(3 of 5)
There was great and justifiable griping about the ticket sales: under a single-price policy, $30 was the going rate for the best seat in the house as well as the worst (seat location was to be assigned by computer), and fans could buy no fewer and no more than four tickets. At $120 a pop, that is a fair hunk out of anybody's allowance. "He must think that we're as rich as he is," said 21-year-old Jackie Colson, a lifeguard in Florida. "This is Jacksonville. This ain't Hollywood." The promoter tried to get local papers to run ads containing mail-order ticket coupons gratis, as if the dailies would be performing a public service, but some journalists balked. "It absolutely reeks of arrogance," said David Easterly, publisher of the Atlanta Constitution. "I wonder how much the guy and the people around him think of his fans." One eleven-year-old fan, Ladonna Jones of Dallas, dashed off a letter to Michael that she passed along to the Dallas Morning News: "How could you, of all people, be so selfish?"How could you of all people, be so selfish?"
"He." "The guy." "You." No one thought to call out Tito, or dress down Marlon, never mind get heavy with the promoters. Michael, for all his fans and for most of the public at large, is the centerpiece of the tour, so last week he took center stage at a brief press conference in Kansas City. Dressed in spangled glove, dark shades, sequined band jacket and one of the red ceremonial sashes that make him look like a cultural ambassador from Sesame Street, he announced in a voice frayed by nerves that he had seen Ladonna Jones' letter. Therefore, he was asking the promoters to figure out another, fairer way to sell tickets, and he was donating his tour earnings to charity. He took no questions from the floor, just hotfooted it out of the place and back, properly, to where he belonged, waiting for the sheltering security of performing onstage.
Michael seemed very much discomfited by the necessity of making such an appearance and such a statement: a funkified Ariel flushed for a moment from the enchanted woods to say a few words that might bring the magic back again. There was a basic misunderstanding here that Michael must have appreciated but that got past most of the others assembled. If it is to be found anywhere, the magic is in the music. The opening concert was a reminder of that. All its panoply and pizazz suggested that the debates, the controversy, the heat and the misunderstandings were side issues that could be blown away by solid showmanship, no matter the price of the ticket.
Michael's brothers have a lot on the line as well. Jermaine—often Michael's ally when family business comes up for a vote—has carved out a solid solo career for himself, but for all the others, this tour probably represents their best shot at the big glory. Each of the six brothers stands to make millions by the time the tour is scheduled to end in November. (Jackie, suffering from a knee injury and sidelined from the tour, will nevertheless have a share of the revenues.)