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“The Hollywood Palace”

Date confirmed on TV.com and “IMDb” (archived) (“Oct 18, 1969”)

Michael Jackson (From his 1988 book, Moonwalk)
[Diana] was going to host "The Hollywood Palace," a big Saturday night show; it would be her last appearance with the Supremes and the first major exposure for us. This meant a lot to Motown, because by then they had decided that our new album would be called "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5." Never before had a superstar like Diana passed the torch to a bunch of kids. Motown, Diana, and five kids from Gary, Indiana, were all pretty excited.

We knew that "The Hollywood Palace" had a live audience, a sophisticated Hollywood crowd, and we were concerned; but we had them from the first note. There was an orchestra in the pit, so that was the first time I heard all of "I Want You Back" performed live because I wasn't there when they recorded the strings for the album. Doing that show made us feel like kings, the way winning the citywide show in Gary had.

Suzanne de Passe, Motown executive, “Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues” (March 12, 1988)

I can remember working out the choreography to “I Want You Back” in my living room. We would put the record on and someone would have an idea, I would have an idea and we would put it all together. In those days we did it ourselves. They became so successful so quickly that none of us were prepared for it. We went from being able to go anywhere to get a hamburger, go to a movie, go shopping, to being able to go nowhere.

Deke Richards, music producer, “Soulful Detroit” forum (partial mirror) (partial archived mirror), full quote from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”

[In response to a fan mentioning Michael reacting to something throughout “I Want You Back”]:

“I used a different [“I Want You Back”] mix for that show, I purposely pushed the strings up a little, especially in the intro. If you listen closely, you will hear the difference. Especially in the background VOD... Those parts near the end are NOT in the released mix. In fact, those parts were not even sung by the J-5. It was actually Freddie, Fonce and Myself; "The Corp 3".

Jermaine Jackson (From his book “You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through a Brother's Eyes”)

When the show was broadcast, we knew Mother would be watching with Randy, La Toya, Janet and whoever else could cram into our living room in Gary. She’d later tell us that she held her breath for those two minutes forty-four seconds, with tears running down her face. Diana introduced us twice that night as “Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5,” which made Joseph frown, because we were the Jackson 5 and no one should get singled out, but the semantics were lost on us. After all, in our earlier days, club promoters had given special billing to Johnny. We had been “The Jackson 5 with Johnny Jackson” for a few shows, and it said so on the front of his bass drum. So, special billing for Michael seemed no different. Besides, at the end of our song, she made amends in Joseph’s eyes when she came over to us to lead the applause: “YAY! The Jackson 5, ladies and gentlemen!”

That was the night we first met the great Sammy Davis Junior. When Sammy saw what Michael could do, he referred to him as “the little midget,” which wasn’t usually appreciated but somehow sounded fine from the mouth of a legend. Sammy always rocked back on his feet in mock-astonishment when he saw Michael because he couldn’t believe how well he knew his movements and delivered a song. “This kid’s not supposed to know so much at his age!”

Suzanne De Passe, “The Legend Continues” documentary