michael jackson:
in search of neverland
by
Gloria Rhoads Berlin
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Gloria Rhoads Publications on Smashwords
In Search of Neverland
Copyright © 2010 by Gloria Rhoads Berlin
ISBN: eBook edition 978-0-615-36797-2
First Edition 2010
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Cover design by Will Berlin
Smashwords Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
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In Search of Neverland
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dedication
Dedicated to my son Will Berlin and my brothers Robert and Salvador Rios, my two sisters Lita Dvoynosoff and Alice Rios, and my nieces and nephews Renee Best, Annette, Daniel and Cheri Johnson, Jerry and Richard Rios, and Linda and Rudy Rios, and Linda and Rudy Rios, who live in Bergen, Norway.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The longer I live, the more wonderful people that I meet, and I would like to thank them for coming into my life.
Get ready now; I am taking you on the most exciting ride in the world.
God blessed me greatly with family and friends. I want to thank the following from the bottom of my heart for their encouragement, love and support in making my book come to life.
* My editor Jeanne McCafferty of Irish Cabrini Creative;
* My transcriber Maggie Shumaker, TM Creative Services;
* Eleanor Sturman, who recommended Jeanne;
* The multi-talented artist and singer Carmelita Pittman, the founder of Rose Breast Cancer Society who inspired me to finish this project;
* Traude Winik, Celebrity Society Press photographer;
* Maria Bravo, president of Legal Secretaries Association of Beverly Hills;
* My cousins, Eileen Passanisi, Anthony Passanisi, Deanna Mercurio, Jeanie Legaspi, and Danny, Bobby and Becky Anaya;
* Irwin Zucker, founder of the Book Publicists of Southern California, Gloria Pall, membership chairman, and her son Jefferson Kane; and
* Dr. Sheila Calhoun, who has been a superb friend as one of the founders of the Southern California Motion Picture Council.
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Prologue
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach called it “the sale of the century”. It was the real estate transaction that made Michael Jackson the owner of what would come to be called Neverland Ranch, and I am the realtor who made that sale. This story is about Michael Jackson, whom I first met when he was in his teens, and how I helped the King of Pop make his dreams come true and acquire his dream home, Neverland Ranch.
Michael Jackson was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known in my entire life. He was certainly not the Wacko Jacko portrayed in the media, and it’s unfortunate that he was so unfairly described. He was so thoughtful and decisive as a client, I’m really thrilled to have been his real estate broker. He is the only celebrity client that really knew exactly what he wanted: where, when and how.
I hope that this exclusive telling of my friendship with Michael Jackson and the extraordinary adventure that was the search for Neverland will reveal what his true intentions were, and it is my hope you will enjoy this book about Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.
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Chapter One
The Jackson 5 As Encino Neighbors
Can you imagine taking your kid to the laundromat and while you’re doing the laundry, he begins dancing, singing, performing for everyone there, and they are all applauding and singing with him? Amazing! That’s what Michael Jackson did when he was just a young child. He developed his talent just by dancing and singing to any rhythm he heard, even the rhythm of a washing machine. Michael was born to be a star.
I can still see Michael as a teenager, standing beside his mother Katherine, and knocking on our front door at 3747 Sapphire Drive. The family had recently moved to Encino, and the Jackson 5 was still enjoying tremendous success. Mother and son extended a personal invitation to us to visit the Jehovah’s Temple where Katherine was a member.
#
From the desk of
Will Berlin
I went to grade school with Randy Jackson at the neighborhood Lanai Road School. I always looked forward to recess, and I would usually run into Randy within the first five minutes out on the playground. Sometimes we’d play handball or tether ball; other times we would just walk and run around the playground.
I’ll never forget walking around the playground with Randy and asking him about the Jackson 5 cartoon that was played on Saturday mornings in the 70s. We were talking about cartoon characters that we liked and giggling and being kids when I turned to Randy and said, “Hey, I saw that cartoon the Jackson 5 on Saturday morning over the weekend. I didn’t see you in the cartoon. Are you in it?”
Randy shook his head and didn’t answer me. I said, “Well, are you in the cartoon or not?” Then Randy replied, “I will be soon. I sing and play the bongos well.” At this point, were both about 9 years of age and wasn’t until his early teens that Randy joined the Jackson 5 as a member of the band.
