Post by Admin on Jul 26, 2014 18:07:23 GMT -4
In 1963, at the age of five, Michael Jackson performs for the first time before an audience, namely a rendition of song “Climb Every Mountain” from the “Sound Of Music”, for his class at Garnett Elementary School in Gary, Indiana. The song is a hopeful ode to dreams coming to life. His performance moves many teachers to tears and he receives a standing ovation. Immediately after the performance, young Michael is invited into the Jackson brothers group as their lead singer. A lady from their neighborhood will suggest calling the group “The Jackson 5”.
On July 26, 1968, The Jackson 5 are officially signed to Motown Records, following a series of local won talent shows. Michael Jackson is 9 years old.
In July 28, 1971, the Jackson 5 perform a concert at Allen County War Memorial Colliseum, a 13,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The grounds immediately surrounding the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum display the anchor from World War II's USS Indiana battleship.
Michael Jackson’s fourth single, “Ben”, is released on July 12, 1972. The song was written for a film of the same name and tells the story of a young man and his pet rat friend. The response to the single is impressive, reaching the number 1 spot in the United States and Australia and number 7 in the U.K., and selling over 2 million copies. It becomes his first ever solo number 1 single, and he becomes the third youngest artist to have a number 1 hit at just fourteen years old.
Los Angeles Sentinel reports on November 22, 1973, that Chicago publishing firm, ‘Let’s Save The Children’, established in July, 1972, asserts that the Jackson 5 belong in a school textbook. The firm had brought out eight school books up until then, with rhymed stories and photographs of well known blacks such as the Jackson 5. “Most black children come to school feeling they are not going to succeed”, Helen King, the firm’s president offers. “School has almost become a place of punishment. If a first grader sees a book on The Jackson Five, he knows them. School’s not so horrible. There’s an element of trust.”, King says. A teacher’s guide, she continues, explains how to relate the text to lessons in geography, arithmetic, current events and culture, and that the textbook “wasn’t designed as a reading series, but (…) will stimulate an interest in reading.”
In a back issue of Harlem's Black newspaper, the “Amsterdam News”, a display commercial announcing a performance of the Brewery Puppet Troupe at the Space for Transnational Arts on November 29-30, 1974 is featured. ‘The Jackson 5 Meet Malcolm X’ - with puppets is “a comedy musical adventure chronicling through the art of puppetry the dancing and singing talents of the Jackson 5 and their encounter with one of the most important modern-day black leaders, Malcolm X”.
C......Just to name a few things about Michael
