John Kehe, Monitor’s design director, said he was an eyewitness to Michael’s decision to wear a single glove after seeing another man wearing one for technical reasons.

John was designing the music video for Can You Feel It, Michael’s song with the reunited The Jacksons.

Michael met John, who was the music-head of a film production company in Hollywood, for a meeting at the production facilities of Robert Abel & Associates, where Michael a man wearing a single white glove while scanning through film.

John said: “Rick [Ross, the chief film editor] was wearing a short white cotton glove on his left hand as he ran the film through his fingers, looking for the yellow grease-pencil marks he had made on various frames of film to be edited.

“To have a little green box of these disposable gloves sitting on the editing bench was standard practice for film editors in those days.