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In Phila. area, remembering Michael Jackson
The boarded Uptown Theater in North Philadelphia was as much a place to remember Michael Jackson as it was a reminder of the good old days when the Jackson Five performed here 40 years ago.
People began to gather outside the Uptown on North Broad Street for the 7 p.m. candlelight vigil more than an hour in advance. The moment of silence in the star's honor was brief. Instead, the crowd danced, cheered "We love Michael," and sang songs. More than 100 people, many of them baby boomers whose teen and young-adult years were fueled by Jackson's artistry, showed up last night to bid the star farewell.
Sandra Tramel and her husband, Dennis, both 59, bopped to a recorded instrumental of "Thriller" as they reminisced over evenings they spent at the Uptown, which is now undergoing renovations.
She remembers scrubbing neighbors' steps and scrounging for baby-sitting jobs to buy tickets to the theater where she saw acts like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Intruders, and Brenda and the Tabulations. "We always had a good time here," she said.
"It's almost like people are reliving their heyday," said Aissia Richardson, vice president of operations for the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corp.
Throughout the '50s, '60s, and early '70s, the Uptown joined the Apollo Theater in New York and notable venues across the country as part of a chain of venues that hosted African American performers on what was dubbed the Chitlin' Circuit.
At the tribute last night, a group of drummers rooted in African traditions played West African drumbeats, which are custom for male rites of passage. For Jackson they beat for his passage from the living to the ancestral world.
The crowd reflected on Jackson's ability to transcend race, class, and cultural boundaries to touch people all over the world.
"A lot of his songs can touch a part of my life," said Kimberly Tatum, who heard about the tribute on radio. She said she had listened and watched all day for a place to "celebrate Michael's homegoing."
Being at the Uptown to honor Jackson was the next best thing to being at the Staples Center yesterday in Los Angeles, Tatum said. "This is a little bit of closure for me."
Around the region, fans paid Jackson homage. Some sat at computers at home or work, folks watched video on their cell phones, passersby paused to gaze at TV screens.
The service was shown on a big screen at the Piazza at Schmidts. Evan Osenfeldt, 27, of Northern Liberties, stopped while walking his dog. He described himself as a fan. "Who wasn't?" Osenfeldt said, recalling how as a child he used to dance around in a beaded jacket and silver glove.
At nearby Darling's Diner, hostess Bethany Willis watched what she called "a part of history" on two of the restaurant's three televisions.
By staff request, the service was shown on a TV rolled into the lobby of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Angela Willie of the library's business department dabbed tears as she watched Stevie Wonder perform "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer." She'd grown up watching Jackson, she said, and the song was appropriate because "no one really knew who he was."
"To me it just shows what a pivotal figure [Jackson] was in American history," said Sara Strickland, who works in the library's communication department.
President Obama's inauguration is the only other time she saw the library broadcast an event, she said. "It's nice that the library is in tune to public want."
That place in history was much on the minds of people at area shopping malls. At Best Buy in Plymouth Meeting, Tanya Baird, 39, of Philadelphia, said: "He had an impact on so many different genres across the board. I didn't realize how much of an impact until his passing and the reflections of so many artists who have sampled his music."
Inside Plymouth Meeting Mall, Gabrielle Aiello, 16, recalled the days she and her older brothers imitated Jackson's dance moves in their basement. They even bought a red jacket like the one Jackson wore in his "Beat It" video.
"I think a lot of people followed what he did, since he was the King of Pop," Aiello said. "You can see it in how many people showed up to the funeral and how many actors and singers are upset by his death."
In Lindenwold, Center Stage Entertainment hosted 15 to 20 people around lunchtime to watch the memorial on TV, office manager Andrew Kita said. Speakers in front of the Laurel Road building carried the event on an Internet live stream.
Jackson songs played before the service. Drivers - some ignoring the changing steetlights - stopped their cars and listened, waved hands, and shouted requests for favorite Jackson songs, Kita said, while landscapers across the street danced.
Contact staff writer Traver Riggins at 215-854-5626 or at triggins@phillynews.com
Inquirer staff writers Megan DeMarco, Kristin Holmes, and Liz Wagner contributed to this report.
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