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"The Merv Griffin Show"
Air date of September 3, 1974 confirmed on September 3, 1974 newspaper TV listing (archived)
Interview transcript
Merv Griffin: Are you going to be a Jackson 6 someday?
Randy: No, it's gonna stay The Jackson 5.
Griffin: Oh, they brainwashed you, huh? Do you want to go into another business, then?
Randy: No, [gonna stay in the] music business.
Griffin: Ahh, that's good. I'm glad to see you all again. I hear--[tape cuts] He's older? All those old 20-year-olds, are they out there now? [Laughs] Now, not all of you were allowed to go in the casino.
Jackie: Only certain ones.
Michael: You can run through, but you--[group laughs]
Griffin: That must scare the heck out of 'em! Who can't--who's under 21 in the group? Jermaine, how old are you?
Jermaine: Nineteen.
Griffin: Michael, you're--
Michael: Fifteen.
Griffin: And Jackie--
Jackie: Twenty-three.
Griffin: You're old!
Jackie: I'm old.
Griffin: You're in that old category.
Jackie: Yeah [laughs]
Tito: I'm twenty.
Griffin: Are you twenty? Tito's twenty, and Marlon's--
Marlon: Seventeen.
Griffin: And Randy?
Randy: Twelve.
Griffin: Where'd they get those--did your mother ever tell you, or your Dad tell you how they got those great names? Marlon must be named after--
Michael: Marlon Brando.
Griffin: The famous fish?
Marlon: The fish.
Griffin: The fish, right. [Audience laughs] [Tape cuts]
Griffin: All I do is read about you in the papers, and the terrific things you do. Wouldn't it be fun to come out just for one show, and nobody's there?
Jackie: That's right.
Griffin: Would that be different, huh? You've broken every record in Las Vegas. Did you know that?
Jackie: I read about it.
Griffin: [Laughs] What did you think of Vegas?
Jackie: It was a great experience. Vegas is a different audience and a different crowd to go into. It's not like a concert act. They have older people in Vegas, and we didn't know we were gonna get over that big.
Griffin: Jackie, what age is older?
Jackie: Oh, I'd like to say that's about--
Griffin: [Inaudible] [Jackie and audience laughs]
Jackie: Well, ages from twenty, I'd say to fifty, sixty.
Griffin: Twenty to fifty--[tape cuts] Tito?
Tito: Tito is my nickname. My real name is Toriano. My father tells me he named me after a box of [inaudible], better name him Tito.
Griffin: Tito... There was this great singer Tito Guízar, and there's the leader of Yugoslavia, Marshal Tito, that's a good name.
Tito: I hate it. [Audience laughs]
Griffin: Ba-dum-bum. [Who did they name you after,] Jackie?
Jackie: My nickname is Jackie, but my real name is Sigmund. Sigmund Freud. [Audience laughs]
Griffin: You were named after Sigmund--or Sigmund--Sigmund Romberg.
Jackie: No, my aunt. I got the name from my aunt. She named me.
Griffin: Your aunt's name is Sigmund?
Jackie: No, she named me Sigmund.
Griffin: Oh. Ahh [audience laughs] Michael?
Michael: Every day name.
Griffin: [Laughs] An every day name? And Jermaine?
Jermaine: I don't know. Germany, I guess. German, Jermaine.
Jackie: Why don't you tell 'em your real name?
Jermaine: Oh, well, my real name is--well, my middle name is Lajuane.
Griffin: That sounds like Hawaiian. [sings] "Sweet Lajuane". After you finish Vegas, what are you gonna do?
Jackie: We'll go to Lake Tahoe. [We] tour the 4th, 5th, and 6th, for three days.
Griffin: Have you ever been?
Jackie: Sure.
Griffin: Do you guys get time off, time to yourselves?
Michael: Sure, when we have our free time, we just mess around in the hotel, go buy fruit, and--
Jermaine: Run through the casino.
Michael: Yeah. Tito gambles with Randy. [Michael smiles] No, he doesn't.
Jackie: Tito gambles for Randy.
