Candles, teddy bears and tears lined the streets of Hollywood on Friday as grieving fans of Michael Jackson gathered to celebrate the musical icon's turbulent life and times. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
HOLLYWOOD - CANDLES, teddy bears and tears lined the streets of Hollywood on Friday as grieving fans of Michael Jackson gathered to celebrate the musical icon's turbulent life and times.
DOZENS of fans appeared outside the Jackson family compound in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, leaving candles, bouquets, assorted flowers, teddy bears and cards, several bearing the message: 'We Love You, Michael.'
Tokyo native Yuka Suzuki brought her six-year-old daughter Sana to see the flowers. 'I grew up with him in Tokyo,' Ms Suzuki told AFP. 'Jackson's music was always there, his song was always there.' News of Jackson's demise spread like wildfire on Thursday, sending fans flocking to the UCLA Medical Centre where he was pronounced dead while others gathered near the gates of the rented mansion that was his final home.
Hundreds of fans joined devotees who had camped out overnight on Hollywood Boulevard's 'Walk of Fame,' the stretch of sidewalk where celebrities are immortalised with stars set into concrete.
A makeshift shrine was slowly being built around Jackson's star, with mourning fans leaving candles, flowers, personal letters, teddy bears, balloons and paintings in his honour.
'This is my last opportunity to pay tribute to a hero, we love Michael Jackson and the whole world will miss him,' one fan, Nan Khan, told AFP.
'My first concert ever was Michael Jackson in Washington in early 1984 or 1985 and I was 13-years-old.' Anthony Robinson, a 35-year-old fan, said he had spent the night at the site after Jackson's death was confirmed on Thursday.
'I haven't slept at all,' Mr Robinson told AFP. 'When I learned the news I went to the Westwood hospital and when we got the confirmation I came here to pay tribute and remember the King of Pop.
'He was my second God - I can't imagine the world without him.' One fan, who gave her name as Mary, offered prayers to Jackson at the site.
'I just was telling him how we'll love him and how wonderful was his legacy and how we'll miss him,' she told AFP.
One entrepreneur saw a business opportunity in Jackson's death - hastily printing commemorative T-shirts bearing the slogan: 'The King of Pop Rest in Peace. August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009. There'll never be another!'
'I started printing 2,000 T-shirts at 3pm yesterday when I learned the news of Jackson by Twitter, at 2am I finished the printing and came here, to start selling to the fans in the street,' said David Anthony, 25.
'I was born in 1985 but my father and uncle love his music, he was just magic,' said Anthony, revealing he had already sold around 500 T-shirts. -- AFP
