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Michael Jackson's Rosebud
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There is a story that has haunted me since the death of Michael Jackson. Supposedly when he was a boy he saw children on a playground from a recording studio. He just wanted to go over and play, but he had to go into the studio and record.
In Orson Wells's film Citizen Kane the fabulously wealthy Kane died a broken man, alone, bald, and in virtual seclusion. His final words before his death were Rosebud. A reporter in the film was determined to find out what the words meant and set out to interview people who knew Kane the best.
He made his way through Kane's life and we see the tragedy of the man who had it all but lost something along the way. We have had those reporters wading through Michael Jackson's life now. People who claimed he was the greatest entertainer who ever lived like Gordy Woods of Motown. Gladys Knight who said he was a sad man. Brooke Shields who said he was just a kid who wanted to have fun when she was just a kid. The reporters kept digging all through the night.
In Kane's life the reporter found his business associate who said yes he was rich man, but anyone could make a lot of money, if all they wanted to do was make a lot of money. His best friend who Kane turned on said Charley Kane was a man who nobody really understood--least of all Charley Kane. His lover at the end was a showgirl who ended up in a strip joint--a woman he never really loved. So the reporter trudged on to the people who knew him at the end of his life, always asking, did they know what Rosebud meant?
Michael Jackson life ended with doctors and assistants. The media is still digging. Reports that he was bald and his skin paper white and his weight one hundred and twenty pounds compound the mystery. A nurse said all he wanted to do was sleep. Reports of needle tracks on his arms by the police give us a man who was depending on drugs to sleep and to get going in the morning. His Neverland Ranch, his personal playground was in hock--we have heard he was a man three hundred and fifty million in debt.
The reporter looking for the meaning of Rosebud finally ends up in Kane's haunting castle of artifacts, cold rooms, and gloomy isolation. He admits he will never know what the words really meant. They begin dismantling the Kane castle, throwing random things into a giant fire. Michael Jackson's memorial has ended and his casket has gone to a mysterious place for burial. The final scene in Citizen Kane is that of a boyhood sled being thrown into the fire. As the flames envelope the sled we see Rosebud on the running boards. It is the last time Charley Kane was truly happy.
William Hazelgrove writes in Ernest Hemingway's attic. His latest book is Rocket Man
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