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"Hollywood Walk of Fame" Star Addition (Michael Jackson)

Date confirmed in “UPI” (archived) (“Tuesday [November 20, 1984]”)

Los Angeles Herald (November 21, 1984)

It came close to becoming a nightmare at noon. Nathaniel West would have called it "The Day of the Jackson."

Organizers said the crowd of some 6,000 people, gathered yesterday outside Mann's Chinese Theater to witness the unveiling of Michael Jackson's Walk of Fame star' simply got "over-excited".

But fans said the brief ceremony, in which Jackson was hustled off stage by police before he had a chance to address the crowd, was a "big mess."

The truncated appearance by the megastar, on a podium outside the famed Hollywood Boulevard movie palace, was marred by a surging crowd of screaming Jackson fans and a series of minor injuries suffered by those caught in the crush.

Cries from children separated from their parents and people trampled by their neighbors mingled with screams from fans ecstatic over a glimpse of the singing sensation.

The Los Angeles Police Department Hollywood Division reported only three fans treated at the scene and no hospitalizations.

But dozens of fans suffering fainting spells, dizziness, and bruises were lifted by police from the pack of fans that strained against barriers and allowed to recuperate in the courtyard of the Chinese theater.

The situation worsened when a phalanx of police horseback moved into the crowd after its members ignored several pleas to re-position themselves. Pressed between the horsemen and the barricades, the crowd continued its forward surge and forced the rapid exit of the star attraction.

Pleshette Beamon said she took up position at 7:30 a.m. just a few yards from the temporary stage where Jackson was to appear more than five hours later. The 15-year-old Hollywood High School student said she had a note from her mother giving her permission to skip school for the occasion.

Beamon said before Jackson appeared that she was willing to endure the pushing and shoving of the swelling crowd behind her in order to see Jackson. "He's really cute", was all the motivation she cited in explaining why she spent her morning pressed up against a steel fence trying in vain to catch a glimpse the stage over the heads of uniformed LAPD patrolmen and members of a frightened press corps.

By 1:15 p.m., after Jackson had appeared and disappeared before many fans could even locate him in the viewfinder of their Instamatics, the teenager said, "I got to see him for about 10 seconds." Was it worth it? "Nope", she said. I got pushed and shoved against that fence. I was scared. It was horrible."

Beamon said she got upset with master of ceremonies Johnny Grant, whose repeated attempts to get the huge, nearly unmanageable crowd to "move back six inches" were answered by increasingly impatient cries of "We want Michael! We want Michael!"

"If he had just stopped talking and telling everybody to move back and had let us see Michael, it would have been OK", Beamon said. "As it was, they waited so long, everybody got mad. He was telling us to move back and nobody moved. Then the horses pushed us from the back and — it was so stupid. Those horses pushed everybody forward."

Beamon's classmate, Carmen Mayo, said she "got stepped on by a horse." Another of their friends lost her purse in the melee.

Would the girls return if Jackson appeared for another Walk of Fame ceremony? "No way." Beamon said, "I'll stay home and wait to see him on the news."

After the crowd broke up, Hollie Forbes, a 16-year-old Jackson fan, stood sobbing behind police lines and said she was battered, jostled, and pushed by fans trying to steal her place at the front barricade.

Forbes, who said she got to see "only a little of the back of (Jackson's) head as he was leaving the stage", was "pulled from the crowd" by a police officer who she credited with saving her from further injury.

"People were pushing me and then they started hitting and scratching at me. They wanted to get in front of me, to get a better look at Michael. The officer pulled me out before I could see (Jackson). I've been here since early this morning", she said between sobs. "If people had a little respect for each other, I think I would have seen him."

Asked if she would ever let herself get caught up in a celebrity crowd again, she said, "If it was Michael, yes."

“UPI” (November 20, 1984) (archived)

Michael Jackson smiled and waved, but didn't sing or even speak, at brief but frenzied ceremonies Tuesday unveiling the superstar singer's solo star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

Thousands of screaming fans, many wearing gloves like their idol, jammed the streets in front of the Chinese Theater, some grabbing front row spaces as early as 6 a.m.

Police said about 20 teenagers and small children fainted or suffered slight injuries as the crowd surged during the midday ceremony. Three people were hospitalized, including a man in his 20s who apparently suffered a seizure.

Jackson, 26, wearing a black sequined jacket with black braid, stood on the stage with his parents and waved a white-gloved hand to his fans.

Entertainer Johnny Grant helped Jackson unveil the star, and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley gave the singer marking Michael Jackson Day.

Jackson never said a word during the appearance, which lasted less than two minutes.

The unveiling of Michael's solo star—he also shares one with his brothers—was delayed at least 15 minutes because of problems controlling the crowd of about 6,000. More than 150 police officers worked the ceremony with the aid of horse patrols, who blocked the view of many fans.

One teenager who fainted was carried out by a police officer before the ceremony began. She clutched a duplicated photograph of the superstar.

'I came to see Michael. That's my baby,' said Pleshette Beamon, a 10th grade student at Hollywood High School.

'My mother doesn't know I'm here, but she'll know when she sees us on TV.'

Jackson's personal manager, Frank Dileo, announced during the ceremony that the Jacksons will add three more Dodger Stadium shows to their Victory Tour schedule.

He said the new dates, Dec. 7, 8 and 9, were already sold out by mail orders for the three dates previously announced for the weekend before.

'It will be an especially moving series of performances because this will probably be the last time Michael will appear in concert with his brothers,' Dileo said.

Jackson's star, the 1,793rd to be set in cement on the Walk of Fame, was placed between those honoring singers Lefty Frizzel and actress Lupe Velez.

Jackson, who started in show business with his brothers as the Jackson Five, reached the top of his profession with two Grammy-winning solo albums—'Off the Wall' in 1980 and 'Thriller' with its seven Top 10 hits in 1983.

The singer lives in the Encino district of Los Angeles.