Michael Jackson (18 page)

‘What the hell is going on?’ he fumed. He began showing up at Motown, harassing the sales staff and badgering the promotion
executives. The problem was that Berry Gordy was no longer personally involved in what was going on with the record company.
Instead, he put in charge a man named Ewart Abner, a seasoned executive in the recording industry by the time he got to Motown.
For his part, Berry now devoted most of his time to Diana Ross's film career, and to establishing Motown Productions in the
movie business. Although still Motown's chairman of the board, he was interested only in filmmaking, not in record production.
A star vehicle for Diana Ross called
Mahogany
was in the works, a venture that would monopolize most of Berry's time.

At the time, Motown was capitalizing on a more socially conscious sound with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Perhaps The Jackson
5's audience had become hungry for a hipper sound than what they got with the group's next release, ‘Hallelujah Day’. It sold
less than a quarter of a million discs; too bad, it was a terrific little record with leads shared by Michael, Marlon and
Jackie.

In truth, Ewart Abner didn't care about The Jackson 5. He wasn't involved in signing them to the company, and he felt their
best days were behind them. ‘They already had their own cartoon, for Christ's sake,’ he argued. ‘Why spend any more money
on them?’ If sales figures were low and the group was losing its audience, it was the group's fault, not Motown's, he decided.
With that point of view, it wasn't surprising that Joseph disliked Ewart Abner, and in an intense, passionate way.

When an album,
Skywriter,
was released in March and sold only 115,045 copies, it became the group's poorest-selling album. (It didn't even reach the
Top 50 in Britain.) Joseph believed that all of the records which had been failures could have been more successful if Motown
had simply promoted them properly.

There was a reprieve in the downward slide when producer Hal Davis put together a terrific track for the Jackson boys called
‘Get It Together’. The production was tight; the music, background vocals and Michael's maturing lead all blended nicely on
this performance, a departure from the sweeter, pop music styles previously associated with the group. Released in August
1973, it sold over 700,000 copies. Though not a million-seller, it encouraged Joseph in his belief that his sons still had
an audience. To his way of thinking, The Jackson 5 was not finished. If anything,
he
was finished… with Motown.

In early 1973, while Katherine and Joseph were distracted by the discord in their marriage, their son Jermaine was falling
in love… with Berry Gordy's daughter. He had been dating Hazel Gordy for several months and, at just eighteen, seemed about
to follow Rebbie's and Tito's lead by using matrimony to extricate himself from the Jackson homestead.

It was clear to the brothers that Hazel had become an important and influential presence in his life. For example, at a rehearsal
in March, the group had been attempting to solve a problem in choreography with Suzanne dePasse. After a decision had been
made about how best to handle the situation, the brothers were in agreement. However Hazel, who had begun attending all practice
sessions, pulled Jermaine aside and whispered something in his ear. Jermaine listened, nodded absently, and walked back to
his brothers. ‘I think we oughta change this step,’ he announced, dutifully.

‘But why?’ Michael protested, according to a witness's memory. ‘It's perfect as it is.’

‘Because Hazel has a better idea. Look, Mike, you stand here,’ he said positioning his brother. ‘And Tito here, Marlon there,
and Jackie over there.’ Jermaine then demonstrated Hazel's ‘great idea’ which, upon execution, made Jermaine more prominent
in the presentation. When Suzanne realized what had happened, she shot Hazel a look. Hazel smiled innocently. Since Hazel
was Berry's daughter, Suzanne had no choice but to agree with her suggestion. ‘Looks fine, guys,’ she said. ‘Let's keep it.’

‘Well, I hate it,’ Michael announced, looking at Jermaine. ‘C'mon, Jermaine,’ he said, ‘I thought we agreed.’

Jermaine looked away.

The other brothers tried to ignore what had happened. ‘It ain't that important,’ Tito decided.

‘Well, I think it
is
important,’ Michael concluded. ‘But you guys can do whatever you want.’ He then looked over to Jermaine, who now was in another
conference with Hazel, shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Jermaine had been attracted to Hazel when they first met in 1969, but not in the same way in which she fancied him. After
a short time, Hazel told Jermaine she was in love with him; he made it clear that he was not sure he could return her affection.
He was a teenage idol, a star, and could have his pick of dozens of willing young women. This kind of idolatry was heady stuff
for a young man like Jermaine. It made the idea of settling down with one woman seem confining, no matter who she might be.

‘Jermaine likes girls too much to get married,’ Michael had said. ‘I think he'll be in his thirties before he does anything
like that.’

However, Hazel was a young, idealistic girl who wanted more than anything to marry and have a family. Not only had her father
been divorced three times, she had witnessed his tumultuous, heart-wrenching affair with Diana Ross. Though young, Hazel believed
that true love was elusive, she remained a romantic. ‘I can truthfully say that since I fell in love with Jermaine I have
never even thought about any other man,’ she said.

Delores Robertson, who was a friend of Hazel's at the time, recalled, ‘Berry Gordy had been lavishing Hazel, his only daughter,
with gifts for as long as she could remember. She told him that she was in love with one of The Jackson 5 and she wanted him
for her own. Her feelings for Jermaine were so strong, she was afraid to let him slip through her fingers for fear that no
one like him would ever come along again. She was jealous when she would see Jermaine with female fans. “Michael can have
fans, but you can't,” she used to tell him. Berry made sure she usually got what she wanted. Now she wanted Jermaine. Berry
got to know Jermaine and, even though he felt there might be a problem with Joseph, believed that Jermaine was right for Hazel.
When Jermaine asked Berry for her hand, he said, yes.’

