Michael Bush spent 25 years making the stage clothes Michael Jackson wore in front of the world. The sparkling jackets, the sharp military looks, the outfits built to move. Bush and his partner Dennis Tompkins made somewhere around 800 to 900 of them, all the way up to 2009.
It’s a remarkable run. And it started in the strangest way.
The two men first crossed paths on a movie set in the mid-1980s, while Michael was filming the Disney short “Captain EO.” Bush was sent to a trailer to get some clothes ready. It was dark in there, and hot, and Michael had been holed up inside for hours with a little snack to pass the time.
Bush got to work. Then something small tapped him on the head.
He kept going. It happened again. On the third tap, Bush finally picked up whatever had landed near him and tossed it back in Michael’s direction.
That’s when Michael let loose with a whole handful.
The man who dressed Michael Jackson tells the story himself
Listen to Bush describe that first meeting in his own voice. You can hear how much he loved the man, right from that odd and funny beginning.
So what exactly was flying around that trailer? Cherries.
Michael had been snacking on them, and he’d started by flicking cherry stems at the new guy to see what he’d do. When Bush threw one back instead of getting annoyed, Michael answered with a big handful of the fruit. That silly little battle in a dark trailer was the start of a friendship that lasted the rest of Michael’s life.
Bush shared the whole tale in his 2012 book “The King of Style.” It says a lot about Michael, really. The man could be shy and serious, but he also loved to play, and he tested the people around him with a bit of mischief.
Here’s a peek behind the scenes of the very film where it all began.
Behind the scenes of “Captain EO,” the set where they met
Watch the color and the costumes and all the work that went into it. Somewhere on that busy set, two men who’d never met were about to become a team for the next 25 years.
All because of a handful of cherries and a man who threw one back.