After school was over, sometimes we would walk to Gelson’s Market, and I would walk with Randy to his house. We would play basketball in their driveway – that is, until my mom would see me in front of their house or in the driveway, then pick me up and take me home.
#
I was surprised by their visit, although I had already been to their home on nearby Hayvenhurst Avenue. My son, Will Berlin, would hide there after school on a regular basis so he could play basketball with Randy Jackson instead of attending sessions with his private tutor. A few times I had driven up and down their long driveway, calling for him.
That’s how Katherine Jackson and I first met. She walked to my car and whispered, “He’s over there hiding behind those bushes.” She smiled at me and introduced herself and we began to chat about our children and their education. Since their celebrity status meant that the Jackson boys would not be able to attend public school, Katherine and Joe had enrolled five of their six sons into Cal Prep School, and the youngest, Randy, into the Lanai Road school, the same school my son Will attended.
#
Often I saw Michael at Gelson’s, one of our Los Angeles area supermarkets, since he went there daily. That was his big fresh air exercise, walking to and from the market. We would run into each other there sometimes: he would be shopping in the morning and I would frequently stop in after my morning walk in the park.
That’s where he sometimes played games of and hide and seek with me. Michael would suddenly appear, tag me that I was ‘it’, and then break away, run around and disappear. Often I thought he had left the market, but suddenly he would appear, poke me with his finger on my shoulder to tell me that he won the game of hide and seek because I couldn’t find him anywhere.
There was quite a string of celebrities that came to Gelson’s Market. Tony Randall and Sally Field would shop there some days, and O. J. Simpson would stop in after running with Al Collingsworth, just to buy orange juice, even through he lived up the hill in Bel Air Crest, south of Mulholland Boulevard. Michael was very shy so he didn’t really have any conversations with his fellow celebrities. He would just answer “Hi” when greeted by his peers.
#
When he was about 24 years old, Michael was given a big shiny black and gold Harley Davidson in return for a favor he had done for someone. The motorcycle was a fancy one, worth about $35,000, and it was placed in the foyer of the house on Hayvenhurst, right below the stairway.
Katherine had invited me to come to the house, and when I arrived, she proudly showed me the motorcycle. Katherine and I started talking and I could tell she was concerned about his safety since Michael wasn’t that experienced at motorcycle riding, except for some dirt bike riding up in the mountains.
“Well, maybe he shouldn’t do it,” I said. There is always a risk any time you get on a motorcycle, and one of our neighbors in Encino had just recently lost a young man in a motorcycle accident. I told Katherine, “It’s very dangerous for anyone to drive a motorcycle in this town with so much traffic.”
That same evening Michael said he was going to take a short spin on his motorcycle. I remember him at this time as very handsome, strong and healthy looking, and full of adventure.
Later on, I went over to the music studio where Michael was working. He was writing some new lyrics and creating new arrangements for a song. When he was finished, I visited with him and he told me was going to ride the motorcycle.
“Are you sure? I don’t think you should risk it in this town. There’s too much traffic.”
Michael replied, “I ride it very early in the morning, when there is little or no traffic. Sometimes when I ride, I go around the park.”
The park he was referring to is the 2,500 acre Encino Glen Park, where residents can either walk, run or bike on a six-and-a-half mile trail. Joseph and Katherine used to stroll around the Encino Glen Park, sometimes with a few of their sons and daughters, most frequently with Jermaine, but rarely with Michael. The one who made the most use of the park was Jermaine. I would frequently see him running when I walked around the park
I said, “Michael, now you’re sure you want to do this? You need to take care of yourself.”
He said, “Well, I want to feel the wind. I need to fill my lungs up with fresh air. And I like the purity of the park, the smells in the park.”
“Well, you know best what to do,” I replied.
Eventually, he persuaded me to take a spin with him. I reluctantly got on the back of the bike, and put my arms around Michael’s chest. Suddenly, he zoomed off at such a speed that I was holding on for dear life and screaming like crazy. That only made Michael laugh – and go faster! We sped around the park, me scared out of my wits but loving it in a way, Michael going faster and faster and enjoying the whole ride.
Of course, he returned me safely to where we had begun, but what a ride!
