Yeah he did.
...the slow opening, with isolated movements, the pulling out of the hat, then slowly - slow love - the single white sparkling glove.
a magic act. what is it like to be an icon? to perform each iconic movement AS iconic.
magic.
The prestige: something ordinary (a hat, a glove, A MAN) turned extraordinary.
Michael Jackson, me, and a glove story - By John Kehe| csmonitor.com:
Nearly 30 years ago, I was a fortunate eyewitness to a pivotal Michael Jackson epiphany: the true glove story.
As the resident music-head at a Hollywood film production company, I was tapped to design a music video for Michael Jackson and his brothers in 1980. Michael was already a big star – his breakout solo album 'Off the Wall' was still riding high on the charts. The Jacksons had re-formed, and it was a long time since the group had garnered a hit. The designated single from their new album was 'Can You Feel It,' a song with an insistent, 'Bolero'-like rhythm. Michael was very high on the song and had attempted to leave the six-minute, unedited version on my phone machine a few days before, but it cut off after 30 seconds.
After a brainstorming session and a riveting a cappella performance of the song by Michael at the kickoff meeting (featuring some gravity-defying dance moves that, alas, predated moon-walking), I was asked to take Michael on a tour of the production facilities at the company, Robert Abel & Associates.As we walked through the facility's maze of hallways, camera rooms, and special-effects labs, we encountered the chief film editor, Rick Ross, who was cutting and splicing a TV commercial. Rick was wearing a short white cotton glove on his left hand as he ran the film through his fingers, looking for the yellow grease-pencil marks he had made on various frames of film to be edited. To have a little green box of these disposable gloves sitting on the editing bench was standard practice for film editors in those days.
Michael, who hadn't shown any particular enthusiasm for the tour so far, seemed suddenly transfixed by the glove and politely asked a number of questions about it, concluding with, "Could you spare one?" But of course.
The rest, they say, is HIStory. The single white glove (later covered in silver sequins) made its television debut on Michael's left hand during his stunning performance of "Billy Jean" at Motown's 25th anniversary TV special in 1983. It became the King of Pop's wardrobe icon for the rest of his career, worn by Jackson and his multimillions of adoring fans the world over.
posted Sat July 4th 11:51am
but re-dating bcs I want it in the June archive, w the prvs several posts re rxn to M Jackson's death.
Jackson's "Billie Jean" video opened the door for black artists at MTV. As David Vigilante notes, "When MTV launched in 1981, it modeled its playlist on the popular album-oriented rock radio format of the day, which meant that music by black artists was effectively excluded from the network. You might see the occasional Jimi Hendrix clip, but there was no room for funk, disco, R&B or that new emerging form -- rap. It wasn't long before the public took note of the glaring absence of African-American artists." But Jackson changed all that, he says. "Jackson opened the door with the video for 'Billie Jean,' which was simply too good for its time to be overlooked." 
From Jackson's first appearance on TV in 1969 through the present day, Robert Lloyds says, "Michael Jackson was the first great pop star whose career was shaped by television -- not merely showcased by it, like those of Elvis Presley and the Beatles, but inseparable from the medium. He was indebted to it and influenced it in turn. Across his four-decade career, he was often someone to listen to, but he was always -- for better and sometimes for worse -- something to see."
CBS, NBC and ABC will all pay tribute to the King of Pop, who 
After such a successful first week, perhaps Conan should quit, says Michael Starr. "Can it get any better?" says Star, noting Conan's high ratings and Obama's endorsement "Answer: Probably not. "Maybe Conan ought to throw in the towel now and quit while he's ahead. Next week is liable to be a huge buzz kill. The American public is notoriously fickle that way." 
The 2nd outing was more 
As Kim Masters reports, Leno delivered a disappointing monologue at NBC's recent upfront. Some blame Leno showing his age. But in late-night circles, Masters says, many say that Leno is in fact not happy with his new role at NBC. "They say that Leno is angry and upset that he allowed himself to be talked into taking the 10 p.m. slot," she reports. "He has realized that the new arrangement will alter the kind of show that he has to deliver far more than he anticipated. And he knows that he will be under intense scrutiny as the person who could save NBC -- or not." One colleague even notes that Leno will be under even more pressure than when he took over for Johnny Carson. Masters adds: "Sources say Leno initially was led to believe he could essentially stick with the old format. Now the network has made it clear that he can't." 
Conan, according to Sam Anderson, "is in many ways a mini-Letterman: tall, lanky, red-haired, stunty, smart. If Letterman-Leno felt like a decades-long slow-motion death match, Letterman-Conan threatens to be its opposite: sweet, cute, possibly even boring." But, he adds, "the most tantalizing possible outcome of the Letterman-Conan binary is that it will force Letterman, at this late stage in the game, to get better. To stand out against the background of Jay, Dave just had to be Dave. To compete with a younger, hungrier version of himself, he might have to do more than that, for the first time in years." 
The only bad part of Leno's final "Tonight Show" was the featured guest, Conan O'Brien, who seemed out of place. The closing segment, however, "was especially touching," says David Zurawik. "In response to reporters asking him what he wanted his 'legacy' to be, Leno brought onstage all of the children who had been born to parents who met while they were working on The Tonight Show during his tenure. There were 68 of them onstage as the program ended, and Leno said he hoped these children were part of his legacy. While it might sound corny, I thought it was a very moving and original moment."