Joe Jackson (manager)

Joseph Walter Jackson (July 26, 1928 – June 27, 2018) was an American talent manager and patriarch of the Jackson family of entertainers.

According to the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame and Katherine Jackson's book My Family, The Jacksons, his year of birth was 1929.

He was the eldest of five children.

His great-grandfather, July "Jack" Gale, was a US Army scout; he was also an Indigenous American medicine man.

Jackson recalled from his early childhood that his father was domineering and strict, and he described himself in his memoir The Jacksons as a "lonely child that had only few friends".

After his parents separated when he was twelve, his mother, two brothers, and sister moved to East Chicago, Indiana, a suburb outside Chicago in Northwest Indiana, while he moved with his father to Oakland, California.

When he was 18, his father remarried, and he moved to East Chicago to live with his mother, two brothers, and sister.

He soon got a job in East Chicago at Inland Steel Company but did not finish high school.

While in East Chicago, he began to pursue his dreams of becoming a boxer and found success with the Golden Gloves program.

While he was preparing for a professional boxing career, he met 17-year-old Katherine Scruse, who also lived in East Chicago and attended Washington High School.

Joe was married to another woman, but was divorced in less than a year before he started dating Katherine.

Joseph and Katherine were married on November 5, 1949.

In January 1950, they purchased a small two-bedroom home on 2300 Jackson Street near East Chicago in Gary, Indiana.

Their first child, Maureen Reillette "Rebbie" Jackson, was born four months later on May 29, 1950, in the Jackson house.

Still employed at Inland Steel, Jackson left his hopes of becoming a professional boxer in order to support his family, and began working there as a fulltime crane operator.

He later took a second part-time job at American Foundries in East Chicago.

In the meantime, his wife Katherine tended to their growing family.

During the late 1950s, she began working part-time at Sears in Gary.

Joseph and Katherine went on to raise ten children, as their son Brandon Jackson (Marlon's twin) died just after he was born.

During the early 1950s, Jackson briefly performed with his younger brother Luther Jackson in their own blues band The Falcons, playing guitar.

Despite their efforts, The Falcons did not get a recording deal and subsequently broke up after one of their members, Thornton "Pookie" Hudson, founded his own band in 1952.

That band became a successful doo-wop group named The Spaniels.

In the early 1960s, Joe Jackson began pushing his sons in a musical direction after they began playing around with his musical instruments while he was at work.

He then first started working with his three eldest sons Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine.

Younger sons Marlon and Michael were eventually put into the band; youngest brother Randy was too young to join at the time.

Joseph began enforcing long and intense rehearsals for his sons.

At first, the group went under the name The Jackson Brothers.

Following the inclusion of Marlon and Michael in the group, their name was changed to The Jackson 5.

After a couple of years performing in local talent contests and high school functions, The Jackson 5 got a color TV set after the judges awarded them second place.

Joseph booked them in more professional venues, including in Chicago, and they eventually landed a gig at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

On November 21, 1967, The Jackson 5 were signed by Joe Jackson to their first record contract with Gordon Keith, owner and first president of Steeltown Records in Gary, Indiana.

The group's first single "Big Boy," with Michael as the lead singer, was released by Steeltown on January 31, 1968.

"Big Boy" did not become a hit but because the brothers actually had a single released, they became local celebrities in Gary after it received some airplay on local Gary radio stations.

Within the year, Jackson helped to land his sons an audition for Motown Records.

The Jackson 5 received a record contract with Motown in March 1969.

Shortly after, Joe Jackson moved his family to the Los Angeles area and sat in on every recording session the group made for Motown.

The group received nationwide attention after their first single for Motown, "I Want You Back", hit No. 1 following its release on October 7, 1969, and included on their first album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, in December 1969.

Joseph Walter Jackson was born in Fountain Hill, Arkansas, to Crystal Lee (née King; May 1907 – November 4, 1992) and Samuel Joseph Jackson (April 4, 1893 – October 31, 1993) on July 26, 1928.

His father was a teacher.

He was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2014.