MICHAEL JACKSON HIStory 4

The Off the Wall Chronology

The Odd, the Outrageous, the Otherworldly

Livin' crazy that's the only way.

Life ain't so bad at all, If you live it off the wall.

Do what you want to do, There ain't no rules it's up to you.

Gotta hide your inhibitions, Gotta let that fool loose deep inside your soul.

“Off the Wall”. Michael Jackson (1979)

“I’m a fantasy fanatic. I’m not too crazy about the reality of things.”

Michael Jackson, interview

This timetable traces Michael Jackson’s increasing peculiarities over the course of three decades. Dates, events, and details derive from major biographies, interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as web news sources. (A partial bibliography appears at the end of this document.)

The chronology includes controversial and, in some cases, unverifiable claims made by biographers, reporters, and MJ associates. 

Corrections, clarifications, additions, and/or comments are welcome.

1980s

-PT Barnum’s autobiography becomes one of MJ’s favorite books. He gives out copies to his managers, saying: “This is going to be my Bible and I want it to be yours. I want my whole career to be the greatest show on earth.” (source: MJ biographer, J. Randy Taraborrelli)

(Barnum’s traveling show included curiosities and wonders such as giants, monkey mermaids, animal menageries, and the boy dwarf " General Tom Thumb." He hawked elixirs such as one which he claimed turned black people white. Practicing “profitable philanthropy,” as he called it, the wealthy showman/entertainer gave to charities which helped grow his business and reputation.) 

-MJ begins collecting his own curiosities: an Egyptian boy mummy and his mummified pets (a lion, lizard, rat). He also secures a human brain, and, in formaldehyde jar, keeps his nose cartilage from his first rhinoplasty (source: biographer, Darwin Porter)

-MJ rescues Bubbles from a Texas medical research center. The chimp sleeps in a crib in MJ’s bedroom, and uses his toilet. He has his own bodyguard and entertainment agent. He makes his film debut in “Liberian Girl.” MJ takes him to Japan for his Dangerous Tour. Bubbles drinks green tea with MJ and the Mayor of Osaka.

-1982 MJ to Ebony mag: “I really felt that I was E.T… He’s most comfortable with children.”  

-1983 At Motown 25 anniversary TV special, MJ debuts his moonwalk and white sequin glove.

-1986 Premiere of MJ Captain EO, Disney “intergalactic song and dance man fighting to save plane from evil.

-1986 Tabloids run photo of MJ lying in a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber, a “rejuvenation box” which purportedly slows the aging process. Later (1993 Oprah interview) MJ denies the claim he fed the story to the media himself and provided the photo as well.

-After story breaks, MJ tells his managers: “We can actually control the press. I think this is an important breakthrough for us.”  (J. Randy Taraborrelli)

-When publicity becomes negative, MJ denounces tabloids:

“Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight", people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth."  (J. Randy Taraborrelli)

-1987 MJ tells his manager, Frank Dileo, he wants to buy the The Elephant Man’s bones.

Dileo: “Man, that is crazy!” 

MJ: “I know. That’s why we have to do it.” (J. Randy Taraborrelli)

-1987 David Edwards, chief administrator of the London Hospital, tells CBS Radio that MJ had visited the facility and viewed Merrick's bones.

-1987 National Enquirer reports that MJ offered $500,000 for Elephant Man bones. 

-1993 Oprah interview, MJ denies that he was the source of this news too… 

“That's another stupid story. I love the story of the Elephant Man. He reminds me of me a lot, and I could relate to it. It made me cry because I saw myself in the story, but no, I never asked for the—Where am I going to put some bones? and why would I want some bones?… Someone makes it up, and everybody believes it. If you hear a lie often enough, you start to believe it.”

-Biographer and 30-year MJ employee, Bob James, later counters: “People often say that the stories reported in the Enquirer and Star are just fabricated gossip. Well, that is just not the case. Over the years, so-called insiders and even family members themselves sold stories to the Enquirer. Michael even sold pictures to the tabloids.” 

-1987 As a result of Elephant Bones story, Hyperbaric story, etc. tabloids dub MJ “Wacko Jacko”

-1989 MJ dances with an elephant man skeleton in video "Leave Me Alone" 

-1988 MJ buys 2,700-acre Neverland Ranch

-His real estate agent, Gloria Berlin: “Why do you need such a huge place?”

MJ: “I plan to adopt 29 children and marry Elizabeth Taylor.” (biographer, Diane Dimond)

-1988 Dermatologist, Dr. Arnold Klein, diagnoses MJ with Vitiligo and discoid lupus. Orders MJ to avoid all sunlight exposure. Allegedly prescribes MJ steroids and skin bleaching creams. 

