1978- Trinidad and Tobago

In this photo, Michael Jackson meets the new Miss Universe Penny Commissiong at the Hilton Hotel. Mark Lyndersay on this photo: Michael was the quietest of the group, prone to gently bowing his head as if the weight of his enormous afro was just a little too much for him, speaking a pitch and tone lower than his brothers and responding to direct looks with a shy smile. The head of Press liaison arranged the meeting of the First Black Miss Universe and the future King of Pop with his brothers. And I was the only photographer in the room. Armed with a beginner’s Pentax, the K1000 and a little flash, I shot the encounter, prompting a bemused Penny to ask my colleague, Joan Christopher in an aside she later took some glee in reporting to me, “Does he normally shake so much?” The resulting photo of Penny and Michael greatly pleased the Epic representatives, who requested prints that were promptly circulated to the international press.