The Day the Toys Died

Many people do not know that Jerry Lewis once produced a serious film called The Day the Clown Cried in which he played a clown who was captured in a Nazi concentration camp and who survived by keeping children calm and entertained for their captors as they were led into the gas chambers. It is hard to imagine anyone greenlighting that project, but fortunately it was never released because it was simply too morbidly depressing and shock the sensitivities of too many people.

Times, they are a-changin', though . . .

Hundreds of stuffed animals—some wearing a single white glove—and other memorabilia left outside the Motown Historical Museum in memory of the man whose career started at Motown Records were buried Friday in two vaults at the cemetery. Police led two hearses filled with the items and seven cars with funeral flags flying in a procession from the museum to the ceremony.

The cemetery had two donated plots, and private companies provided the free vaults and a granite headstone engraved with a tribute to Jackson. About 40 people attended the ceremony.

They buried the stuffed animals as a funeral for Michael Jackson . . . let that just sink in.

Prediction: just when interest starts to flag, the location of the body will be revealed and an elaborate burial will be staged by the family. So don't think he's old news, yet.