Pasadena, California. Civic Auditorium. May 16th, 1983. 857 p.m. Millions of televisions are already on. This is supposed to be a celebration, a safe show, a nostalgia night. Mottown’s 25th...
May 16th, 1983, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. A television special celebrating Mottown’s 25th anniversary was supposed to be a nostalgic trip down memory lane, a celebration of the past. Instead,...
“You are not performing that song.” Those were the exact words Don Mischer, the director of the most important television special in music history, said to Michael Jackson’s team just...
“Stop the car.” The command cut through the thick Los Angeles air like a lightning bolt. Michael Jackson pressed his face against the tinted window of his black Mercedes S600,...
Michael was halfway through Billie Jean when he stopped. Not a pause, not a slow fade. He just stopped. Mid-spin, one foot raised, sequined jacket catching the light. The band...
Pop one knee, Korea. Before dawn on the 24th of April, 1951, a column of 19-ton self-propelled howitzers grinds along a dirt road between flooded rice paddies, gunners standing in...
1943, the White Motor Company factory, Cleveland, Ohio. A halftrack rolls off the production line with something bolted to its rear bed that does not belong on any troop carrier...
It is the summer of 1943 and somewhere in the tall grass east of Kusk, a Soviet anti-tank crew is waiting. They have been told what to listen for. The...
It is the 6th of June 1944. Somewhere on the Norman coast, a man named Unraitzia Verer Hamill presses himself flat against the cold concrete floor of his bunker and...
August 7th, 1944. A young German paratrooper presses himself into the dirt of a Norman hedro. Let us call him hands because his real name was never recorded. His hard...