Jun 26, 2009 8:27 pm US/Eastern
DeFede: Miami Thriller Mystery
COCONUT GROVE (CBS4) ―
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Michael Jackson announces plans for Summer residency at the O2 Arena at a press conference held at the O2 Arena on March 5, 2009 in London.
Tim Whitby/Getty Images
Whenever a celebrity like Michael Jackson dies, the natural inclination is to want to feel a part of the story even if he died 3,000 miles away. We here in Miami are eager to find ways to connect to the King of Pop. And the most popular way right now seems to be the belief that Thriller – arguably the greatest music video of all time – was shot at a cemetery in Coconut Grove.
But was it?
The
Miami Herald,
CBS4 and countless other outlets in the last 24 hours have repeated the claim that Thriller was shot here, a notion that brings comfort to those who live in the neighborhood.
"Being that he was a legend, I think it was a great thing to have him come into the neighborhood and into our cemetery and film the Thriller video that went all over the world," said Darnice Brown, who lives a few doors down from the cemetery.
She says she recalls some sort of filming taking place back in 1983
"I can remember they were saying Michael Jackson filmed some parts of his video Thriller in the cemetery," she added. "But at the time I wasn't sure and I didn't believe it but after his passing a friend of mine made me remember yesterday, `Remember when he filmed the video Thriller in the cemetery?' and then I said, `Oh yeah, that's right he did do that.'"
But Darnice's mother, who has lived in the house for more than 50 years, told us off camera that she never heard of Michael Jackson filming anything on her block. And when
CBS4 News tried checking with the county's film office, they said they didn't have any records of the video being shot here. But officials also added they wouldn't maintain records going back that far.
The Miami New Times turned up an old interview with Thriller director John Landis in which he talked about the graveyard scene for Thriller being shot in a meat packing plant in Los Angeles.
All of which leads Miami historian Dr. Paul George to surmise the following about the story that the Thriller video was shot in Miami: "It's an urban legend and it's a very interesting legend."
George, who regularly leads tours through the Grove and includes the historic cemetery in his trips, said he started hearing the Thriller rumor back in the mid Nineties.
"I would hear it again and again and I would always say, `Where did you hear that from?' and they would always say, `Well we just sort of heard that.'"
Following Jackson's death, George decided to take a closer look at the Thriller video and he concluded the video was not shot in the Grove cemetery.
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