Michael Jackson: Outlining His Plan To Walk Like A Smooth Criminal On A Nightly Basis

noah | June 26, 2009 11:00 am

Michael Jackson was issued a patent for moonwalk “Smooth Criminal” shoes–“a system for allowing a shoe wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity by virtue of wearing a specially designed pair of shoes which will engage with a hitch member movably projectable through a stage surface”–on Oct. 26, 1993, and thanks to the wonder of Google Patents, you can now see the whole mechanism through which he and a few co-conspirators wanted to create an anti-gravity illusion through the power of footwear. (UPDATE: The original version of this item incorrectly cited the Moonwalk as the dance being replicated. Nevertheless, if you want to try out Jackson’s other signature dance move, you can get to your cell phone and join one of the Moonwalk flash mobs that seem to be popping up in remembrance of Jackson’s career.) [Google Patents; HT Jessica Suarez]