilvers as a gangster-style movie with Michael dressed in a white suit and hat, “Smooth Criminal” had a breathtaking sequence in which Michael and the dancers around him stood erect as they leaned forward almost to the floor in a feat that seemed to defy gravity. It was actually the result of a special device that Michael co-patented: the dancers were hitched to a mechanism with pegs that rose from the floor and shoes with ankle supports that slid over the pegs. In “Smooth Criminal,” Michael also held a machine gun and fired shots. It was a real firearm he had been trained to use by experts on the set.
Also on the set were two Jehovah’s Witnesses who were there to “monitor” Michael—just as there had been on the set of the video “Thriller.” Touching a firearm was prohibited by their faith. Michael had to explain himself. Ultimately, he was told to decide between his faith and his profession, actually his art. Pushed to a breaking point and no longer accepting the pressure of the Witnesses to oversee his work, he officially broke off from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was not an easy decision to make, especially because of his mother. But upset as Katherine was, she understood Michael and the importance of his art. She stood by him. Though free of the restrictions and prohibitions of the organization, Michael had been too indoctrinated in the church to ever leave its dictates entirely behind. He still felt uneasy about sex, even discussing it. He also missed the calm relief the services at Kingdom Hall had afforded him, the chance simply to be normal.
The other video, which was released in 1989, was for the song “Leave Me Alone,” in which he gave advice to a media that hounded and distorted him. Stories had turned up that he slept in a special hyperbaric chamber; that he sought to buy the bones of the severely deformed Joseph Merrick (sometimes referred to incorrectly as John), known in the nineteenth century as the Elephant Man; and that he had proposed to Elizabeth. Included in the “Leave Me Alone” video was footage of a young Elizabeth. He poked fun at all the rumors as well as the tabloid press description of him as Wacko Jacko. Of course, Michael himself was reported to have contributed to some of the rumors and outrageous stories as a diversion, a way of keeping the media at bay and manipulating them, and showman that he was, of keeping the public interested. With his soft public speaking voice and his charitable acts, his public image was that of both an eccentric—or a weirdo as the tabloid press viewed him—and an innocent, a kind generous soul with a heart.
With Bad, he also began his first solo tour, which proved an extraordinary success, totaling 123 concerts in fifteen countries over four continents. Traveling on the tour was Bubbles as well as an entourage of some 132 people. Crowds greeted him on his arrival in different cities. More than six hundred journalists turned up at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport on the first leg of the tour that began in September 1987 in Japan. Next on the first leg of the tour was Australia. The second leg picked up in February 1988, and took him to cities in the United States, then parts of continental Europe, England, then back to the States, back to Japan into 1989. Everywhere he went, he met and was often wined and dined by the rich, the famous, the powerful. During the European dates, he visited Oona O’Neill, the widow of Charlie Chaplin, in the town of Vevey in Switzerland. Afterward he proclaimed he had fulfilled a childhood dream. At London’s Wembley Stadium, he had seven sold-out shows, one of which was attended by Princess Diana and Prince Charles. There he broke the attendance records of such stars as Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. Performing in total for an audience of 4.5 million, his concert tour grossed $125 million. Had any music star in the world ever had this kind of success?
During this period, time was also spent with lawyers, managers, and corporate people, to help him manage his career and his vast fortune. But he understood the demands of his position, and contrary to that image of him as the soft-spoken boy who hadn’t grown up, the other Michael, with the more commanding voice, exhibited a decisiveness that let it be known that he expected his orders to be carried out. Among his chief officers were John Branca and Frank DiLeo. Formerly at Epic Records at the time of T
hriller’s release, DiLeo had headed promotions. Once with Michael, he served as his manager; he co-executive produced Michael’s film Moonwalker; he also managed the Bad tour. DiLeo had been hired in 1983, after Michael had decided he no longer wanted Freddy DeMann and Ron Weisner to manage him. Michael’s new legal counsel John Branca—a former corporate tax attorney—had drafted the termination papers. Branca also negotiated Michael’s $47 million acquisition of the ATV Music Publishing catalog, which included the rights for thousands of songs—including those of the Beatles. There was the thrill of all these negotiations and the unprecedented deals, yet Michael also retreated from the pressures, especially when it might cause a confrontation or a decision about which he had conflicting feelings.
