stood for “Voice of the Negro.” At a puny one thousand watts, the mostly R&B station became a trusted news source for the growing civil rights movement. (In 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the Rev.Jesse Jackson made his first phone call to King’s wife. His second call went to WVON.) The station also had a stable of regionally famous DJs known as the Good Guys, who developed a reputation for breaking the best singles.“If you got a hit on WVON—literally, this is not ego—it spread across the country,” recalls Lucky Cordell, a retired DJ and manager at thestation who still lives in Chicago. WVON put “Big Boy” on the air, and within a month the record went into regular rotation. On March 5, 1968, hallowedAtlantic Records, which had introduced Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin to the world, struck a deal with Steeltown to distribute the single nationwide.“I honestly heard something that I felt was the beginning of something big,” Cordell says.
* * *
In 1967, while the Jacksons were driving around Gary and Chicago, winning talent shows, RonnieRancifer was playing blues and touring at clubs. His band, Little Johnny and the Untouchables, had a floor show—a revue—including snake dancers. One weekend on the road in Alabama, the snake got loose and Rancifer was so freaked out he threatened to jump out the window while speeding down the highway. The band stopped, secured the boa, and resumed.
Rancifer lived in Hammond, Indiana, a mostly white, working-class neighborhood outside Gary. Joe Jackson knew his mother from when the Rancifers and the Jacksons had lived near each other in nearby East Chicago. One day, on a tip from a worker at a music shop in Hammond, Joe called Ronnie’s mom. Then he dropped by the Rancifers’ house, and the next thing Ronnie knew, he was in the Jackson 5.
The best way to gain national stardom as an African-American musician in those days was to perform at a network of clubs and theaters known as the chitlin circuit—Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, James Brown, Sam Cooke, and the Temptations were among its alumni. Every big city had a theater on the circuit—the Uptown in Philadelphia, the Howard in Washington, DC, the Fox in Detroit, and, of course, theRegal in Chicago. Built in 1927 on the South Side, the 3,500-seat Regal was at first a segregated movie house, but it supplemented the pictures with performances by Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, and others.Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, flanked by silkdrapes and floors of Italian marble. Ushers wore full-length capes to lead customers to their seats.
The Jackson 5 were not new to this circuit—they’d already won an amateur talent show at the Regal—but after “Big Boy,” they began to land regular slots alongside established performers from James Brown to Etta James to Jackie Wilson.“You’d go in there, you’d do three or four shows a night, come back to the hotel, and be ready to do it again the next night,” Rancifer says. “You know what a musician’s steak is? A musician’s steak is crackers and cheese. Crackers and cheese in a van. And potato chips.” Although the Jackson 5 were rivals to theFive Stairsteps, another family band on the circuit, Stairsteps singer Clarence Burke remembers befriending the Jackson boys, particularly Jackie, who at sixteen was around his age. Outside one of the theaters was a basketball hoop, and the two teenagers used to shoot around until Michael came out. Burke tried to put Michael on his shoulders to help him with the shots, but Michael, like any nine-year-old younger brother, insisted on doing it himself—endlessly.
Joe, the Jacksons’ driver Jack Richardson, and sometimes Rancifer took the wheel on the road trips. The boys listened to music in the back and tried to out-jive each other. By far, the champion trash-talker was Michael Jackson.“Michael was a very watchful guy. Whatever weak
* * *
In 1967, while the Jacksons were driving around Gary and Chicago, winning talent shows, RonnieRancifer was playing blues and touring at clubs. His band, Little Johnny and the Untouchables, had a floor show—a revue—including snake dancers. One weekend on the road in Alabama, the snake got loose and Rancifer was so freaked out he threatened to jump out the window while speeding down the highway. The band stopped, secured the boa, and resumed.
Rancifer lived in Hammond, Indiana, a mostly white, working-class neighborhood outside Gary. Joe Jackson knew his mother from when the Rancifers and the Jacksons had lived near each other in nearby East Chicago. One day, on a tip from a worker at a music shop in Hammond, Joe called Ronnie’s mom. Then he dropped by the Rancifers’ house, and the next thing Ronnie knew, he was in the Jackson 5.
The best way to gain national stardom as an African-American musician in those days was to perform at a network of clubs and theaters known as the chitlin circuit—Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, James Brown, Sam Cooke, and the Temptations were among its alumni. Every big city had a theater on the circuit—the Uptown in Philadelphia, the Howard in Washington, DC, the Fox in Detroit, and, of course, theRegal in Chicago. Built in 1927 on the South Side, the 3,500-seat Regal was at first a segregated movie house, but it supplemented the pictures with performances by Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, and others.Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, flanked by silkdrapes and floors of Italian marble. Ushers wore full-length capes to lead customers to their seats.
The Jackson 5 were not new to this circuit—they’d already won an amateur talent show at the Regal—but after “Big Boy,” they began to land regular slots alongside established performers from James Brown to Etta James to Jackie Wilson.“You’d go in there, you’d do three or four shows a night, come back to the hotel, and be ready to do it again the next night,” Rancifer says. “You know what a musician’s steak is? A musician’s steak is crackers and cheese. Crackers and cheese in a van. And potato chips.” Although the Jackson 5 were rivals to theFive Stairsteps, another family band on the circuit, Stairsteps singer Clarence Burke remembers befriending the Jackson boys, particularly Jackie, who at sixteen was around his age. Outside one of the theaters was a basketball hoop, and the two teenagers used to shoot around until Michael came out. Burke tried to put Michael on his shoulders to help him with the shots, but Michael, like any nine-year-old younger brother, insisted on doing it himself—endlessly.
Joe, the Jacksons’ driver Jack Richardson, and sometimes Rancifer took the wheel on the road trips. The boys listened to music in the back and tried to out-jive each other. By far, the champion trash-talker was Michael Jackson.“Michael was a very watchful guy. Whatever weak
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