Michael Jackson (9 page)

Also, as per the terms of the contract, Motown was obligated to pay the cost of arrangements, copying and accompaniment and
all other costs related to each recording session, whether the song was released or not – but these expenses and others would
have to be recouped by the company from the royalties generated by sales of the records that were released. This arrangement
would lead to many complaints by Motown artists, and it would be a big problem for The Jackson 5. But Joseph never imagined
that the group would record so many songs that would not be issued – and they did, perhaps as many as a hundred! Later, it would
be virtually impossible for the group to make any money on the ones that
were
released, because the boys would still have to pay for all the ones that weren't.

Also, if Michael or any of his brothers were to leave the group, he would have no right ever to say that he was a member of
The Jackson 5, ‘and shall have no further right to use the group name for any purpose whatsoever’. Joseph may not have realized
it, but this could be a big problem. For instance, when Florence Ballard was fired from The Supremes in 1967, she was not
able to promote herself as having been a member of the group. Her press biography for ABC, when she signed to that label as
a solo artist in 1968, could state only that she was ‘a member of a popular female singing group’.

Also Motown could, at any time, replace any member of the group with any person the company chose. In other words, if Tito
acted up, for instance, he could be bounced from the act and replaced by someone else selected by Motown, and not by Joseph.

An even more limiting clause – number sixteen – stated that ‘Motown owns all rights, title and interest in the names Jackson 5
and
Jackson Five.’ In other words, they may have gone to the company as The Jackson Five, but they sure weren't going to be leaving
that way. When The Supremes wanted to leave the label in 1972, they were welcome to go – but they'd have to change the group's
name to something else. They stayed.

The contract with Motown could have also stated that Joseph would be obligated to hand Randy and Janet over to the company
to raise as Gordy saw fit, and he might have agreed to it. The important thing was that the boys were with Motown, on any
terms.

Thus, on 26 July 1968, in tiny, barely legible handwriting, Michael signed the deal: ‘Michael Joseph Jackson’.
^*

On 27 September 1968, Motown Records booked The Jackson 5 to appear in a benefit concert at Gilroy Stadium in Gary, Indiana,
the purpose of which was to defray the costs of Richard Hatcher's mayoral campaign. On the bill that day were Motown recording
artists Gladys Knight and the Pips, Shorty Long, and Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers. The Jackson 5 opened the show. In years
to come, the official Motown story would be that
this
was where Diana Ross saw the boys for the first time, ‘discovered’ them, and brought them to Gordy's attention. In truth,
The Jackson 5 were already signed to the label. Moreover, Diana Ross was nowhere near Gary at the time. She was in Los Angeles,
rehearsing with The Supremes.

Around Christmastime, Berry Gordy hosted a party at the Detroit estate he had purchased in 1967 for a million dollars. (Though
he had moved to the West Coast, he still maintained his Michigan residence.) The Jackson 5 were asked to perform at the party
for the Motown artists and other friends of Gordy's.
This
was a big deal.

Gordy's three-storey mansion boasted a ballroom with marble floors and columns, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a billiard
room, a two-lane bowling alley, a private theatre linked to the main house by a tunnel, and a pub whose furnishings were imported
from England. All of the rooms were decorated with gold leaf, frescoed ceilings and elaborate crystal chandeliers. Expensive
oil portraits of Gordy's friends and family decorated the entryway.

If the Jacksons had ever seen a home like this before, it was only in movies where the occupants usually were royalty – white
royalty. ‘Black people actually live like this?’ Joseph recalled asking himself as he wandered throughout the mansion, shaking
his head. ‘I just can't believe that this kind of thing is possible.’ When Gordy happened to overhear the comment, he put
his hand on Joseph's shoulder and whispered something in his ear that made Joseph smile. The two men shook hands in agreement
and Gordy led Joseph into the living room.