Time was spent on charitable works. But, ironically, raising funds for AIDS was at first not on his agenda. He was late in publicly commenting on AIDS. No doubt Elizabeth spurred him forward. The turning point came when Michael learned that a teenager named Ryan White from Kokomo, Indiana, had been expelled from his middle school nearby in Russiaville because he was HIV infected. Much was not known at the time about the causes of HIV/AIDS. A hemophiliac, White was diagnosed in 1984 as having become infected from a contaminated blood infusion. A court battle ensued over his right to attend school. Michael spoke out in defense of the boy and befriended him.
In 1987, Michael also made a bold personal move. Finally deciding to leave his family home in Encino, a decision that may well have been influenced by Elizabeth, he purchased—for the sum of $17 million—twenty-seven hundred sweeping acres of land about six miles from the town of Los Olivos (which had a population of 250) in California’s Santa Ynez Valley. Then he spent $55 million to reconstruct the property, creating his own Shangri-la: a sprawling luxurious playground known as the Neverland Valley Ranch—but usually referred to simply as Neverland—after the magical kingdom in which Peter Pan, Wendy, and the gang resided. When Michael moved there in 1988, it marked his first time living on his own.
Neverland was a child’s dream of paradise. (A security team checked every guest who arrived.) Walking through its magical portals, visitors saw neon lights that read Michael Jackson’s Neverland. Two railroads ran on the property, one called the Neverland Valley Railroad—with a steam locomotive named Katherine, after his mother. At the train station itself were candy and fresh pastries. On the property, there was also a Sea Dragon ride, a carousel, a Ferris wheel, a roller coaster, bumper cars, a private zoo, and a private theater that seated about one hundred, plus an amusement arcade. Near the theater entrance were animatronic characters from Pinocchio, as well as an animatronic Michael that could moonwalk in a circle, all especially designed by artists at Disney. A private bedroom sat on each of the two sides of the theater. Perched high up on the grounds was a sky gazebo with spectacular views where Michael might dine with guests. A bridge led to the main Tudor-style house, where his Bentley might be parked. In the circular drive in front of the house, there stood a thirty-foot-high statue of Mercury with winged helmet and caduceus. Inside the house, there was his personal library—said to number some ten thousand volumes—and his art collection. There were also images of Diana Ross, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, and of course, Elizabeth—as well as Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan. Also there were guest bungalows that were actually four separate units in a ranch-style house. The Elizabeth Taylor Suite was known for its huge king-size bed. At one point, Michael wanted a room painted the color of her violet eyes. But painters couldn’t get the color right. Throughout were beautifully landscaped and manicured grounds with bushes trimmed and shaped to look like animals. Bronze statues of children adorned areas. Surrounding it all were glorious mountains. All of this was conceived by Michael, which revealed another side of his creativity.
Michael soon opened the gates of the Neverland Valley Ranch to children and their families, especially children who were ill, including Ryan White. Once past security, visitors were greeted by lined-up members of his staff. He brought in kids from tough areas of Los Angeles, giving them a taste of pop splendor. Also coming to Neverland were children of his brothers, especially the sons of Tito, with whom Michael grew close; he encouraged their musical group 3T. Over time, other guests walked through the magic gates of Neverland: Chris Tucker, Mike Tyson, Nick Carter, the Cascio family, dermatologist Arnold Klein, who invited Carrie Fisher and her daughter, Billie, to join him there; and a boy named Jordan Chandler, who came with his mother and half-sister.