-“The regular injections of bleaching agent to whiten his skin were both unbelievable and ungodly. It made sense only in that he hated dark-skinned people. He wanted to be white.” (Bob James)

-“His favorite word to describe blacks, his original race, was ‘Splaboo’.” (Bob James)

-“Michael didn’t want to have what he called ‘a Splaboo’.’” (Bob James)

-"He hates dark-skinned people. He did not want to take the chance that a child of his would look like Joseph [his father]." (biographer, Jackson family friend, Stacy Brown)

-MJ to his attorney, John Branca: “They [the white man] will never let me be bigger than Elvis… because I’m black.” (J. Randy Taraborrelli)

-1988 “What Michael’s got to understand is that Michael’s a nigger! It don’t matter how great he can sing and dance… He’s one of the greatest megastars in the world, but he’s still going to be a nigger megastar.” (Don King, promoter of Jackson 5 Victory tour. Playboy Interview)

1990s

-1990s -MJ predicts he will die in 1998. Signs his name M.J., 1998.  (Darwin Porter)

Excerpt: As a boy, “Michael developed a fascination with freaks of nature… He devoured information about … Siamese twins, the famed Alligator Man and other sideshow celebrities… The press has gleefully depicted Michael as some sort of morbid creep…. If you knew him like I do, you’d see that it’s not macabre at all.” 

-1993 Oprah interviews MJ at Neverland. 90 million viewers. 

MJ insists he’s had only 2 plastic surgeries. (Medical experts estimate up to 50)

MJ to Oprah: “I’m never pleased with myself. No, I try not to look in the mirror.”

-According to Vanity Fair’s Maureen Orth, MJ tells friend Eddie Reynoza, "The whole inside of his face is artificial implants. He told me, 'I can't go out in the sun. My face would fall off.'"

-1993 According to legal depositions, MJ tells boy companion, Jordie Chandler, to repeat six wishes 3X daily to make them come true: 

1. No wenches, bitches, heifers, or hoes

2. Never give up your bliss

3. Live with me forever in Neverland.

4. No conditioning

5. Never grow up

6. Be better than best friends forever

-1994 In ABC interview, Diane Sawyer asks MJ about recent self-promotion: “The critics have said it’s the most vainglorious self-deification a pop singer ever undertook with a straight face.”

MJ: Good. That’s what I wanted. 

DS: A little controversy?

MJ: Yeah. They fell into my trap. I wanted everybody’s attention. 

-1996 “They Don’t Care about Us” (from album HIStory): Lyrics: Jew me, Sue me. Everybody do me. Kick me, Kike me. Don't you black or white me. MJ changes words after charges of anti-semitism.

-1997 MJ allegedly contacts the spirit of Princess Di in a séance. She tells MJ he should bring up William, not Charles. (Darwin Porter)

-1998 MJ’s second child, Paris Katherine, born.  MJ managers ask for christening by Pope John Paul. Papal rep rejects request, writing His Holiness declines involvement in “what may be perceived by some as a publicity stunt.” (Biographer, Taraborrelli)  

(In 1996, Madonna made same request to the Vatican for daughter, Lourdes.)

-MJ commissions portrait of self w/ his “equals”: Einstein, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Mona Lisa, and E.T. – each in Napoleon military outfit, donning white sequined glove & aviator shades.  

2000-09

-2001 INVINCIBLE released. MJ blames Sony for disappointing sales. Calls CEO, Tommy Mottola, “racist” and “very devilish.” Mutual friend, Rev. Al Sharpton, defends Mottola.

-2002 MJ dangles Prince Michael II (Blanket) over hotel suite railing in Berlin 

-2003 MJ photographer, Harry Benson, tells Vanity Fair journalist, Maureen Orth: 

"Michael Jackson is about as crazy as Colin Powell. He knows everything he is doing. He holds his baby over the balcony and everybody goes crazy, but he's in every newspaper around the world." 

MJ’s ex-publicist adds: "Michael doesn't think bad publicity is bad—he thinks more is more. Hejust doesn't want to be forgotten."

-2003 Controversial BBC Martin Bashir Interview. 

Bashir: You identify with him [Peter Pan]?

MJ: No, I am Peter Pan. 

Bashir: No you’re not, you’re Michael Jackson.

MJ: I’m Peter Pan in my heart.

-MJ aid: “When you’re Peter Pan, you’re never supposed to grow old. That’s Michael’s ultimate goal and he’ll do anything to achieve it.” (biographer Ian Halperin)

-2003 - Myung Ho Lee, former MJ partner, tells Maureen Orth MJ paid Mali voodoo witch doctor, Baba, $150,000 to curse Spielberg, Geffen, Katzenberg, and others 

-Lee claims MJ sent him to Geneva’s Hôtel d'Angleterre to assess another voodoo doctor who reportedly pulled $50 million out of thin air and into a bathtub.

-2004 Mike Luckman, director if NY Center for Extraterrestrial Research, says MJ asked him about building an E.T. airport in Nevada. MJ tells Luckman: “I am from another planet myself…. A Capricious Anomaly in the Sea of Space located just beyond our solar system.” 

-Luckman says MJ, fearing death in prison (if convicted of molestation), plans to have body frozen. (Darwin Porter)

-2005 People v. Jackson molestation trial: 600 exhibits entered into evidence, including MJ’s collection of bare-breasted Barbie dolls dressed in S&M gear. 

-2005 Dr. Arnold Klein, MJ’s personal doctor, tells TMZ's Harvey Levin MJ did not molest Jordie Chandler, claiming the reason he could accurately draw Jackson's genitals was because the star  liked to urinate in front of other people.

-2009 Rev. Sharpton eulogy at MJ memorial service: “There was nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”