"It makes me feel good to be here today to see the advancement that the
black Marines have made since I was in there...I never thought this day would ever come I
never thought they cared much about us."
Clarence Hunt, 86,
of Louisville, Ky
A group of African-Americans who were the first blacks to
join the Marine Corps were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, a top
civilian honor, in belated recognition for their service during World
War II.
At a ceremony on June 27 in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, lawmakers
praised the men for stepping up to serve the country, even though they
faced a segregated military and nation that didn't fully accept them.
In the summer of 1983, Thriller had begun to decline in sales. Walter Yetnikoff and Larry Stessel
answered calls throughout the night from Jackson. "Walter, the record
isn’t No. 1 anymore...What are we
going to do about it?"
"My idea was to make this short film with conversation ... in the beginning - I like having a beginning and a middle and an ending, which would follow a story. I'm very much involved in complete making and creating of the piece. It has to be, you know, my soul. Usually, you know, it's an interpretation of the music. It was a delicate thing to work on because I remember my original approach was, 'How do you make zombies and monsters dance without it being comical?' So I said, 'We have to do just the right kind of movement so it doesn't become something that you laugh at.' But it just has to take it to another level. So I got in a room with [choreographer] Michael Peters, and he and I together kind of imagined how these zombies move by making faces in the mirror. I used to come to rehearsal sometimes with monster makeup on, and I loved doing that. So he and I collaborated and we both choreographed the piece and I thought it should start like that kind of thing and go into this jazzy kind of step, you know. Kind of gruesome things like that, not too much ballet or whatever."
—Michael Jackson, interview that aired December 11, 1999, for MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made
Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 13-minute-and-43-second music video for the song of the same name released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson.
Voted as the most influential pop music video of all time,Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture, and was named "a watershed moment for the [music] industry" for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units.
In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of the
Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor,
for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.
Co-starring with Jackson was Ola Ray. The video was choreographed by Michael Peters (who had worked with the singer on his prior hit "Beat It"), and Michael Jackson. The video also contains incidental music by film music composer Elmer Bernstein, who had previously worked with Landis on An American Werewolf in London. The video (like the song) contains a spoken word performance by horror film veteran Vincent Price. Rick Baker assisted in prosthetics and makeup for the production. "Thriller" was the third and final video for the Thriller album. The red jacket that Jackson wore was designed by John Landis' wife Deborah Landis to make him appear more "virile".
To qualify for an Academy Award, "Thriller" debuted at a special theatrical screening, along with the 1940 Disney motion picture Fantasia.
