La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family

CHAPTER THREE: THE FAMILY ACT (Part II)

Adolescence proved awkward for Michael too, He sprouted from just over five feet to five feet ten. Overnight, it seemed, he went from a cute little boy to a gangly teenager. Certain body parts outgrew others, and now Michael was the object of merciless ribbing, especially from his father. "Look at that big nose on your face," Joseph used to taunt. "I don't know where you got that from... Bignose." Given the opportunity for revenge at last, my brothers chipped in with their own insults, but none was so mean-spirited and cutting as Joseph's. Michael was terribly upset, always better at dishing out teasing than taking it.

Then, Mother's earlier prophecy came true: he developed a severe case of acne. Of course, most afflicted teenagers feel self-conscious, so just imagine being a star whose face adorns magazine covers, T-shirts, and lunch pails. My brother was devastated. Suzanne dePasse and her cousin Tony Jones, also a Motown staffer, took him from one high-priced dermatologist to another, but every new treatment only exacerbated the problem. For the next two and a half years Michael endured countless ineffective regimens.

His personality changed. Before, he'd been outgoing and comfortable with strangers; now he withdrew into himself. My brother wouldn't talk to outsiders, and if he did, he looked down or to the side, to hide his face. He didn't want his picture taken. During years when he should have been going out, meeting girls, he stayed at home. My heart ached for him. "Mike, you shouldn't let this bother you so much," I told him. "It will pass."

"I can't stand it, La Toya, I really can't." He was in utter despair. "There's got to be a way to make it go away."

Michael changed his diet drastically, eating only pure, natural foods. Although he finally outgrew the skin condition by his sixteenth birthday, he never recovered from its effects. Once the most sociable and effervescent of my brothers, he was now painfully shy, something I don't think he'll ever over-come.

In 1972 Michael invaded the Top 20 seven times, four as a member of the Jackson 5 ("Sugar Daddy," "Little Bitty Pretty One," "Lookin' Through the Windows" and "Corner of the Sky") and three as a soloist: his spirited remake of Bobby Day's 1958 smash "Rockin' Robin," "I Wanna Be Where You Are," and the heartfelt ballad "Ben," which went to Number One. A lot of people thought "Ben" - an ode to a rat-bizarre, but not Michael. To him, no creature is repulsive, not even a rodent. (In fact, he used to come to dinner with his pet white mice tucked in his shirt pocket. I remember stuffing tow els under my bedroom door at night to keep escapees from crawling onto my bed.)

That same year Motown launched Jermaine's solo career with a moderate hit, "That's How Love Goes," followed by his Top 10 cover of Shep and the Limelites' tender "Daddy's Home." But after that, the brothers' record sales, both individually and as a group, started slipping. "Hallelujah Day," released in 1973, was the Jackson 5's lowest-charting single to date; both it and the follow-up, "Get It Together," ran out of steam at Number Twenty-eight. The Get It Together album barely struggled into the Top 100. Michael's only single of the year, "With a Child's Heart," stopped at Number Fifty; Jermaine's "You're in Good Hands," at Number Seventy-nine; and Jackie Jackson, my oldest brother's promising debut album disappeared without a trace.

What was happening to the Jackson 5? (Actually 6, as baby-faced eleven-year-old Randy now joined his brothers on stage, flailing away on congas.) The guys felt, and Joseph concurred, Motown wasn't giving them the right material. They wanted to record their own songs, which they'd been honing in the Hayvenhurst studio for two years, but the label forced the group to sing only what its staff writers churned out. Berry Gordy, the record industry's Henry Ford, had built his empire on assembly-line production, with writers writing and singers singing. Despite Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye having recently proved successful exceptions to this rule, Berry wouldn't grant the Jackson 5 that same opportunity.