“He was already feeling ill and had been sick for a few days,” recalls Lather, who had camera blocked his new “Thriller” performance with Jackson onstage earlier that day. “Later that afternoon when we were doing additional camera blocking, he collapsed on stage and had to immediately go to the hospital.”
While Lather says that Jackson had been feeling unwell for a few days, Marceau, who was also rehearsing with Jackson in the days leading to his collapse, and was present to witness it, did not detect any ailment on Jackson’s part.
“I would have noticed something,” recalled Marceau. “There was no sign that he was on the verge of a crisis… I was in the Beacon Theatre, watching the [rehearsals], which were wonderful. Michael was on stage with about fifteen dancers. At one point I turned away to get something to drink and then, suddenly, there was a great silence. He stopped everything. Just before the music was loud, the lights flash, and then, in a moment there was total silence, it was as if the world had come to an end.”
“We were all standing on stage,” remembers Smith, “and saw him walk to the front of the stage and go down, hitting his face on the grating of the stage.”
“He had both hands by his side, with the microphone in one, and fell face-first onto the metal grate,” recalls Michael Prince, one of the show’s sound engineers. “He didn’t even put his hands out to break his fall. It was scary. And he fell down hard. I’m surprised he didn’t break his nose or his jaw on the grate.”
The metal grate is part of the stage that is specially built into the floor. Jackson uses this to create an effect in certain numbers, including “Black or White,” with bright light, wind, and smoke blasting out from beneath him. Witnesses recall that it was during camera blocking for “Black or White” that Jackson’s collapse took place.
“He was out,” says Margolis. “He fell so hard, and smacked his head on the grates so hard, that he was out cold.”
“He had collapsed, lost consciousness, and was on the floor,” recalled Marceau. “We were all petrified. There were people around him, he did not move at all. Paramedics arrived, and when I saw the stage I was very scared.”
“His bodyguards rushed over and formed a protective circle around him, holding their jackets up to give him some privacy,” says Prince. “Someone yelled for an ambulance and, within minutes, one arrived.”
