AS THE 17,500 people who had won tickets to the memorial in an internet lottery filed into the Staples Center alongside celebrity guests, a hard core of fans waited outside.
Near the arena, hawkers sold commemorative T-shirts, posters and buttons as a convoy of 16 black limousines carrying the Jackson family and friends drove up, followed by a hearse carrying the dead singer’s casket.
Many of the fans waiting outside wore short trousers, white socks and black shoes in imitation of Jackson and a few wore his trademark sequined glove.
Most were good-humoured, although there were a handful of protesters carrying placards about child abuse allegations against the dead star – and some fans were feeling disgruntled.
Hours before the first guests arrived at the Staples Center, Gwen Smith and her daughter Andrea were waiting behind a steel barrier nearby. Both large African-American ladies wore matching black Barack Obama T-shirts and Gwen was carrying a big black umbrella to keep the sun off.
Neither Gwen nor Andrea had tickets to the memorial service and neither of them were happy about the arrangements.
“I think it sucks,” Gwen said.
“We’ve already paid a lot of money to see Michael perform and buy albums and posters, T-shirts, jackets. Whatever Michael was selling, we bought it. We should be able to see him. I don’t think it’s right.” Jackson’s coffin had been driven from Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills to the Staples Center, but fans outside had no chance to see it. “Why don’t they put him in a glass casket and dress him up in his nice little outfit that he’d wear when he performed and parade him down the street for all the fans?” Andrea said.
“Why didn’t they do that? We’d all stand on the side of the road and throw roses at him.”
“Right, like they do in Europe for the pope,” said Margie Fedor, a short, blond, middle-aged woman who had travelled from Canton, Ohio for the occasion.
“We could pay our respects like that and they could parade him all the way down to wherever he’s going to be buried.”
Los Angeles city authorities decided against a public procession because it would cost so much to police, but Andrea wasn’t having any of it, pointing out that a local basketball team had recently paraded in victory through the city.
“If they could do it for the Lakers, why can’t they do it for Michael?” she said.
“How about the drag queens?” her mother butted in.
“In Hollywood, they had their little gay parade and they let them parade up and down the street half-dressed.”
If the fans outside the Staples Center were unhappy with the organisers of yesterday’s event, they were furious about what they saw as the media’s excessive focus on the child molestation charges against Jackson.
“We want to honour him,” Margie said.
“He didn’t do anything to those little boys. He was a caring person.”
The music business has changed so much in recent years that nobody is ever likely to break Jackson’s record with Thriller, the biggest-selling album of all time.
Gwen, Andrea and Margie agreed that they were witnessing the passing, not just of their favourite star but of the last of the great celebrities.
“There ain’t ever going to be another Michael Jackson ever. Never ever,” Andrea said.
“We’ll always love Michael Jackson regardless of the things people said about him.”