Jack Gordon
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Jack Leon Gordon (November 10, 1939 - April 19, 2005) was the former manager and husband of singer La Toya Jackson.
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[edit] Early life and career
Gordon was born in Springfield, Illinois to Abraham Gordon (a native born Russian) and Faye Stein (a native of Illinois). In the 1970s Gordon ran arcades at Circus Circus in Las Vegas. He got into trouble with gaming officials and served time in prison from that felony conviction. He then moved to Los Angeles and bought controlling interest in a massage parlor called Circus Maximus in West Hollywood. The massage parlor became notorious as a place where one could get "more than a massage". Because of this reputation it was a very popular place and made an incredible amount of money, mostly cash. Jack then brought two other massage parlors, one in Signal Hill and the other in Costa Mesa, California. Jack became very rich from this and he had very little to do with the day-to-day operation of the massage parlors. All three businesses were either closed because of city zoning changes or by police investigations. He then decided to broaden his horizons and go into the Star making business. He approached several starlets in his employ but they balked at the 50 percent he demanded to be their manager. He bragged that he had started out as a carney and surrounded himself with people from that tradition. An article in the late 70's in a Long Beach newspaper claimed that two of his partners from his Las Vegas days had turned up murdered and that Gordon was the prime suspect.
[edit] Marriage to La Toya Jackson
In the early 1980s, Gordon began to manage La Toya Jackson alongside her father, Joseph. In the late 1980s, he took over her management completely. He married her in Reno, Nevada on September 5, 1989, claiming that it was for her own protection against her supposedly violent family; Jackson claims that this was both unplanned and against her wishes. From this point forward, Jackson lost all contact with her family and eventually wrote a book called La Toya: Growing up in the Jackson Family, which accused her father of both physical and sexual abuse.[1]
Gordon hired bodyguards to watch La Toya constantly and would never allow her to speak to or see her family. La Toya's father Joseph stated in his book The Jacksons that he believed Gordon brainwashed La Toya and made her fearful of her own family. [1] Under Gordon's management, Jackson's career declined, beginning with her spread in Playboy, which she now claims was forced upon her by Gordon. In 1993, in their New York home, Gordon beat her and she suffered bruises. He was arrested and then released. In 1997, Gordon was forcing Jackson to appear in a hardcore pornography video, at which point she decided she'd had enough. Allegedly, Jackson phoned brother Randy Jackson to come pick her up while Gordon was out. Days later, La Toya filed for divorce and remained living in Las Vegas. [2]
[edit] Accusations towards the Jackson family
While La Toya was in seclusion for four years, Gordon continued to make accusations towards the Jackson family; he claimed that La Toya's younger brother Michael had performed monkey sacrifice rituals, abuse to Bubbles the Chimpanzee, and even accused him of forcing Lisa Marie Presley to marry him. In 2002, Gordon did interviews advertising his tell-all book of the Jackson family entitled The Jackson Family: The True Story Of The Most Powerful Family In The Music Industry. The entire family - including his former wife - stated that his allegations were "pure fantasy". La Toya Jackson emerged in 2002 making accusations of Gordon's actions; Gordon threatened to file a lawsuit but never did so.[citation needed]
[edit] Other entertainment clients
Jack Gordon had few other entertainment clients apart from La Toya Jackson. He had brief work before he met Joseph Jackson and for a short time he managed Penthouse playmate Paula Jones and porn star John Wayne Bobbitt. Jack Gordon also managed Gloria Gaynor, Shannen Doherty, and even Sharon Stone. [2]
Before Gordon became La Toya's co-manager with her father in the late 1980s (and eventually manager) it was widely known he had a dodgy past with trouble with the law. Joseph Jackson was always fearful of Gordon as he believed Gordon was probably armed. [3]
[edit] Death
Jack Gordon died at the age of 66 in a Las Vegas hospital after battling cancer for several months. [4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jackson, La Toya; Patricia Romanowski (1991). La Toya: Growing up in the Jackson Family. New American Library, 261. ISBN 0-451-17415-1.
- ^ Gordon vs. Gordon, Page 01875 Family Division Book 19990201, Page 5, Paragraph 7 (District Court of Clark County, Nevada March 3, 1998).
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