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Australian music promoter and featured agent Harry M Miller died at the age of 84.
The "visionary entrepreneur" died peacefully in Sydney on Wednesday, HMMG, the agency he founded, in a statement. his longtime partner Simmone Logue, his daughters Justine, Brook and Lauren and their mother Wendy, "he says.
Harry Maurice Miller was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on January 6, 1934, the only Jewish child Parents, Sadie and Jim Miller.When Miller was two years old, his father, who was working as an indentation officer, broke his spine in a fall.He died six years later. [19659002] "The Jewish community took me to a Jewish orphanage in Wellington … called Dextrons," Miller recalls later.
His first taste of show business was to do a "peep-show" Students – a shoebox with cellophane windows through which it could wrap a comic book: "I'd usually charge children a marble."
After school Miller worked as a dairy hand, on a trans-Tasman passenger ship, as a vendor for knits and stoves, and in a restaurant. He began organizing entertainment – an activity that led him to found a record company.
His first signature, four Maori singers known as the Howard Morrison Quartet, was a local hit
. musician Louis Armstrong. Miller went to the United States to approach the director of Armstrong, Joe Glaser. When Miller asked, "Did you have dollars, kid?", Miller says no.
Miller remembers: "He thought it was so funny, that this kid was trying to buy Louis Armstrong, that he thought I should, he and he did it. "
Armstrong toured in 1963, the same year Miller moved to Australia, founding Pan Pacific Productions with Keith and Dennis Wong, who owned the Sydney Checkers nightclub
Miller released Judy Garland for three concerts in Australia. 1964. Garland, an addict, held out for the Sydney stadium shows, but the concert at Melbourne's Festival Hall was a disaster. Miller was standing near the back, "calm the anger and abuse as the audience retreated."
But he was rarely mistaken, coupling chutzpah with charm, beauty and business acumen.
in the 60's included the Rolling Stones, orchestra leader Artur Rubinstein, Herman's Hermits, Beach Boys and Sonny and Cher.
Miller consolidated his reputation in 1969 by staging the American musical Hair in Australia
singer, hiring Marcia Hines, 16, but not realizing that she was pregnant. Miller became the guardian of Hines until the age of 21.
Miller followed Hair with the musical Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice, then the Rocky Horror Show by Richard O. Brien
. the Society of the Art Gallery of New South Wakes. In 1972, determined to make society less stifling, he ran to be its president. The countryside was bitter. As Miller recalled in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2003, there was a feeling against "the vulgar New Zealander who brought the Rolling Stones to Australia".
But Miller's rival campaign, Mervyn Horton, collapsed The television team noted aside that some people were "concerned about Mr. Miller's Jewish past."
As president, Miller invigorated the company. In the 1970s, Miller became a director of Qantas, sat on the board of directors of the Meat and Livestock Corporation (he elects Simmental cattle), and organized the Queen's Silver Jubilee. celebrations in Australia.
"I think I was in the situation where I was asked and agreed to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every burial," said one Miller day
. by establishing a ticketing company, Computicket. Sydney's Sun newspaper reports, "Harry M can see the day when, with the help of cable TV, guests will be able to book shows from their living room."
The idea was visionary but in six months Computicket was in escrow.
In 1982, Miller was convicted of five charges of fraudulent embezzlement of $ 728,000 relating to Computicket; He spent ten months in the prisons of Long Bay and Cessnock
. When he resumed his career, he was reluctant to discuss any aspect of the Computicket case. In an interview in 2010 on the ABC Talking Heads, he remembered that he had "cried every day" in prison – but continued to run his cell patrons: "You do not fall and you just collapse because something is wrong 19659027] What the media quickly learned, thank goodness, was that if they did not play the game, they were not even in the game.
People represented by the Harry M Miller group included Lindy Chamberlain, race coach Gai Waterhouse, fashion entrepreneur Maggie Tabberer, Big Brother contestants, and Judy Moran, the wife of Lewis Moran, figure of the Melbourne underworld Miller would take up to 25% of earnings
Miller also negotiated the "cash for comment" offers for broadcaster Alan Jones. [19659002] He drew criticism for making money through tragedy and sense He represented Stuart Diver, who survived the 1997 Thredbo disaster. Miller also directed the funeral of INXS singer Michael Hutchence
Miller told Talking Heads that his greatest success was managing the story of Chamberlain when she was released after being unfairly imprisoned at because of the death of his daughter Azaria. as a "broker / seller", keeping the unwanted media at bay until he sold Chamberlain's story: "What the media quickly learned, thank goodness, was that if they did not play, they were not even in the game.
Miller's private life was complicated. "My wandering eye is something I've struggled to control all my adult life," he wrote in his autobiography
. His first marriage, in 1957, with Zoe von Uht, produced a son, Simon, but ended in 1962.
] He married an American, Patricia Mitchell, in 1963, but that unfortunately ended four years ago later when she took their two children to the United States
"She took it all," recalled Miller in his 2009 Secret Agent autobiography. "I remember coming back from a trip and standing in our empty house, I think the kitchen sink was still there but very little else."
1972, after the death of his mother, Sadie, Miller married a 23-year veterinarian, Wendy Paul. They had two daughters, Brook and Lauren. Wendy supported him during the Computicket scandal, performing the Harry M Miller group and their large Simmental cattle property, Dunmore, in Manilla, NSW New England.
This was followed by an 11-year relationship with the Deborah Hutton model, which the Harry M Miller Group had headed into the corporate world. (Hutton was initially the public face of the Grace Bros. department store)
In the late 90s, Miller met Simmone Logue, a caterer and businesswoman, whom he described in 2010 as "the Love of my life.
retired in 2009 and handed over his business to his daughter, Lauren Miller Cilento.
In 2011, Miller was diagnosed with vascular dementia. He moved to a senior care facility but spent his weekends with Logue. In August 2015, when he and Logue were photographed in east Sydney, she was pushing her wheelchair.
Miller leaves behind Logue and his five children – sons Simon and Miles and daughters Brook, Lauren and Justine
. In his autobiography, Miller detailed his funeral plans: "It's the producer in me, I suppose."
He wanted his ashes to be scattered on the cliff in front of his home in Wombarra, north of Wollongong.
not be a funeral service as such, but a memorial, preferably at the Capitol Theater in Sydney. People will get up, talk and sing and they should all have a drink without having to leave. "
Funeral arrangements still to be confirmed.
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