Every year around Halloween, Michael Jackson’s oldest son Prince hosts a special night. It’s for a good cause, and it happens in a building that any Michael fan would recognize in a single heartbeat.
Here’s your clue. You have seen this exact place before, in one of the most famous music videos ever made.
Give up? It’s the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. And yes, it’s the same theater from “Thriller.”
Remember the video? Michael takes his date, played by a young woman named Ola Ray, to see a scary movie. The old-fashioned theater where they sit in the dark and watch the screen is the Palace. More than 40 years later, Michael’s son throws his Halloween party right there, in the very room his dad made famous.
Prince Jackson’s “This Is Thriller” night inside the famous theater
This is video from a past year’s event. Watch the crowd fill the same seats you’ve seen in the “Thriller” video a hundred times.
The night is called “This Is Thriller,” and it raises money for Prince’s charity, the Heal Los Angeles Foundation. Prince has spent years doing this kind of quiet good work in his father’s name, helping kids and families around Los Angeles.
This year’s event lands on October 24, and there’s an extra treat attached to it. The auction house Julien’s is bringing over some pieces from a big Michael Jackson sale happening in December. So guests won’t only be sitting in the “Thriller” theater. They’ll be in the room with real pieces of Michael’s history.
Fans are already buzzing about which items might turn up. Some of the most famous Michael Jackson pieces in the world are tied to that December sale. What exactly makes it onto the floor at Prince’s party, and the photos of Prince standing beside those pieces, won’t be out until the night itself.
That’s the fun of it. For now, all we know is the where and the why. A son honoring his father, in the theater that helped make “Thriller” the biggest music video of all time, for a charity that carries Michael’s name.
There’s something really touching about the whole idea. Michael turned that old theater into the stuff of Halloween legend. Now his boy fills it again every October to help people who need it.
The clip above gives you a feel for the night and the room. Press play, look around the Palace Theatre, and picture what it must be like to throw a Halloween party in the most famous scary-movie theater in pop history.