Though Berry thought Joseph might be a stumbling block to any union between his daughter and Jermaine, that wasn't the case,
at least not at first. Hazel actually found an unexpected ally in Joseph, who might not have insisted on a pre-nuptial agreement
anyway (as he had with Tito's wife). He was certain that marriage between his son and the boss's daughter would ensure job
security for the Jackson clan at Motown, especially since he was having a difficult time of late in even getting Berry on
the telephone. He did all he could to help the youngsters, even referring to her as ‘my Hazel’ and saying that he loved her.

Had Joseph given the matter more thought, he might have been more concerned about the recent turn of events. When Berry's
sister, Anna, was married to Motown singer Marvin Gaye, the alliance never gave Marvin special privileges at the company.
In fact, according to Marvin, it only served to complicate his life and career because Anna acted as a spy for her brother
during times of conflict. Marvin was rarely able to make a move that Berry didn't know about in advance. Also, Marvin said
that he always felt a strong conflict of interest whenever he and Berry battled, which was often.

Many other Motown artists felt as Marvin did, that Jermaine was about to be groomed by Berry to become a major star just as
Diana Ross had been lifted from The Supremes to superstar status; that Jermaine's two solo releases for the company, ‘That's
How Love Goes’ and ‘Daddy's Home’, had been successful, and he did have the potential to be one of the company's biggest stars.
Actually, some critics cited strong similarities between Jermaine's vocal style and Marvin Gaye's. The truth is that Jermaine
had his own sound, and it was a good one, too, full-bodied and always an interesting contrast to Michael's high-pitch on the
many songs the two shared at Motown. (Actually, the reason Jermaine started singing leads at the company was that the group's
producer, Deke Richards, was hospitalized with a slipped disk. He didn't want Fonce Mizell and Freddie Perren, to work with
Michael without him, so he told them to write something for Jermaine. That song was ‘I Found That Girl’, the flip side of
‘The Love You Save’.)

In November 1973, Katherine and Joseph had another serious argument; distraught, she left town, leaving her family in a state
of confusion and bewilderment. ‘The children were devastated, Michael in particular,’ recalled Joyce Jillson, a friend of
Katherine's at the time. ‘He wanted to go with her. “If you're leaving, so am I,” he told her. “I'm not going to let you go
without me.” Michael didn't want to find himself in that house with his brothers and sisters and father, unless Katherine
was present as a buffer. To Michael, she was his only link to sanity. But now even she had become unpredictable. It was unlike
her to disrupt the family, but she just couldn't take it another second. She told Michael to stay behind and assured him that
she would return. He cried. “Why can't Joseph go?” he kept asking. “
He's
the one who should be going.”’

When Katherine heard through friends that the press had become aware of problems in her marriage, she became concerned. She
wanted Jermaine's upcoming wedding, not her separation from Joseph, to be the focus of media attention. Therefore, she returned
home just days before the wedding. Sensing in Joseph injured pride rather than true contrition, she wasn't sure how long she
would stay with him now, but she knew she'd have to be at his side at Jermaine's wedding. She felt an obligation to her son,
to her family.

Jermaine's wedding to Hazel Gordy on 15 December 1973 was an expensive, ostentatious affair. ‘If my kid is going to get married,’
Berry had said, ‘she's going to marry in style. Sky's the limit,’ he insisted. The wedding would cost him about a quarter
of a million dollars, a lot for the times. Berry's money would create a winter wonderland at the exclusive Beverly Hills Hotel
for the festivities. Artificial snow-covered pine trees, 175 white doves in white cages, and thousands of white camellias,
chrysanthemums and carnations decorated the rooms in which the wedding, reception and luncheon took place. One hundred guests
were invited to the ceremony; five hundred-plus to the after-gatherings.

Ebony
called it ‘the wedding of the century’. Guests were overheard comparing it to the royal wedding in London when Princess Anne
had married Captain Mark Phillips a little more than a month earlier. Abe Lastfogel, a William Morris founder, called it ‘the
most lavish merger I've ever seen’. To ensure that the media would report the details correctly, Motown handed out publicity
releases to the invited reporters.

Sixteen-year-old Marlon was the best man. Fifteen-year-old Michael, along with brothers Jackie (twenty-two), Tito (twenty),
and Randy (eleven), were ushers. Michael's duties that day were not complicated: escort the guests to their seats before the
ceremony, and escort one of the bridesmaids out of the chapel after it. However, people close to the Jackson family have indicated
that Michael felt preoccupied on this day. Jermaine, who had always been his favourite big brother, was getting married and,
in his view, it was going to make a difference in the way things were run.

‘At first Michael had thought it wouldn't matter,’ said one close family friend. ‘Tito was married and The Jackson 5 had continued
as before. His wife never had anything to do with group business or politics. But Jermaine was marrying Hazel, the boss's
daughter, a lady who had strong opinions and got her own way. As the wedding day got closer and closer, Michael noticed that
Jermaine was looking at things differently – through Hazel's eyes. He was becoming less Michael's best friend and more Hazel's
man. Michael would feel the loss keenly. He and Jermaine were so close, he felt he was losing his best friend.’