Home / Full timeline / Forbes Magazine reports that Michael Jackson, a thirty-year-old Black American, is the world’s highest paid entertainer, earning an estimated $60 million during 1988.
Forbes Magazine reports that Michael Jackson, a thirty-year-old Black American, is the world’s highest paid entertainer, earning an estimated $60 million during 1988.
1988 (Oct 3)
Forbes Magazine reported that Michael Jackson, a thirty-year-old Black American, had become the world's highest paid entertainer, earning an estimated $60 million during 1988. Jackson was ranked ninth in Forbes' Top 40 list of wealthiest celebrities in 1987. Jackson had made about $40 million from a recent worldwide tour. The rest of his earnings came from sales of his album Bad, his autobiography Moonwalk, music publishing, and endorsements and commercials he made for the Pepsi Cola Bottling company. In 1987, the wealthiest entertainer was another Black American, comedian Bill Cosby. Cosby had an income of $84 million in 1986-87. Other Black Americans on the 1988 list were actor-comedian Eddie Murphy, talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and professional boxers Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Michael Spinks.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.