‘So tell me, man, what do you think about this?’ Gordy asked, stopping before an enormous painting of Gordy dressed as Napoleon
Bonaparte. It had been commissioned by his sister, Esther.

‘Jesus. What can I say?’ Joseph asked. ‘That's
you?
Man, it's too much to believe.’

‘Well, do you like it?’ Gordy pressed.

‘I, uh…You, uh…’ All Joseph could do was stammer. Just at that moment, his son Michael came running up to him. ‘Hey, who's
that funny-lookin' guy in the picture?’ he asked.

Joseph cringed and shot his son a look. Gordy smiled.

‘I'll never forget that night,’ Michael would say. ‘There were maids and butlers, and everyone was real polite. There were
Motown stars everywhere. Smokey Robinson was there. That's when I met him for the first time. The Temptations were there,
and we were singing some of their songs, so we were real nervous. And I looked out into the audience, and there was Diana
Ross. That's when I almost lost it.’

After the boys' performance, Berry introduced them to Diana for the first time. Diana looked regal in a white, draped silk
gown and her hair pulled back in a chignon.

‘I just want to tell you how much I enjoyed you guys,’ she said as she shook their hands. ‘Mr Gordy tells me that we're going
to be working together.’

‘We are?’ Michael asked.

‘Yes, we are,’ Diana said. Her smile was almost as overwhelming as the diamonds she wore at her ears and around her neck.
‘Whatever I can do to assist you,’ she said, ‘that's what I'm going to do.’

‘Well, Miss Ross, we really appreciate it,’ Joseph Jackson managed to say. Usually a smooth talker, Joseph was not having
an easy time that night.

Diana's smile was warm and sincere. She turned to Michael. ‘And you, you're just so cute.’ When she pinched his cheek, Michael
blushed.

Immediately after signing to the label, the Jacksons began to record at the Motown studios under the direction of producer
Bobby Taylor, the man who had really discovered them in Chicago. For the next few months, they would spend their weeks in
Gary attending school and their weekends – and many of their weeks as well – in Detroit, sleeping on the floor of Taylor's apartment.
They recorded fifteen songs, most of which would surface later on their albums. Taylor would say later that he was not paid
for those sessions. ‘Sure, I would have liked the recognition for having discovered The Jackson 5,’ he said. ‘But recognition
don't pay the bills.’

(One day, Berry Gordy and Bobby Taylor were talking about the boys, and Bobby was saying how thrilled he was to be in on the
ground floor of something as exciting as The Jackson 5. ‘Taylor, let me tell you something,’ Gordy said, according to Bobby's
memory. ‘As soon as they get rich, they're gonna forget who you are.’)

The next eight months would prove to be difficult. Berry did not feel The Jackson 5 were ready to have a single release yet;
he wasn't satisfied with any of the songs they had thus far recorded. Everyone in the family was becoming impatient, especially
since conditions in Gary were getting worse with street gangs terrorizing the neighbourhood. Joseph was mugged and, later,
a punk pulled a knife on Tito. Every day, the family would wait for that call from someone –
anyone
– at Motown, telling them what the next step in their lives would be.

On 11 March 1969, the Motown contract was finally fully executed. The delay had been caused when Ralph Seltzer discovered
The Jackson 5 were still committed to Steeltown Records, despite Richard Aron's previous efforts to extricate them from that
deal. Motown had to make a settlement with Steeltown, much to Gordy's chagrin. By this time, according to Ralph Seltzer, Motown
had spent in excess of thirty thousand dollars on The Jackson 5, and this sum did not include any settlement made to Steeltown.
Gordy was anxious to begin recouping his investment.

In August 1969, more than a year since their audition, the call came from Motown: Gordy wanted Joseph, his five sons and Johnny
Jackson and Ronny Rancifer to move to Los Angeles. They would attend school on the West Coast while recording at Motown's
new Hollywood facilities. Though Gordy wasn't enthused by any of the Jacksons' songs, he was impressed with young Michael.
‘Michael was a born star,’ he would later say in an interview. ‘He was a classic example of understanding everything. I recognized
that he had a depth that was so vast, it was just incredible. The first time I saw him, I saw this little kid as something
real special.’

