When the average child runs away, it`s usually around the block for an hour, then home for dinner.
But when you`re a member of the musical Jackson family, bear a striking resemblance to the planet`s most famous pop star and have a father who insists on controlling your every move, breaking out becomes a little more complicated.
No, make that extravagant.
When LaToya Jackson, 31, ”ran away” from the family`s Encino, Calif., compound in May, she packed two suitcases and split for a $1,100-a-day, two-bedroom suite at New York`s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Her escape wasn`t exactly a Dickensian tale. Nor was she the first Jackson runaway. LaToya merely followed in the footsteps of her brothers and sisters, most of whom have severed ties with the family`s one-time manager and would-be patriarch, Joe Jackson, 57.
Sitting on a stool she has pulled into the corner of The Tribune`s photography studio, LaToya speaks candidly about her family and career in a whispery voice. She waits patiently for another stranger to photograph the face her brother, Michael, helped make famous.
”I had to get out of that situation because I had no say-so in what was being done,” LaToya says of her decision to cut off her father`s professional influence.
”He is my father and was a very dominant influence. He would say `These are the songs. Sing them.` I had no control. So, I just put my foot down and walked out. I had to do what was best for LaToya.
After her first album, ”Heart Don`t Lie,” died a swift and silent death in 1984, LaToya says she spent three years struggling for control of her career, before deciding to move out.
”I felt like it was time to spread my wings. Before, I was in a bird cage.”
If LaToya`s first flight away from the nest, her latest LP release, ”La Toya,” matches the success of other Jackson spinoffs, she`ll soon be able to buy that gilded cage.
In 1979, it was a 21-year-old, gloveless Michael Jackson who refused to extend his father`s contract and hired new management. In 1985, a 19-year-old sister, Janet, did the same.
Michael headed for fame rivaling that of Elvis, and Janet turned in a quadruple-platinum release, ”Control,” on her first solo leap.
LaToya hopes she`s on the same track now that she`s working under the vigilant eye of her new manager, former carnival operator and Las Vegas businessman Jack Gordon, 50.
After sharing control of LaToya`s contract with Gordon during much of 1987, Joe Jackson was cut out in March when Gordon signed the singer exclusively.
Hovering just within earshot during an interview, Gordon turns quickly when his name is mentioned.
”He (Joe Jackson) said I wouldn`t be able to do anything with her,”
Gordon says. ”What happened later in the press just made it worse.”
The sticking point for all sides was articles in People magazine this past summer in which Jackson called Gordon ”a mooch,” while Gordon was quoted as saying he loved the elder Jackson ”like poison.”
”When he said I was a mooch, I had no idea what he meant,” Gordon says. ”Joe and I don`t feel like that. We talked it over when it was happening and I`m in a lawsuit with People now over this whole thing, so I can`t say much.
”It was just blown out of proportion. LaToya needed someone to look out for her and that`s what I`m doing.”
When contacted about his relationship with Gordon, Joe Jackson`s representatives said he was unavailable for comment.
”He`s a gonif,” LaToya says of Gordon, smiling and showing off her newly acquired New York savvy.
Does she know ”gonif” is a Yiddish word meaning ”thief”?
”That`s him,” she confirms with a smile. ”And I`m learning a lot from him. Especially what it`s like in the real world.”
In a family with a list of children whose names are more difficult to remember than the Seven Dwarfs, LaToya got lost somewhere in the middle-away from the real world. Younger than Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon but older than Michael, Randy, and Janet, she grew up far-removed from life`s pressures, nestled in a never-never land of fame and riches.
It`s a life she says she resented.
”We were very sheltered children. We never had a chance to be in the real world. Ever since I can remember, I never wanted to be associated with the name `Jackson.`
”I know that I never wanted to be a Jackson. I never wanted to be around the Jackson Five. I didn`t want to be tagged as `the next Jackson.`
”I wish they (her parents) had given us room, let us breathe a little more. I understand why they didn`t, but it doesn`t mean it was right.”
Despite the affected distaste for her surname, LaToya now looks every bit a pop star. Dressed in a heavily embroidered matador`s waistcoat and a straight-brimmed hat pulled down over one eye, she admits that she`s hardly hiding.
And although she admits to a longing for success, she doesn`t want a career out of control.
”I want platinum records, lots of them. But not what Michael has,” she says as her smile disappears.
”Michael is an idol. He has given his life away. I wouldn`t be that person for anything. You have no personal life, surrounded by security and the crowds.
”We look alike, so people always come up and want to talk about him. It`s hard enough being his sister. I can`t imagine how he must feel sometimes with all those people all over him.
”We still speak on the phone and see each other, but its hard to be close to someone like that the way you would in an ordinary family.”
LaToya`s public relationship with Michael has been centered around their work with the ”Just Say No!” anti-drug campaign.
”It`s something I never saw growing up,” she says of drug abuse. ”But I see these people and the children and I know you don`t have to see drugs to know they`re a problem.”
Her commitment to the crusade against drugs turned into a creative effort on her new album. The single ”Just Say No” is her personal anthem against drug use.
”I wanted to get a street sound in my music,” she says. ”It`s that element that people can relate to. There`s no reason they can`t relate to a message about drugs, too.”
The remainder of the album is filled with the kind of music that is expected from the Jacksons. It`s dance-floor funk with bits of hip hop and a rare slice of romance-a slick combination built for mass consumption.
An earlier European release has accounted for sales of more than 100,000 albums in Germany alone. But LaToya isn`t ready to declare the album or her career a success.
”I`d like to sell a million albums and still walk down the street without anyone noticing,” she says. ”No spotlight, just the music.”
