LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson’s body will be taken to the Staples Center this morning, the Los Angeles police chief said Tuesday, as huge crowds gathered downtown for the pop icon’s memorial service, which is expected to be watched by millions on television.
Before the memorial, Mr. Jackson’s family arrived at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, a San Fernando Valley cemetery studded with celebrity graves, for a private service. As police helicopters hovered above, and officers on the ground held off onlookers and dozens of reporters, some 20 black SUVs, Bentleys and two black shuttle buses delivered Mr. Jackson’s family and close friends to the Hall of Liberty on the cemetery grounds.
Chief William J. Bratton said on KNX radio in Los Angeles that the police were prepared for the throngs of people to make their way to the arena and the surrounding area when Mr. Jackson’s body is transported there. Earlier, on CNN, the police chief said the crowds could rival those at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
About 50 movie theaters around the country, from Los Angeles to Washington, are planning to broadcast the memorial, The Associated Press reported, which will feature Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher, Lionel Richie, Kobe Bryant, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer and Martin Luther King III.
Downtown, the police were blocking off streets near the Staples Center and warning those without tickets to stay away, saying they would not be able to get close to the center.
By 7:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, dozens of reporters from around the world had camped out at the cemetery, with about 30 people who appeared to be fans gathered on a knoll about a mile away.
Late Monday night, local television broadcast live images of Jackson family members and others arriving and departing from the Forest Lawn cemetery. A hearse was seen driving from one building to another, backing nearly into it through a large entrance way where men then removed a coffin covered by a dark cloth.
On Monday, fans who had won tickets to the memorial service in a random drawing danced and sang in front of the Staples Center. As organizers distributed the free pairs of tickets to 8,750 of the more 1.6 million people who had applied online for them, offers of tickets priced from a few hundred to several thousand dollars appeared on Web sites like eBay and Craigslist. Site administrators rushed to remove the postings, saying such sales were not authorized by the Staples Center. Organizers of the memorial said they were confident security measures would limit illegitimate ticket holders.
But the efforts at selling tickets, as well as signs of downtown hotels filling and the police preparing for thousands of people, if not more, by ringing a security perimeter around the event, added to a sense that the memorial was taking on shades of spectacle.
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Elizabeth Taylor, one of Mr. Jackson’s closest friends, sent word through her Twitter feed that she had turned down an offer to speak to avoid what she called “the public whoopla.”
Debbie Rowe, a former wife of Mr. Jackson and the mother of two of his three children, changed her mind about attending, saying through a spokeswoman that “the onslaught of media attention has made it clear her attendance would be an unnecessary distraction.” Ms. Rowe, who was shown on local television Monday screaming and cursing at photographers trailing her near her home, has not announced whether she will seek custody of the children, whom Mr. Jackson had wanted raised by his mother, or failing that, Diana Ross.
Councilwoman Jan Perry, who is the city’s acting mayor while Antonio R. Villaraigosa is on vacation this week, said she believed the city was ready for the event, though she had not received any responses to her pleas for private donors to offset the city’s costs, which she said were expected to include overtime for the police, transportation and sanitation departments.
First Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said a “substantial” number of police officers would be deployed to control a crowd he said could include least 100,000 people. “Some people are coming in from around the world to be part of it,” Chief McDonnell said. “They just want to be close to it.”
The tickets were among the most coveted in a town with no shortage of big entertainment.
In the Staples Center, which holds nearly 20,000 people for sporting events, 11,000 seats were reserved for fans, along with 6,500 at an adjacent theater, where the event will be shown on large video screens.
Donte Zierway, 33, who flew to Los Angeles from Buffalo after entering the online lottery on Saturday, moonwalked with joy upon picking up his two tickets.
“I spent $700 to come here,” said Mr. Zierway, who works for a collections agency. “I just came. I entered my name, I prayed, and I got on a plane. Then I found out today that I had a ticket.”
He gave one of his tickets to a stranger he met at the Staples Center, Celine Althaus, 27, who had just arrived after a 30-hour flight from Switzerland and did not win a ticket. “We’re friends now,” Mr. Zierway said. “We had a few drinks last night. We’re both here for the same reason, and we both traveled a distance.”
Joey Daniel, 22, said he had considered selling his tickets but could not pass up the memorial. “This is a part of history,” Mr. Daniel said. “We could probably sell these for a lot of money, but it wouldn’t be worth it. I’m going to tell my children and grandchildren that I was there.”
Although city services may be taxed, the event could give a bump to the local economy. Just considering hotel bookings, souvenir sales, dining and other spending, an estimated $4 million would be infused into the local economy, said Robin McClain, a spokeswoman for LA Inc., the city’s tourism office. Ms. McLain said that some hotels had reported a 40 percent increase in bookings in the past week but that a clearer accounting would be known after the event.
“It is important to know,” she said. “This is an unprecedented event for L.A.”
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