Joseph, Tito, Jack Richardson, drummer Johnny Jackson, and keyboardist Ronny Rancifer drove to Los Angeles in the family's
new Dodge Maxivan. Motown paid for Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael to fly out a few days later. It was Joseph's decision
not to move the entire family from Gary to Los Angeles until he was certain that their future there would be secure. It was
possible, after all, that Berry could be wrong, that the group would be a failure, and that they would have to start all over
again. So Janet, Randy and LaToya stayed behind with Katherine in Gary.

Berry registered the family at one of the seediest motels in Hollywood, the Tropicana, on Santa Monica Boulevard. Michael,
Marlon and Jermaine shared one room while Tito and Jackie were in another. Joseph was down the hall. The family saw little
of their rooms. Since it was still school vacation, they spent most of their waking hours at Motown's Hollywood studios rehearsing
and recording.

Eventually, Gordy pulled the family out of the Tropicana and moved them to the Hollywood Motel, across the street from Hollywood
High and closer to Motown headquarters. This was an even more dreadful residence for young boys; prostitutes and pimps used
it as a place to conduct business. However, none of that mattered to the Jacksons. Why would it? They were living in California.
Even if they didn't see movie stars on every corner as they had dreamed, Los Angeles was heaven compared to Gary.

To the Jacksons' young eyes, everything seemed new. Michael had never seen a real palm tree before he got to California. ‘And
here were whole streets lined with them,’ he once recalled. There were expensive, luxury automobiles everywhere they looked,
and everyone driving them seemed to wear sunglasses, even on those overcast mornings when the sun didn't emerge until noon.
In fact, as the young Jacksons would soon learn, many people wore their sunglasses at night too. ‘Now
that's
Hollywood livin',’ Joseph said.

One afternoon, Berry called a meeting of the gang at Diana Ross's home. This was the first time the boys had seen her since
the show they gave at Berry's home in Detroit the previous winter. Diana's house may not have been spectacular by Hollywood
standards – she was a single woman, at the time, living in a three-bedroom temporary residence in Hollywood Hills while in the
process of purchasing a new, more opulent home in Beverly Hills – but when the five Jackson boys and their father compared her
digs to their garage-sized house in Gary, it was hard for them to act cool.

Michael has recalled that Gordy sat the boys down in Diana's living room and had a talk with them. ‘I'm gonna make you kids
the biggest thing in the world,’ he told them. ‘You're gonna have three number-one hits in a row. They're gonna write about
you kids in history books. So get ready, 'cause it's coming.’

That was exactly what the Jacksons wanted to hear. Joseph had wanted nothing more for his sons than to be successful, and
it seemed a sure-thing, now. He told them that they were to do whatever ‘Mr Gordy’ asked of them, with no questions. Simply
put, Joseph was in awe of Berry. However, he was also intimidated by him. ‘Here's a black man who has made millions of dollars
in show business,’ Joseph had said. ‘If I can just learn a few things from this guy, then I'll have it made too.’

As the meeting was about to conclude, Diana swept into the room looking like… well,
Diana Ross
… in a black satin hot pants outfit, huge natural hairstyle and gold hoop earrings. ‘She always looked like a goddess,’ Jermaine
recalled. ‘I remember that when she walked into the living room that day, all of our mouths dropped open.’ Although the boys
had met her before, they were still awed. Joseph fell all over himself to make an impression.

‘I just want to tell you boys once again that I'm here for you,’ she said. ‘If there's anything I can do for you, I hope you'll
let me know.’

She seemed sincere, Jermaine would remember. ‘It was hard to believe that she was saying those words to us,’ he said. ‘I mean,
what did we do to deserve her assistance? Talk about luck.’