Thousands of people streamed into movie theaters and museums across the country Tuesday to share a communal experience remembering Michael Jackson.
With the funeral for the pop superstar, who died June 25 at age 50, closed to the public and only 17,000 seats available for the hundreds of thousands of fans who journeyed to Los Angeles for the public memorial and concert, many of Jackson’s fans turned to local gatherings.
Demand from the overflow in Los Angeles threatened to overwhelm the famous Mann Chinese Theater, near Jackson’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. At the request of Los Angeles police, the theater canceled its live feed, b ut in dozens of others theaters and museums across the country, Jackson’s fans joined with kindred spirits to celebrate the life of one of the biggest musical stars of the 20th century.
Three generations of Jackson fans gathered at the Alamo Theater in Austin, Texas.
“My mom’s here; my daughter is here,” said Jackie Westbrook, one of the first people to line up at the theater Tuesday morning. “Basically, everyone in my family would have come, but we don’t live in the same place, so we’re all making a connection by all going to see it at the same time.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland opened a Michael Jackson Memorial Wall, featuring never-before-seen memorabilia. It planned a candlelight vigil in the evening for Jackson, a rare two-time inductee — as a solo artist and with his brothers in the Jackson 5.
‘Sad ... to see him again this way’For many, the memorial was a final chance to say goodbye to an icon they first encountered as star-struck fans decades ago.
In New York, thousands gathered in Harlem to watch the memorial on a giant video screen at the State Office Building, chanting “Michael! Michael!” The celebration took place just a block from the historic Apollo Theater, where Jackson got his big break on Amateur Night.
Moses Harper of Harlem, a Jackson impersonator, teared up and hugged a friend as video of the hearse carrying Jackson’s casket was shown. Minutes later, Harper began dancing to Jackson’s version of “Ease on Down the Road”' from the musical “The Wiz.”
Jackson’s fans “miss him,” Harper said. “But there’s a lot to celebrate.”
“I saw him once,” said Marleen Booth, a nursing assistant in Charleston, W.Va., who joined the crowd at Marquee Cinemas. “It’s sad I have to see him again this way.”
Booth recalled that she, her sisters and a bunch of friends from the neighborhood were lucky enough to see the Jackson 5 at the old Charleston Civic Center way back in the 1960s.
“I remember them running on stage,” Booth said. “The place was packed with screaming fans.”
Booth skipped work to attend Tuesday’s showing, even though she said she risked losing her job.
“I could always get another job, if it came to that,” said Booth, who said she was disappointed not to have won one of the scarce tickets to the event itself in Los Angeles.
“It would have been worth it,” she said. “I guess this is the next best thing!”
Family friend throws open his restaurantAbout 600 people showed up at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, while others chose to gather and watch at the historic Hitsville USA building, the original home of Motown Records.
Gloria Rios said she attended the museum showing to take in “the love, the emotions.”
“You can laugh, you can cry, listen to the music, reminisce — a lot of the memories,” she said.
Jean Murriel of Detroit said it was important for her to be other devoted fans at the museum instead of watching the memorial at home.
“I love Michael so much,” she said. “I grew up listening to his music.”
Restaurants and museums were getting in on the jewel-gloved act, too.
Harry O’s, a famous barbecue restaurant in Las Vegas, usually doesn’t open before lunch, but owner “Harry O” Harris threw open his doors Tuesday morning to watch the memorial.
Jackson was “the king,” said Harris, a longtime friend of Jackson’s family.
For one mother, thanks for a son’s lifeTo some fans, it was important to show their emotional support for Jackson.
At one of the singer’s former homes, on Palomino Lane in Las Vegas, fans gathered to leave flowers and notes, even though Jackson’s family no longer has any connection to the property and will likely never see the tributes.
“This whole thing should have been decked out in flowers,” said Mary Schick, a lifelong fan.
Alicia Vargas of Las Vegas showed up because she lost more than a music idol when Jackson died. Four years ago, her son Roberto was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. But it wasn’t doctors who saved his life; she says it was Jackson.
While Roberto lay in a coma in a Las Vegas hospital, Vargas decided to put headsets playing nothing but Jackson’s music on his head. Three days later, Roberto woke up. Today, she says, her son is cancer-free.
“Thank you, Michael Jackson. Thank you for the music, because every day my son heard the music,” Vargas said. “The brain [started] working, working and my son came back.”
The memorial was aired on the major broadcast TV networks and cable news channels, and many news Web sites streamed the event live.
Alan Wurtzel, head of research and media development at NBC Universal, said the memorial represented a milestone in the development of live multiplatform coverage. (Msnbc.com, which was streaming the memorial live, is a partnership of Microsoft Corp. and NBC News, a division of NBC Universal.)
Wurtzel said it was too early to know how many people took in the event, but The Associated Press quoted media executives who said it could exceed the number who watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January.