After that day, I understand he only rode the motorcycle about six times. Everyone was concerned for his safety because he really had to be careful. Michael Jackson was insured by his record label and by the companies that employed him to make television commercials. If he took unnecessary risks, their policies might be cancelled.
#
Elizabeth Taylor may have been the first to call Michael Jackson the King of Pop. However, long before she ever called him that, I coined a name for him when we started talking about his Grammy award, and his aspirations to become a movie star. I called him the Pop Super Mega Star and he liked that very much. He used to scream with joy and delight and twirl around and say, “Thank you” and bow.
Michael was so funny and so much fun to be around. I’m glad he was able to share his great talent and music and his moonwalking with the entire world. He did a lot of globetrotting all over the world to reach out to all of the people that were his fans. He wanted to make everybody happy and bring joy with love into their hearts.
Even the achievement of winning all those Grammys did not super-inflate his ego. He always appeared down to earth, in some ways to the point of humility. He did not put on any airs. He dressed very simply and appeared to me in all ways to be healthy and happy.
However, Michael did thrive on all kinds of publicity, regardless of whether it was good or bad. That’s something I became aware of. He didn’t really care as long as his name was in the news or in the newspapers, like when the story started circulating about him buying the Elephant Man’s bones. I said, “Oh, my God, you’ve been violated. No one should have known you bought the Elephant Man’s bones. That was a private purchase that you made.”
“Why do you keep saying I bought the Elephant Man’s bones? I’m not crazy. You know that. I already told you many times I didn’t do it.”
I said, “Okay, Michael I will never bring up the subject of the Elephant Man’s bones again.”
He laughed, “That was the craziest publicity piece they ever invented so far, the critics, the snoops and all those clowns that make up stories.”
#
Michael Jackson was always looking for ways to do wonderful things for people. In the early 1980s, I sent him a letter telling him about a black family whose property I had listed for sale right near the Coliseum. The 87-year-old father, who had severe heart disease, had three younger children ranging in age from 16 to 19, still struggling to get through their schooling. This elderly father took care of them as best he could. He sent them to school and prepared meals for them. They helped with house cleaning chores and did their own laundry. (There was no mother in the house; the drug-addicted white mother had committed suicide a few years earlier.)
I told Michael Jackson the story and I told him that the 50-year-old nephew had taken over this caring for the teenagers when the father died at Good Samaritan Hospital. They were about to lose their home to foreclosure; even though I had the property listed for sale, no one was buying it. I felt compelled to get help for them so they could continue to attend school.
Michael telephoned me after receiving my letter. “Well, I want to help,” he said, “so give me the address and the telephone numbers.” Michael then sent someone to visit them with gifts. He talked to the 50-year-old nephew who was taking care of these younger children after his uncle had passed away.
Michael kept the house payments up so it wouldn’t be seized through foreclosure and could remain on the market until it sold. It went into probate for open bidding by potential buyers because the elderly man did not leave a will or a trust for his children. Michael sent someone down there to keep bidding up the price. Finally the property was sold, and the children went to live with the cousin at his apartment. Michael arranged for them to get a larger 3-bedroom apartment so that this gentleman could take care of his niece and two nephews. These three teenagers graduated high school and went to college while staying with their cousin.
Since there wasn’t even burial insurance, Michael also helped to pay for their father’s burial, a man he had never met. And, of course, he continued helping these three teenagers until they graduated from high school and went to college on special grants.
I hope this provides insight into the charitable, warm-hearted Michael that reached out to help these children. His generosity touched my heart.
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Chapter Two
An Amazing Journey Begins
Sometime after this episode of Michael’s touching generosity toward this family, he called me and told me he wanted a place of his own. He told me he remembered a letter I had previously written him offering my services as a realtor who specialized in selling ranches.
Michael was in rehearsals, preparing to go on the Bad World Tour, which was to be his first solo tour, when we began the search for Neverland. He was then a 27-year-old man who had actually never lived on his own; he was still living in Encino with his parents and three of his siblings: Janet, LaToya and Randy. He had lived under his parents’ wings all his life, even while touring and performing as part of the Jackson 5, and really never had his own place.
Michael had always wanted an ideal place where he could work and be his own person and not have to be in the arms of the parents and the other siblings. He wanted independence: his own and for the family to become independent of him as well — more or less to cut the cord, which had really never been cut.