Griffin: Does he? Did any of you, who are allowed to go on the tables, win?
Jackie: I lost pretty much--I saw this machine, they had 15,000 dollars in nickels, and I figured that I should win some money off this nickel machine. So, I played for seven hours, and I had like $75 worth of nickels. I lost every last one of them. [Audience laughs] Every last one of them.
Griffin: How do you handle the girl situation, because that is a--yes? Speak up Marlon.
Marlon: Girls only appear at the nightclub acts in the theaters and around midnight in the concerts. That's too close to--
Griffin: Oh, I'm going to talk about them in a minute. No, I mean the girl fans.
Marlon: Oh, the fans. They're not--[laugh] Sometimes, they're knocking on our doors, and I throw Michael outside.
Griffin: You get thrown outside, Michael?
Michael: Sometimes.
Griffin: Do you all have girls--oh, you're married, aren't you Jackie?
Jackie: No.
Tito: I'm married. She just left St. Louis. And they knocked on my door all night long. [Group laughs]
Griffin: And what does Mrs. Tito say?
Tito: Mrs. Tito wasn't there. [Audience laughs]
Griffin: She'll never know, what the heck? Do any of you go to school?... How do you handle that?
Marlon: Well, we have a tutor that travels with us. That's a state law in California, and we have three hours of schooling every day.
Griffin: Got favorite subjects?
Marlon: Going home.
Griffin: [Laughs] Recess, right? Do you ever see Diana Ross? She discovered you, didn't she?
Michael: Yeah, she discovered us. What year was it?
Jackie: 1968.
Michael: We were doing a talent show, and she happened to be the mayor's guest in the audience. And she said she liked us, and she took us to Motown, and our first record was "I Want You Back", which sold over two million copies.
Griffin: Do you get to see her?
Michael: Yeah, all the time. She comes over. We go there, we play tennis--
Griffin: She really must be proud of you. And she's awful good herself.
Michael: Oh, yes.
Griffin: Michael, I didn't laugh out loud today during rehearsal, but that really stunned me when you asked me if I ever heard of Fred Astaire.
Michael: [Laughs] Oh, I just didn't wanna--
Griffin: Well, he is older than I am, but he did tap his way into my heart. I guess I've seen every movie.
Michael: Oh yeah, well I--
Griffin: You see, Michael just saw "That's Entertainment", and he said, "That lady that swims!", which is Esther Williams.
Michael: Yeah.
Griffin: You liked her too?
Michael: Oh yeah, she's great.
Griffin: Did you figure out how she comes up out of the water and her hair's dry?
Michael: No--[laughs]
Griffin: That's a tough one. Who else did you like in that?
Michael: Gene Kelly.
Griffin: What, "Singing in the Rain"?
Michael: Yeah, it's super.
Griffin: [Hums theme]
Michael: That was good. Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, mainly.
Griffin: But what really got to you about Fred Astaire, because you've been tapping all afternoon?
Michael: 'Cause he's graceful and he's built for it; he's skinny. Fred--I mean, Gene Kelly, he's just a little wider than Fred Astaire, and Fred Astaire looks smoother.
Griffin: Did you hear that, Gene? [Michael and audience laugh] Could you, or do you appreciate--do you like those songs that you hear in that [film]?
Michael: Oh yeah, I do. Gene Kelly is my second best after Fred Astaire.
Griffin: Yeah. Do you like that kind of music too?
Michael: Yeah, I do.
Griffin: When you collect records, who do you collect? 'Cause everybody I know collects your records.
Michael: Stevie Wonder, Graham Central Station, and Billy Preston, and The Mills Brothers, and Diana Ross and, mainly, Sammy Davis Jr., he's my favorite.
Griffin: There are other other members of the Jackson family that we have not seen or heard about yet.
Sure. Well, my middle sister, LaToya Jackson, she's not on the show tonight, but my smallest sister, Janet, which is eight.
Griffin: This act we're about to see--we're about to see a major performance here. Has somebody got a prepared speech?
Marlon: I'll do it.
Griffin: Okay, let me take a commercial break, and you're going to see an extraordinary number. Marlon!