Michael Jackson’s 45th Birthday Party:
The Rest of the Story
The party guests were very diverse: young blond women with infants slung on their hips married to skinny 60-something Larry David clones with wire-rimmed glasses; a middle-aged real estate developer from San Francisco who told the story of how he surprised his wife with tickets to Neverland; a half-dozen matrons who were employees or volunteers for the charities who were going to be presented with a big check by Michael Jackson later that day; and then the never-ending supply of beautiful 20-year-olds who worked their way in to the party and got to stay after they were off-duty. Every kind of person imaginable, but no pre-teens. Whatever may or may not have happened at Neverland, the chilling effect was there already, even before Michael was indicted weeks later and arraigned in January, 2004. The matter would take more than a year to finally get to trial.
Food served in the big tent at lunch and dinner was plentiful and delicious — a marked departure from the fabulous, but ultimately junky, treats available around the ranch. The salad greens were fresh and crispy, marked with gleaming peppers, legumes, onions, nuts and cheeses; the beef had been marinated to perfect tenderness, seared on the outside and moist everywhere else; the chicken was as sinfully rich as a dessert and the real dessert came in many forms of cheese, chocolate and pastries with fruit, piled on layers of trays, straining the legs of the food station and its attendants.
There were hours of eating and walking, listening to music and walking, playing one-on-one at the outdoor half basketball court with the lighted sign that kept score and walking, watching the Las Vegas fight and walking. Finally, word went through the crowd that Michael would make an appearance in the other tent closest to the house where there was a little stage. It was further rumored that beer and wine available to those over 21. Though that did not materialize.
Around 9 o’clock, Michael Jackson made an appearance. He was with a number of his aides, a radio personality from a Los Angeles station and the matrons from the sponsoring organizations crammed onto the tiny stage in the back of the tent. In front of the stage, there were a group of children, purposely brought in for the moment, who were singing songs to Michael, just the way the school kids sang to him when he visited Gary earlier that year.
Michael Jackson didn’t sing, he just listened. He loved it. And when the radio personality announced that the celebration was Michael Jackson’s 45th birthday party, the 500 people in the tent burst into song. A few minutes later after the presentation of a cake full of candles, the other adults on stage goaded Michael Jackson into a food fight. Once the cake was flying, a tall, grey-haired men who looked exactly like Bill Clinton, but talked with an Australian accent, put his right arm around Jackson and led him to a car waiting by the tent to drive him back to the residence.
This aide would do exactly the same thing when he and Jackson got off a plane inside the Santa Barbara airport hangar just before Michael Jackson surrendered a couple months later. A few days after the party there was a video clip of the food fight that turned up on one of the entertainment news shows. It made the Gary folks wonder if Michael Jackson ever saw the videos his people made of the party guests thanking him for the nice time they had at Neverland.
The birthday party kind of fell apart after Michael Jackson left. It had been a long, hot day. There was supposed to be an auction at the artist’s tent and maybe another appearance by Jackson, but nobody in charge was around. The older guests in the crowd were poking at cell phones, trying to roust drivers, having some trouble with connections way out in rural Santa Barbara County, as they walked slowly towards the gate.
Roberto Britto and his band of merry men toddled off into the night, last seen headed for the first way station to pick up the steam engine train. Jewell Harris Sr. wanted to try to win the autographed Los Angeles Lakers basketball in the auction, but he gave up and decided it was time to leave. On the ride back, crowded together in the town car, nearly everyone fell asleep but the driver.
That was likely the last big party at Neverland. The raid by the Santa Barbara County police officers and evidence technicians was just weeks away. When that happened, Mayor Scott King was publicly indignant and remarked that it was “not inconceivable” that someone could be motivated to make false accusations against a person like Michael Jackson. “As a former prosecutor,” he said, “the accused is innocent until proven guilty.”
Mayor King said less-publicly that the behavior of the Santa Barbara prosecutors was outrageous, starting with the search of Neverland. Like most of his Gary constituents, King was highly suspicious of prosecutors’ motives. Besides, he pointed out, these were not law enforcement people from L.A., this was Santa Barbara and “these guys are rubes,” he said.
Michael Jackson was acquitted of all charges June 13, 2005 but did not return to Neverland ranch.
I drive down Broadway occasionally, when there’s a storm, or the Borman Expressway is at a standstill, or I just want to take the scenic route through downtown Gary to avoid construction. Then a Michael Jackson song comes on the radio and I am overcome by optimism and hope. And I am reminded how powerful his music is and I’m so grateful.
This happens to me way more often than you think it would. It happened yesterday as a matter of fact.
Michael Jackson’s music is on the radio constantly.
Endnote: I have never heard of any celebrity who was as kind and generous as Michael Jackson.
(Part 2 of 2)