By now, Arnold Klein had become a relatively close friend of Michael’s. Born in Mount Clemens, Michigan, and the son of an Orthodox rabbi, Klein earned both his bachelor of science and doctor of medicine degrees from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. Eventually, he had headed west, where he established his thriving office in Beverly Hills. Klein had big-name, often wealthy patients. Appearing to love the LA scene, he was as enamored by Hollywood culture as anyone else in the town. Outgoing and good-humored, he had developed a friendship with Michael, whom he treated for various skin ailments, including vitiligo. He also was thrilled to meet Elizabeth. Involved in the fight against AIDS, Klein helped raise a great deal of money for the cause, which led to a kind of friendship with Elizabeth, who then occasionally socialized with Klein.
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With her weight still under control and having taken care to preserve her spectacular looks, Elizabeth launched her perfume line in 1987, starting with Passion—an apt name. Making television commercials, posing for print ads, agreeing to interviews, she traversed the country and did the unthinkable: she appeared at department stores, where crowds lined up to see her. She also answered questions from the crowds, albeit questions that had been screened beforehand. Accompanying Elizabeth on her first perfume press tours, in 1987, was her hairstylist José Eber. “It was beyond what you would see in your life,” he said. “Five to ten thousand people in department stores. It was unbelievable.” He also said that at each stop she’d slip away to visit a hospice for HIV/AIDS patients, unknown to the press. All the promotion got the brand off to a spectacular start. Later she launched Black Pearls and White Diamonds. In time, hers became the most successful celebrity perfume in the industry’s history. In fact, the first of the million-dollar movie stars was actually said to have made even more money from her perfume empire than she had from her films.
During this time, she also began a friendship with New York multimillionaire Malcolm Forbes, the owner of the monthly business publication Forbes. Clearly, he adored her. A motorcycle enthusiast, he once presented her with a purple Harley Davidson in tribute to her eyes—and her Passion perfume line. When she attended the seventieth anniversary bash of Forbes magazine, he presented her with a check for $1 million for amfAR. Time was spent on the back of Forbes’s motorcycle as he joined buddies for rallies; on Forbes’s yacht for trips to Thailand and Tahiti; and later in Tangier, Morocco, where she was his hostess as he celebrated his seventieth birthday. He had flown some eight hundred friends in for the occasion. The media loved seeing her with Forbes almost as much as with Michael. Completely enjoying her renaissance, she also spent much of her time raising funds for AIDS research. The year 1987 also marked the publication of her book Elizabeth Takes Off. She would later write My Love Affair with Jewelry, a dazzling look at her extraordinary jewel collection, published in 2002.
But the Forbes relationship would take a backseat to another one that slowly began in 1988. At that time, she had slipped back into alcohol and prescription drug abuse: a drug combo that included Demerol, Percodan, Xanax, Zantac, Ativan, and Tylenol with codeine for her back pain. Her weight had ballooned again. She returned to the Betty Ford Center in July. There, she met a rugged former construction worker named Larry Fortensky, also a patient. Liz Smith observed: “When they met, Elizabeth was overweight, wracked with pain from a fractured vertebrae in her back and more depressed than she’s ever been. It was her second stay at Betty Ford, and she was ashamed that she had fallen off the wagon. Larry’s first glimpse of Eliz
abeth was in stark contrast to her glamorous, movie-queen persona. She was simply a vulnerable woman in emotional and physical pain. From this, they built a solid, refreshingly realistic relationship.”
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On April 11, 1990, a saddened Michael attended the funeral of Ryan White, who had died of AIDS at age eighteen, in Indianapolis. That year, he lost his maternal grandmother. Sammy Davis Jr. died, too. All three deaths affected him deeply. That same year he was set to begin work on his eighth studio album Dangerous. Pressures were mounting. On June 3 Michael collapsed and was taken to Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, where he was treated for chest pains. (His publicist Bob Jones later said that Michael had actually faked this illness in order to avoid making a decision about a business matter.)