MUSINGS BY JOAN #21
A friend of my daughter is considering having a bumper sticker made that reads
“Free Michael Jackson. . .Bury him already.” She may have a point. The coverage has certainly been over the top
But then, again, the music business has always been over the top. I couldn’t believe all the fans standing around outside the Jackson home, and then I remembered back to the early 40’s when my sister and I would skip school and take the train to NYC so we could stand in line at the Paramount Theater with all the other bobbysoxers to see, Live! On stage! Frank Sinatra!
I can’t remember the movie that was playing, but in order to see Frankie, you had to sit through the main feature, the Pathe News, a couple of shorts and a cartoon. The stage show would come on between the features, and we would sit in the theater the entire day just to yell and scream and swoon when he finally came on. Actually, you could never hear a word he was singing, because everyone was screaming so loud.
One day our aunt, who lived in NYC, invited us to go to a war bond rally that was held at Bonwit Teller department store on 5th Ave. The big draw was that Sinatra was scheduled to make an in-person appearance. My sister and I were really excited to be this close up to our idol and when they announced that if you purchased a $25 war bond you could come up and kiss Frankie, we both rushed up, gave our father’s name and address, bought two bonds, and collected our kisses. Don’t ask what our father had to say when we got home. We protested we were being patriotic, but he didn’t buy that story for one second.
Other than Sinatra, I can’t remember being a true “fan” of any other singer or movie star. I did have a friend for many years where the sole basis for our friendship was that we kept a Sinatra scrapbook together when we were 12 years old.. Twenty-or-so years later, when my parents were packing up to move to Florida from their home in Mt. Vernon, NY where I grew up, I remember my mother calling me to plaintively ask “would it be all right if she threw out the scrapbook, or did I still want to keep it.”
In retrospect, I guess I was as rabid a fan of Frankie in those days as the Michael Jackson followers are today. We are talking the war years when it was patriotic to have a Victory Garden to grow your own vegetables and chickens to lay eggs. We had a chicken coop in our back yard with three hens. . .apparently I was studying King Arthur in school at the time, because our hens were named Lancelot, Rebecca and what else? Sinatra. I have no idea what happened to the birds when the war was over, but I can remember getting hysterical when my mother suggested that she cook them for dinner.
But back to MJ mania. . you have to be amazed at his longevity, if nothing else..When my 30 year old grandson was a little boy, he loved watching Michael on TV. When it was time for him to graduate from kindergarten, I bought him a Michael Jackson jacket, bright red with gold braid and epaulets, and a shiny white glove. He insisted on wearing it to the graduation ceremonies, and the photo on today’s blog was taken at that event. I believe he was the only Beth Am graduate so garbed that day.
He’ll probably kill me for this, but you gotta admit, he was adorable!
# # # #
Caption: Adam at 4 ½, doing his Michael Jackson imitation.
.
A friend of my daughter is considering having a bumper sticker made that reads
“Free Michael Jackson. . .Bury him already.” She may have a point. The coverage has certainly been over the top
But then, again, the music business has always been over the top. I couldn’t believe all the fans standing around outside the Jackson home, and then I remembered back to the early 40’s when my sister and I would skip school and take the train to NYC so we could stand in line at the Paramount Theater with all the other bobbysoxers to see, Live! On stage! Frank Sinatra!
I can’t remember the movie that was playing, but in order to see Frankie, you had to sit through the main feature, the Pathe News, a couple of shorts and a cartoon. The stage show would come on between the features, and we would sit in the theater the entire day just to yell and scream and swoon when he finally came on. Actually, you could never hear a word he was singing, because everyone was screaming so loud.
One day our aunt, who lived in NYC, invited us to go to a war bond rally that was held at Bonwit Teller department store on 5th Ave. The big draw was that Sinatra was scheduled to make an in-person appearance. My sister and I were really excited to be this close up to our idol and when they announced that if you purchased a $25 war bond you could come up and kiss Frankie, we both rushed up, gave our father’s name and address, bought two bonds, and collected our kisses. Don’t ask what our father had to say when we got home. We protested we were being patriotic, but he didn’t buy that story for one second.
Other than Sinatra, I can’t remember being a true “fan” of any other singer or movie star. I did have a friend for many years where the sole basis for our friendship was that we kept a Sinatra scrapbook together when we were 12 years old.. Twenty-or-so years later, when my parents were packing up to move to Florida from their home in Mt. Vernon, NY where I grew up, I remember my mother calling me to plaintively ask “would it be all right if she threw out the scrapbook, or did I still want to keep it.”
In retrospect, I guess I was as rabid a fan of Frankie in those days as the Michael Jackson followers are today. We are talking the war years when it was patriotic to have a Victory Garden to grow your own vegetables and chickens to lay eggs. We had a chicken coop in our back yard with three hens. . .apparently I was studying King Arthur in school at the time, because our hens were named Lancelot, Rebecca and what else? Sinatra. I have no idea what happened to the birds when the war was over, but I can remember getting hysterical when my mother suggested that she cook them for dinner.
But back to MJ mania. . you have to be amazed at his longevity, if nothing else..When my 30 year old grandson was a little boy, he loved watching Michael on TV. When it was time for him to graduate from kindergarten, I bought him a Michael Jackson jacket, bright red with gold braid and epaulets, and a shiny white glove. He insisted on wearing it to the graduation ceremonies, and the photo on today’s blog was taken at that event. I believe he was the only Beth Am graduate so garbed that day.
He’ll probably kill me for this, but you gotta admit, he was adorable!
# # # #
Caption: Adam at 4 ½, doing his Michael Jackson imitation.
.
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