By Chuck Darrow
The Jackson siblings’ you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up story runs the gamut from the highest of highs (the Jackson 5’s turn-of-the-’70s run of hit singles; Janet Jackson’s decades of mega-stardom; baby brother Michael’s culture-changing solo career) to the lowest of lows (the physical and emotional abuse by their father-manager, Joe Jackson; Michael’s child-molestation scandal and his anesthesia-overdose death at age 50 in 2009).
Their latest rendezvous with tragedy occurred just last month as Tito Jackson, 70, suffered a fatal heart attack on Sept. 15 while driving through New Mexico on a trip from California to his home in Oklahoma. Tito was a member of The Jacksons along with brothers Marlon and Jackie. As such, it would have been completely understandable had the group’s two remaining brothers called off the rest of the tour they’d been on with The Pointer Sisters and Billy Ocean.
But according to Marlon Jackson, that was never an option. And six weeks after Tito’s passing, The Jacksons are back on the boards, beginning with an October 25 date at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City.
According to Marlon, 67, calling it quits wasn’t going to happen because, he offered during a recent phone chat, “That’s not what [Tito] would want us to do. So that’s why we’re going to continue.”
While the eldest of the five brothers from Gary, Ind. who took show business by storm in the late-1960s and went on to an unprecedented-and-unmatched (for a family) run of pop music successes won’t physically be on stage, he’ll still have a presence for his younger brothers.
“Tito won’t be there, but I’m sure his spirit will be there with us,” he said. “The same with Michael; his spirit is there with us.”
But hasn’t the loss of one-third of the unit engendered changes in The Jacksons’ presentation? “Sure,” replied Marlon. “But the show’s pretty much gonna be the same, with [a few] minor changes. It is something that Tito would want us to continue doing. So that’s what we’re gonna do.
“You make adjustments, but we’ve been doing this for so long, so adjustments are part of what comes with the territory. We make adjustments all the time.”
For Marlon, his life’s journey on such a too-often torturous road has certainly endowed in him the ability to take the hardest of punches and get up off the mat.
“As it is when you lose anybody you loved, you never get over it,” he reasoned. “But you learn to deal with it. You learn to live with it, and each day it gets better and better and better. The same thing that happened with Michael, that’s where we are right now. We’re still grieving, still mourning. But, people will want us to [continue] our engagements and that’s what we’re doing.
“So it’s still gonna be a fantastic show. We’re gonna celebrate, Tito.”
Marlon promised the brothers’ Hard Rock set will be chock-full of signature songs like “A-B-C,” “I Want You Back” and “State of Shock,” all of which he’s been performing for decades. So, are there any tunes that he’s tired of rendering night after night, year after year, decade after decade?
“How,” he asked with a chuckle, “can you get tired of hit records?”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
A spook-tacular weekend
Boogie Nights, the popular danceteria that revels in pop-culture nostalgia is going all-in for this weekend’s run-up to Halloween.
The themed fun kicks off tonight with “Scream,” which is billed as “the ultimate 90s-2000s Halloween Party.” Friday night, the soiree is called “Boogie Of the Dead,” with the three-night celebration concluding Saturday with “the “Haunted Halloween Bash.”
While the first two events will feature “best-costume” contests with a $500 prize for each, Saturday’s bacchanal boasts $3,000 in awards for winners in five different categories (the “best overall” getup is worth a cool $1,000).
Saturday and Sunday at Resorts Atlantic City, they’ll be celebrating All Hallows’ Eve in a more, shall we say, cutting manner as AyCee’s First Casino presents “SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of ‘Saw.’”
The show is a send up of the “Saw” horror-movie franchise (specifically the first installment of the gory, 10-flick series). It features three actors singing and wise-cracking their way through a program that has been described as “more funny than scary.”
And if you are looking to wet your whistle before or after the show, you can stop by Boo Bar, a Halloween-themed pop-up at Bar One off the casino floor.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
