Legacy Files

Autumn 2010

Amsterdam – Part 2

Only a handful of hours before we needed to catch the flight to Israel, so we took a quick stroll over to the Anne Frank house and got a bite to eat (pancakes with ice cream on top). Then we caught a taxi to go meet with Dutch fans at a café near the train station. After searching high and low and making ourselves rather late, we found the café in the most obvious possible place, and had a very special, quiet meeting with the fans. We formed a circle with our chairs, and I had a chance to get to know some of the people behind the dots. I drew dots, signed autographs and we took lots of photos.

Cool.                                                  Yum!                                                      Stuck...

I would like to apologize to Michelle and the two fans who were trapped in a stuck elevator on our way out of the café. Perhaps it wasn’t kind to laugh hysterically at their entrapment and their scared faces, which I could see through the glass elevator doors as I looked into the elevator shaft. Just for the record, though, I was not the only one laughing and Michelle agrees that in retrospect it was pretty funny.

After the elevator-rescue-operation, fans walked us across the way to the train, and we made our way to the airport to fly to Israel.

 
Israel

One week in Israel with my family is exactly what the doctor ordered after a hectic but exciting European tour. We had a great event at the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv where many Israeli fans came to get their dots.  I was surprised to see how young the fans were in Israel because almost all of them were teenagers or in their 20s. I think it’s so great that there is such a large group of new generation Michael Jackson fans in Israel! We spent several hours speaking to the fans.  It was particularly interesting to give dots to some people in the Israel military.

Thanks to Evgeny, Dror and Abigail for organizing this event. It clearly meant a lot to the people who were able to attend, and I know it meant a lot to Michelle and me. I definitely felt the love for Michael Jackson at this event as people came wearing his t-shirts and fedoras and hung their mp3 players from the window blinds to fill the room with Michael’s hits.

On a personal note, this was my first time signing my autograph on fans’ body parts (arms), a fascinating experience.

Evangy.                                                                                          

Abigail.                                                                               Dror.





Israeli fans showing love for Michael.



Autographing an arm!

I want to thank the event organizers for taking us out for a late-night dinner and for staging such a meaningful event.

I would like to apologize for being the only person at the event who was both born in Israel and needed an English-to-Hebrew translator. And, thanks to Abigail for translation.

In Conclusion

I’d like to thank Michelle for arranging the entire trip and taking care of every detail.  I’d like to thank Denise for leading the international press efforts and thanks to Valerie, Linda, Theronda, Pam and Kim for all their help and support in making it such a successful and memorable trip.

Finally, thanks to everyone who came out to our events and made this trip a success, and to all the supporters at home who remind us every day of your love and support.

~David Ilan

To read the rest of the tour highlights, please click one of the below links.
Part 1: Rome, Austria and Amsterdam

Part 2: Germany

Part 3: Belgium

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