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"Tiny Tots' Back-to-School Jamboree"

Date confirmed on newspaper advertisement (archived) and Jermaine Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone” autobiography

Evelyn LaHaie, named “The Jackson Five”, “The Times of Northwest Indiana” (June 28, 2009) (archived)

Only one person, Valparaiso resident Evelyn LaHaie, can say she was the mastermind behind the group's name.

LaHaie recalls memories of a 6-year-old Michael Jackson, the youngest member of a group called the Jackson Brothers. That year, an advertisement in a local newspaper caught Michael's father's attention. The advertisement was a call-out to musical groups to perform at a fashion show for a local modeling school. Joe Jackson decided he would take his sons to the audition.

LaHaie, who owned the school and placed the advertisement, had more than 200 groups audition for the one-time performance. She recalls the Jackson Brothers showed real talent and potential, so LaHaie booked them to perform at the fashion show at The Big Top department store in Gary.

However, LaHaie saw a problem with the group's name, the Jackson Brothers.

"So many groups at the time had names that ended in 'Brothers' or 'Sisters,'" LaHaie said.

"It was too common. I knew that they should have something different."

LaHaie said the Jackson Five was the first name that came to her, and Joe agreed to change it.

The group performed at the fashion show as the Jackson Five, a name that stuck until Michael Jackson left to continue his solo career.

LaHaie said that she set the group up with one more performance at a Dyer hospital before they moved on with some of Joe Jackson's other contacts in the music industry.

Jermaine Jackson, “You Are Not Alone” autobiography (2011)

In today’s light, I think it apt that our first true public performance as the Jackson 5 was on August 29, 1965: Michael’s seventh birthday. No one noticed it at the time. Birthdays were like Christmas: non-events that were not marked in the house of Jehovah. But at least Michael’s seventh birthday was different in that it wasn’t another ordinary, unremarkable day.

Evelyn Lahaie, the lady who first suggested our group name, invited us to take part in a children’s fashion event she had organized at the Big Top shopping center on Broadway and 53rd. She was the commentator on a “Tiny Tots Jamboree” and we were billed as “The Jackson Five Musical Group: Another Spectacular Little Folks Band.” All I remember is seeing a decent-sized crowd of young girls and Joseph telling us after the show to “get down there and start selling your photos.”