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On the death of Michael Jackson and three other baby-boomer icons
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At the peak of Michael Jackson’s popularity in the mid-1980s, a newspaper editorial cartoon lampooned New York Post-style tabloid news with a mock headline: “Michael Jackson, Madonna, six million others die in nuclear blast.” The cartoon only slightly exaggerated the American tendency to elevate celebrity superstars to royalty, or even to deity.
During the two weeks since Michael Jackson died a media frenzy has provided a day-by-day update of his death. The coverage culminated on July 7th with the MJ memorial service, televised on every network in the afternoon and then repeated and endlessly analyzed in prime time. His death has shown just how powerful the big carnival of tabloid and TV news can be running at full tilt.
Like Elvis The King’s Graceland mansion, Jackson the King of Pop’s sprawling 2600-acre Neverland ranch may soon become a tourist Mecca. Further, like the exhaustive news coverage of Elvis Presley’s death in 1977, coverage of Jackson’s demise overshadowed more-serious news events. It also took the spotlight away from the passing of other show-business luminaries. For instance, Groucho Marx died on the same day as Elvis; Farrah Fawcett died on the same as MJ, and longtime Johnny Carson sidekick and TV pitchman Ed McMahon died two just days earlier.
Following are capsule obituaries of four baby-boomer pop-culture icons who died recently. The obits focus on traits and talents that placed each personality into the pop-culture pantheon.
Michael Jackson, who died June 25 at the age of 50, didn’t invent the moonwalk but he probably did it better than any other dancer. Until MJ took his turn, the dance was commonly called “the backslide” and was recorded as early as 1955 in a performance by tap dancer Bill Bailey. The French mime Marcel Marceau used it throughout his career, and James Brown “moonwalked” in the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers.”
However, it was Michael Jackson’s moonwalk on the "Motown 25" anniversary TV show in 1983 that became an iconic moment in pop-culture history. The “King of Pop’s” greatest vocal performance may have been 15 years earlier, in 1969, when the 11-year-old child prodigy belted out the song “I Want You Back” while singing with the The Jackson 5. Jackson’s singing on this first Jackson 5 Motown hit is simply extraordinary. The Jackson 5 went on to record a string of No. 1 hits with Motown in 1969 and 1970, including “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.” As a “grownup,” Jackson fame rested on two landmark accomplishments: his 1982 Thriller (which remains the best-selling album of all time) and his moonwalk.
Beyond his early moments in the sun, Michael Jackson's next best performance may have been on a 1991 episode of “The Simpsons,” for which he wrote a birthday song for eight-year-old Lisa. The show, blocked from syndication for years because of legal issues, was aired on Fox in prime time on July 5, 2009. Ironically, Jackson’s singing for the episode was actually performed by Kipp Lennon, an impersonator, and the youngest member of the Lennon Sisters family.
Fred Travalena, an impressionist known as “Mr. Everybody” because of his ability to mimic so many celebrities, died June 28 after a seven-year battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Travalena could impersonate hundreds of stars, including Michael Jackson. The Bronx, N.Y.-born and Long Island-raised Travalena was a regular on talk shows for several decades, including “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” “Live With Regis & Kathy Lee,” and “Late Night With David Letterman.”
Perhaps the second best-known impressionist in history, after Rich Little, Travalena could do an even wider range of impressions than Little including many iconic singers. Frank Sinatra once said, “If you like me, go see Fred Travalena. He does me great.”
Farrah Fawcett died on June 25, the same day as Michael Jackson, at the age of 62. Most men, and some observant women, who grew up in the 1970s know why the iconic 1976 Farrah Fawcett pinup poster sold more than 12 million copies to became the best-selling pinup-girl poster of all time—eclipsing Betty Grable’s World War II pinup and Raquel Welch’s 1966 poster from the movie, “One Million Years B.C.”
The main reason Farrah’s photo adorned the bedroom walls of millions of high school boys wasn’t her free-spirited tousled-mane hairdo (which 1970s moms called “unkempt” but a whole generation of 1980s “mall chicks” made their own) or her blazingly white, almost predatory-looking teeth. (The main reason rhymes with “ripple”). To best view the stunning fresh-faced beauty of the young Farrah, it’s perhaps best to watch her on such late 1960s/early 1970s TV episodes as “The Dating Game,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” and “The Partridge Family.”
The most famous of baby-boomer TV pitchmen, Billy Mays died on June 28 at the age of 50. Known as the “Infomercial King,” Mays followed in the footsteps of the inventor/pitchman Ron Popeil, who hawked Ronco’s Veg-O-Matic, Popeil Pocket Fisherman, and a raft of other products on 1970s and 1980s TV commercials. A consummate pitchman, Mays’ style was more aggressive, more “in your face” than Popiel’s—or, for that matter, Ed McMahon's.
Like Popiel, Mays seemed honest and likable, and gave TV viewers the impression that he believed in the products he pitched. His trademarks were his booming voice, his intensity, and his black beard. Products Mays pitched included OxiClean, Orange Glo, and other cleaning, home-based, and maintenance products.
