Free Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson by Darwin Porter Page B

immediate reaction, but friends reported that he was almost
in a state of shock, particularly when he read that Disney preferred to seduce
young boys.
    Someone suggested that Michael couldn't believe that the one artist
responsible for bringing so much joy to young boys all over the world could
also be capable of molesting them. At this point in his life, Michael could not
have known that the same charges leveled against Disney would one day be
brought against him.
    Michael's watching of endless cartoons, his fondness for pets, and his silly
little pranks, such as locking his brothers out of their hotel rooms without their
underwear, were relatively harmless.
    Many young performers pursued more dangerous games. At the start of
the 1970s, Michael was often compared to the ill-fated young singer, Frankie
Lymon, nicknamed "The Golden Throat." He was the first black teenage
singing idol, and his success had inspired The Jackson 5 back in Gary.
    In the 1950s Lymon was the lead singer for "The Teenagers," a popular
group at the time, scoring such hits as
"Goody, Goody." By the time he was
only thirteen, Lymon could travel anywhere in America and hear his own voice
on the jukebox singing "Why Do Fools
Fall in Love?"
    Walt Disney
    Michael's adolescent voice in the
early 70s evoked Lymon's soprano
sounds. But their lives would take different turns as Lymon succumbed to drug
addiction. At the age of eighteen, his
career was all but over. In 1968, and only
twenty-five years old, Lymon was found
dead from a heroin overdose in New
York, a syringe by his bed.

    When he died, Lymon was survived
by three wives. A polygamist, he never
divorced any of his wives and
remained married to three women up
to his death.
    Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
    When he heard of Lymon's death,
Michael vowed that, "That will never
happen to me." At this early age, he
saw how drugs or alcohol could
destroy promising careers. It is not
known if he was also familiar with
how a sex scandal could destroy a
career as it had done with silent screen
comedian Fatty Arbuckle and many
other performers.
    Instead of acquiring a drug habit,
Michael remained deeply religious and committed to his faith as a Jehovah's
Witness. He spent a lot of time reading the Bible. When he wasn't doing that,
or rehearsing, he escaped into a fantasy world of cartoons or motion pictures
that definitely carried the family seal of approval.
    When Joe built a 32-seat screening room onto the 22-room Encino mansion, Michael began to spend hours there watching films that an eight-yearold could enjoy. He was addicted to Shirley Temple movies, and he saw The
Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland thirty-five times, little knowing that one day
he'd be cast in the black version of this classic. He also began to collect animals as pets, and was particularly fond of snakes. Both he and Jermaine
owned their own boa constrictors. "Mine is bigger than yours," Michael
reportedly told his brother Jermaine, referring to his pet snake. "Dream on,
girl!" Jermaine said. "I'm the best hung of all the Jackson brothers. Just ask
any gal."
    As the Jackson coffer filled with gold, Katherine no longer insisted that
her children perform chores around the house. Servants began to appearmaids to keep the place clean, chauffeurs to drive them around Los Angeles
(often to the recording studio), gardeners to tend the landscaped grounds and
feed the animals, and cooks to prepare their favorite foods. Even though
Michael had switched to a healthier diet, his siblings still preferred the soul
food that Katherine had once fed them back in Gary.
    Because fans held the Encino property under siege virtually day and night,
the Jacksons had walls, iron gates, and police dogs to keep them out. Even so,
the most ingenious fans found ways of getting onto the property. Occasionally,
they even managed to invade the Jackson living quarters, and had to be forcibly ejected by armed security