Get Thee to a Manager!

I'm not the one who paid $1,375 for this item when it was auctioned by Julien's last year, but I do find the scan of it interesting. It's the earliest known business document signed by Michael Jackson, from April 10, 1968. The contract is for an appearance by "Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five" at an after-prom banquet for Thomas Edison Junior-Senior High School in East Gary, Indiana. The prom took place on Friday, April 26, 1968, and the banquet was scheduled for 12:30-3:00 (presumably a.m., though it doesn't specify). The group was paid $150 for their performance, $25 up front and $125 on the night of the performance.

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the group is listed as "Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five." All these years we've been led to believe that Joe Jackson was livid when Diana Ross referred to the group that way on Motown at the Hollywood Palace back in the fall of 1969, as if it were the first time it had ever happened. Second, they performed at a high school prom -- a prom! This performance was sandwiched in between their first two appearances at the Apollo Theater. I would have thought Joe would find a prom performance beneath them at this time, but I suppose $150 is $150, no matter where you're performing.

But the thing I find most interesting is that the contract was signed by nine-year-old Michael, as the group's leader. And that Michael was the only one who signed on behalf of the group.


Never mind that he was a minor and his signature on a contract was worthless, at least from a legal standpoint. For that matter, all members of the Jackson 5 were minors in 1968, so the only one who could sign a binding contract was Joe Jackson. And as their manager, he should have signed it. This demonstrates how little business savvy Joe had, and how easy it would have been for people to take advantage of the group. No wonder Michael fired him as soon as he reached the age of majority.

Early Photo Clues

Two of the rarest photos in my collection are the ones you see here. They're rare not because you don't see them often -- you do. They're rare because they are originals, not reprints. Each one came with info that helps to date them.

The first is the easiest.


A date is written on the back: 4-25-68. That doesn't necessarily mean that that was the date the photo was taken. It just means it wasn't taken any later than that. This is clearly one of the earliest publicity photos of the Jackson 5.

The next one was taken more than a year later.


I was very excited when I won this one in an auction because it looked like an early autograph. But when I got it, I saw that it had been pre-signed, and since then I've seen others with this exact same signature.

Still, there were some nice surprises in store. It was still encased in its original presentation folder, stamped "Teddy Powell Productions, 200 W. 57th St. New York, NY." A bit of googling revealed that Teddy Powell was a well-known Black promoter. I'm not sure what his connection was to the Jackson family -- perhaps he had help book them into the Apollo Theater, or some other East Coast venues.

Even better, a fan had written the boys' names and ages on the inside of the folder:

Michael, 10
Marlon, 12
Jermaine, 14
Toriano, 15
Sigmund or Jackie, 18

This was before Motown had changed their ages, so it's possible to determine that the notation was made between May 4 and August 29, 1969. The only East Coast performance I know of between those dates was their appearance on Miss Black America in New York City on August 22, 1969. I can't find a connection between the two of them, but I'll keep looking for clues.

Concert Posters: Real or Fake?

I bought this concert poster a number of years ago from a 1968 performance by the Jackson Five (and a long-forgotten group named Gadget), and I'm pretty sure it's genuine for a number of reasons. First is the battered condition. I'm always suspicious of concert posters in pristine condition. This one shows normal wear and tear, as well as evidence it had been taped up in a store window at some point, as each corner has marks where the paper has been pulled away when it was removed from display.


Second, the description of the Jackson 5 as a group is strong evidence of authenticity. They are cited as "Motown Recording Stars" as they often were in ads from 1968, even though they had not yet started recording for Motown. Most intriguing is the caption "with five musicians and three singers and dancers." The "three singers and dancers" were probably Michael, Marlon, and Jackie, and three of the musicians would have been Jermaine, Tito and Johnny. But who were the other two? I don't think Ronnie had joined the group yet., but even if he had, that still leaves one mystery musician.

Just for comparison, here's an example of a fake concert poster:


There is all kinds of evidence this is fake, the strongest being that Diana Ross had long since left the Supremes to pursue a solo career, not to mention the unlikelihood that she would have taken second billing to her protegees. And the fact that there are, like, a million of these posters for sale on eBay any given week also shows that it is being mass produced for sales to unsuspecting fans. Give me the stained, battered, unillustrated but authentic poster any day.

