Gary Mayor Rudy Clay has been by turns controversial or comical, but I have basically always thought that he was smarter than a lot of people give him credit for.
Until Michael Jackson died. Now I'm not so sure.
With a perfectly straight face, Clay told reporters that he expects the run-down home in which Jackson and his family once resided in the Midtown neighborhood of Gary could become the next Graceland.
I have been to the gate of Graceland, Elvis Presley's ostentatious Memphis digs, on a number of occasions, but I have never been inside. The price tag has always kept me from getting beyond the wrought iron gates with the musical notes on them into the equally tasteful mansion beyond, but the lure of the leopard pattern wallpaper has been a temptation, I will admit.
Still, there is no shortage of pilgrims willing to put down good money and see Elvis' private plane, his palatial home and the shrine where his mortal remains lie. He makes more money dead than he did alive, and a lot of the visitors were not even born when the King passed in 1977.
Graceland has always been an attraction. The house at 2300 Jackson St. in Gary has been an eyesore for years. I can imagine people shelling out good money to get the first bus away from it.
Memphis has experienced a renaissance of its Beale Street area, once rundown but now a thriving night-life district with blues clubs, bars and restaurants.
Looking for Gary's entertainment district? Let me know how that turns out for you.
Clay says plans are afoot to turn the old Jackson homestead into a museum or part of a grander scheme to use the fame of the late King of Pop and his siblings to start Gary on a renaissance of its own.
"If it's good enough for Elvis Presley, it's good enough for Michael Jackson, too," declared Clay. The similarities between Graceland and 2300 Jackson have somehow managed to elude me.
You can argue Jackson was as much an influence on pop music as Elvis Presley was on American rock. Last week, more than a dozen of Jackson's albums shot to the top of the charts as news of his death spread.
So I will concede Clay's point that if it is good enough for Elvis, it's good enough for Jackson.
But even though Michael Jackson accepted the key to Gary from former Mayor Scott King back in 2003, his visits to the old hometown were pretty few and far between, and it was clear Jackson was far more comfortable in his Los Angeles mansion than he was in Midtown Gary. And I'm not going to blame him for that.
So my guess is that if anything is going to become a shrine to the late pop star, it's not going to be in Gary, although I think there may be fans so ardent that they make the visit there. It's going to be where the glitz and glamour are. It's going to be in California if at all.
Gary may remain a stop on the complete Michael Jackson tour package, but I hold out little hope that a museum (which has been in the works for years) is going to happen, or that the little frame house on Jackson Street is going to become the destination Graceland has become.
It's nice for Clay to dream. But it is time for a wake-up call.
The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.
