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[Tobina+1]

I agree that in the later years, MJ did some odd and outlandish things (probably no different than Elvis, LarryJ...  ).  But his music did shape the pop culture and was really the first artist I specifically remembering listening to as a kid.  They said that MJ music and memorabilia will be increasing in price and demand very quickly.

And yes, Farrah Fawcett died yesterday, too.  She had been battling cancer for quite some time.

[larryJ]

I agree there are some parallels between the two.  Michael and doing the "Thriller" thing and Elvis dressing up like in a spacesuit.  Both became addicted to pills and it contributed to their deaths.  I guess it depends on how you view strange.  When I was young and Elvis was just starting, he was cool because he could swivel his hips which was considered by some to be obscene, but I wouldn't call it weird, just cool.  I know that you are too young, Tobina, to remember this, but Elvis made his first appearance on the old Ed Sullivan show which was one of, if not the best, entertainment shows on TV then.  When Elvis began his song which I seem to remember being "Jailhouse Rock" he began to swivel his hips.  BUT, you couldn't see it because the bottom half of the TV camera shot was blacked out.  You could only see him from about the elbows up.  The irony here is that there were male dancers simulating prisoners on various levels of prop stages behind Elvis and you could see them swiveling their hips.

I like Michael's music especially the early years with the Jackson 5 and his earlier solo career.  My daughter mentioned to me yesterday when she came to pick up my granddaughter then there was probably some MJ albums in my album collection which she had bought.  I know I have many Elvis albums. 

However, the music lives on.

Larryj

[Tobina+1]

I was referring to the "later years" being odd... like when MJ dangled the baby over the balcony, and all the child molestation issues he faced, and the Neverland Ranch place.  Kinda creepy.  I would compare the drugs and self-mutilation (plastic surgery) to Elvis' downfall towards the end.  Both were instrumental to the music industry, though, no doubt about that.

I remember sometime in grade school (maybe 4th grade), one Friday a month we'd get a break from the general music class and be able to bring in our favorite records and "breakdance" on a piece of cardboard.   

[jensarlou]

TAMPA, Fla. - Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50.

Tampa police said Mays was found unresponsive by his wife Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m.

There were no signs of a break-in, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn't answer any more questions about how Mays' body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

[Jane]

Everyone can say what they want but MJ did as much for Pop as Elvis did for Rock and Roll which will live on forever. The Thriller album was some of the best music he did and am I sure it will be around and remembered for a long time. 

[Tobina+1]

I heard on the news that Billy Mays was on a plane that had a really rough landing in Tampa earlier in the weekend.  They don't know if that caused his death, but he had told his wife he got hit on the head pretty hard by some baggage.

[larryJ]

we seem to be losing these "stars" like they are falling out of the sky.  I heard this morning that Gale Storm died and on the internet Fred Travelena. There was an interesting note about Gale Storm.  She stated that she hated horses and only rode them when the movie required it.  She said that in one movie she was riding along Roy Rodgers while he was singing a song and Trigger kept biting on the neck of her horse making for a nervous ride.

Larryj

[W. Gray]

Who could ever forget Gale Storm in My Little Margie on a 7 inch black & white TV?

[jensarlou]

I wonder if Billy Mays death was simular to Natasha Richardson's? If I remember right she struck her head, she she felt bad, then died later from hemmoraging.

[W. Gray]

Texan Josephine Owaissa Cottle, otherwise known as Gale Storm, began as a starlet for Radio-Keith-Orpheum. When RKO let her go, she worked for Republic and Monogram pictures with Roy Rogers, Bob Steele, and Johnny Mack Brown. She also acted with the East Side kids. One site even has her in a Three Stooges short.

At age thirty and out of necessity, she went into television work in 1952 beginning with My Little Margie. She had married eleven years earlier. She seemed to me to be a teenager on the television show.

She was always cooking something up with her boy friend, Freddie. It always backfired.