Meeting with Disney’s nurse
He was busy in the mid-1980´s and I didn't expect to see him again. Yet a few months later he called. "Hello Bob, this is Michael," he said. "Do you think Hazel George is still alive?"
I said I didn't know but would find out. George was Disney's longtime nurse who also exchanged studio gossip with him. I found out that Hazel was retired yet still living near the Disney lot in Burbank.
"I'd love to talk to her," Jackson said. "Can you arrange it?"
I did, and a few days later, Jackson picked me up at my house in his chauffeured limo and I directed the driver to Hazel's bungalow.
Hazel had aged since I interviewed her for the biography and I found that I would have to prompt her. I had recorded the stories she once gave me and had brought the tapes along, so I played them back and let her deliver the punchlines.
Jackson was fascinated but scarcely said a word. When we finished, Hazel said to Jackson, "Come back and see me, and don't bring him." She meant me.
Michael continued to visit Hazel for almost ten years. He brought her classical music CDs or had flowers delivered to her, probably until her death on March 12, 1996.
