Michael Jackson 1958-2009
Michael Jackson Remembered
How the child superstar grew into an icon beloved by the world – and the eccentricities that later defined him
Credit: Michael Levine/Getty
Updated: Thursday Jun 24, 2010 | 06:20 AM EDT By: Serena Kappes, Aaron Parsley, Brian Orloff and Cara Shultz
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AN ECCENTRIC STAR:
TABLOID TALES
Outrageous rumors about Jackson ran rampant in the '80s. Among them: He offered $1 million for the Elephant Man's bones and slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, hoping to live to be 150 years old. "He has a chamber," his manager Frank Dileo said at the time. "I don't know if he sleeps in it." Jackson later told Oprah Winfrey that the chamber was a "piece of technology used for burn victims" and that he decided to crawl inside and "hammer around." Other reports had him leaking the photo himself to conjure a sci-fi image ahead of the release of Captain EO.
