The Kid Who Became Michael Jackson [Animated]

On May 16th, 1983, about 47 million Americans watched a man in one white glove slide backward across a stage for about a second. By the next morning it was all anyone wanted to talk about. He walked off that stage thinking he'd blown it. Michael Jackson was 24, and he'd already been famous for most of his life. This is how he got there: a two-bedroom house in Gary, Indiana, a broken guitar string, and a father with a belt. The Apollo at eight. The Motown story that wasn't true. The name the label kept. The Wiz, Quincy Jones, the fight with MTV, and the night he went back to Motown and changed everything. ORTUS - The origin of everything. Subscribe and find out where it all started. CHAPTERS 0:00 One second on live TV 0:39 Gary, Indiana 1:33 The belt 2:30 Motown 3:39 The trap 4:33 Quincy 5:43 Thriller and MTV 7:02 Motown 25 7:36 He thought he'd blown it 8:52 The Grammys, and where it started SOURCES WBEZ; Lansing Journal; Encyclopedia.com; Detroit Historical Society; Motown Museum; Stereogum; Far Out; Rolling Stone Italia; JTA; Smithsonian; History News Network; AV Club; Mental Floss; AOL; Grammy.com; Oprah.com; IOL; Grunge. MTV's role is disputed: the Yetnikoff account is his own, and MTV has always denied it. Joe Jackson denied beating his children, and admitted to whipping Michael with a switch and a belt.