Bobby Taylor Discovers the Jackson 5

It's not news to fans that Bobby Taylor (leader of another Motown group, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers) discovered the Jackson 5 when he saw them performing at the Regal Theater in Chicago.


We all know the back story: Diana Ross got credit for the discovery because Berry Gordy asked her to "present" the Jackson 5 to the public, thereby launching their career and Ross's solo career in one fell swoop. Immediately -- and it may have had something to do with the language Motown used in their promotional materials, such as "the Jackson 5 were discovered by Diana Ross" -- the story began to circulate that Ross had discovered them while doing a benefit show for Mayor Richard Hatcher in Gary, Indiana. I suppose it was a more romantic story than the truth -- that they were performing on a gritty Chicago stage during a 10-night run when they were discovered by another struggling singer who just happened to have a recording contract and connections.

For years the story swirled around that it wasn't Diana Ross but Gladys Knight who discovered the Jackson 5. And sure enough Knight has gone on record saying that she had called the Motown office when she had seen the Jackson 5 on stage some months earlier and she suggested they might want to send someone down from Detroit to see them. But at the time she was new to the label and, by her own admission, didn't have much clout, so her suggestion was ignored. The Diana Ross discovery story stuck, even though many were suspicious of its veracity.

I always thought the truth came out about Bobby Taylor's role with getting the group to Motown in the 1988 documentary, Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues. During an interview, Marlon sets the record straight by telling us that it was Bobby Taylor who had discovered them. I always thought that was the first time Taylor was given credit. that is, until I found this article in the New York Amsterdam News from August 20, 1975:

Mystery Song?

When I was going through back issues of the Chicago Defender yesterday, I came across this curious notice in the July 10, 1968, issue. It announces an upcoming ten-day appearance by the Jackson Five at the Regal Theater beginning July 12, and mentions that they will be playing their hit song, "We'll Always Love You." To my knowledge, this was not a song they released with Steeltown and whether they ever recorded such a song with them is unknown. We do know that the Jacksons' six-month contract with Steeltown had just run out at the end of June 1968, and their manager/father had decided not to renew, much to the chagrin of Steeltown's owner, Gordon Keith, who always felt the Jacksons abandoned him just as their careers were beginning to take off. Could this have been a planned second single from Steeltown that never saw the light of day?

To add to the mystery, the Jackson Five used to sign their 8 x 10 glossy photos with the inscription "We'll always love you, The Jackson Five." But which came first -- the inscription or the song title? And was it ever even a song? Or was it just an error made by a busy caption writer? The chase continues...

Jackson 5 at the Apollo, May 24-30, 1968

Exactly 42 years ago today, the Jackson 5 were half-way through a one-week engagement at the famous Apollo Theater in New York City, as a supporting act for headliner Etta James. This was actually the Jackson 5's second appearance at the Apollo. They had first appeared as the victors in the famous Amateur Night at the Apollo a few months earlier in February. They proved so popular that they were invited back for a paying gig.

This ad and the accompanying brief article was taken from Harlem's newspaper, The Amsterdam News, May 18, 1968. They were such unknowns at that time that the article gives their name as the "Jive Five."

Mystery Photo

Here's a rare photo of the Jackson 5 that looks like it was taken in early 1968, based on their heights and the lengths of their afros. They're wearing matching stage costumes so this may have been taken backstage before or after a performance. And is that the edge of Joe Jackson to the left of Jackie?

The stage costumes themselves may offer the biggest clue. They are dashikis, unlike any other costumes I've ever seen the Jackson 5 wear, especially pre-Motown, when they were a bit more conservative and formal in their apparel. They are similar in style to the ones the actors wore in The Jacksons: An American Dream when they performed in Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. I wonder if perhaps this photo may have been taken at that time, as a remembrance of that historic performance? They performed there in February 1968, so the timing would be right. But unless someone comes forward with the inside scoop, I suppose we'll never know for sure.