The Girls Involved

Smokey Robinson's nieces


Marlon Jackson, Todd Gold’s book, mid 70s


There was, for instance, an early teenage crush on one of Smokey Robinson’s nieces. “He called her a girlfriend,” Marlon says. “We used to talk about her all the time.”

Ava Gardner





Jermaine Jackson, “You Are Not Alone"


In his rooms [when he was younger], photos of Ava Gardner were pinned up because he ‘loved her grace and beauty.’

Beverly Johnson





Pete Bennett, Promoter, 1974/5


Bennett, born Pietro Benedetto in the Bronx, signed Michael and his brothers on with CBS’ Epic Records in the mid-1970s. Bennett is also a close friend of Trenton casting director, Roz Clancy.

Beverly Johnson, a model, actress and writer, was the first black model ever to grace the cover of Vogue magazine in August 1974. She appeared on more than 500 magazine covers, including Glamour. Bennett said that Jackson had the hots for the sultry, black star.

“He had an eye for pretty girls, especially Johnson. She was about 25 and Michael was 16. But Beverly, I believe was dating Arthur Ashe at the time,’’ Bennett said.

Red Headed Checkout Girl at Gelson's


“In Search of Neverland,” Gloria Roades, 1977
http://www.eurweb.com/2010/06/michael-jackson-in-search-of-neverland/


Michael Jackson and I had a very wonderful relationship… I always thought he was going to wind up being a box-boy at Gelson’s because he had a crush on a very beautiful young lady who was about 4 ½ feet tall who was working there. [She had] very white porcelain skin with big blue eyes; real red-haired, that she wore in little pigtails and he used to come over and act as a box boy for her; pack the groceries for the people who came through her aisle. I always came through there and he would say, ‘Hello Mrs. Berlin’. My son, Will, used to play with the Jackson Five, basketball, at their home.”

“I think they hired him (laughs). He … would come [to the market] dressed up as The Wiz; wearing these shoes that were like on stilts…He came to see that pig-tailed, red-head girl….He loved her. He knew everyone that came to Gelson’s.