Aussie A-list turns out for ‘best memorial ever’ planned by the late Harry M Miller
A MAN’S man and a ladies man, the late Harry M Miller drew many of Australia’s A-listers who loved him to a memorial he had planned for the ages.
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IT was Harry M Miller’s final production, planned before his death last month to dementia, but executed with all the sound judgment and cheeky charm that marked his wildly-successful career.
The two-hour memorial to arguably Australia’s greatest showman was also a rare gathering of the local who’s who of business, politics and entertainment - including the stars he nurtured, the powerbrokers he wrangled, and his close and devoted family, who laughed at their father’s last directive to deliver “interesting and original” speeches.
As an archival clip of the uber producer showed - spruiking the Capitol Theatre as a mecca where you could make plenty of money - even the choice of venue for today’s tribute showed the legendary impresario was a wily wheeler and dealer until the end.
Born into poverty in New Zealand in 1934, Miller’s extravagant, entrepreneurial life was undeniably of his own making, while his impact on Australia’s cultural life indelible and enduring as the first to tour global superstars from Judy Garland to The Rolling Stones.
He drew an A-list of today’s luminaries to his final farewell - pre-planned in explicit detail by the producer himself - with Ita Buttrose, Gai Waterhouse, David Leckie, Bronwyn Bishop, and broadcaster Alan Jones among the rich and powerful crowd.
Jones, who was managed by Miller for most of his radio and TV career, argued Miller had never been adequately acknowledged for the role he played as an agent of cultural and social change - a “creative genius ... who never believed that anything was impossible.”
The 2GB breakfast tsar pointed to Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in the audience as an example of Miller’s unerring loyalty, one of few people who believed she did not kill her baby daughter Azaria; before he set about selling her story to the highest bidder.
He would get ordinary Australians, including Thredbo landslide survivor, Stuart Diver, and the family of the late rocker, Michael Hutchence their “cut” shopping their best-selling and top-rating stories to the media, and so, perhaps dubiously, launched chequebook journalism in this country.
Miller’s tenacity in protecting the exclusivity of any deal, saw Chamberlain dub him her “human guard dog” - a nickname he embraced, with a studded dog collar framed and hung pride of place in his office.
Deborah Hutton, another client and Miller’s long-time partner, shared a hilarious story about arriving at Miller’s Woolloomooloo penthouse, only to discover him and the equally-hard working Jones both asleep over their soup bowls.
“I don’t know who fell asleep first, but if it was Alan, Harry must have looked across the table and thought ‘what a good idea.’”
Maggie Tabberer, one of the biggest names on Miller’s books and a lifelong friend, also had the audience in stitches when she recalled attending a “boring as batshit” trade dinner with her then-manager, who tried to liven up the night by tempting her onto the dancefloor with the sales pitch: “come on Maggie, we’re dancing for dollars.”
Helped to the stage using a cane and clearly overwhelmed by the emotional occasion, Tabberer, 81, got another laugh when Hutton pointed out she’d repeated the same part of her speech, quick as a flash, ad libbing: “well it was a bloody good story.”
Marcia Hines led the musical line-up, performing a poised and powerful rendition of I Don’t Know How To Love Him; while comic pianist Phil Scott had them laughing in the aisles with his parody song which imagined Miller producing Jesus Christ Superstar in heaven - where God was a silent partner in the musical and “the part of Jesus Christ Superstar was to be played by Jesus Christ himself.”
Jim Sharman, his “co-conspirator” and production partner for Superstar, Hair and The Rocky Horror Show, explained how Miller had stared down conservatives of that “insular era,” taking on great financial risk to stage the flamboyant musicals; while also daring to open theatres as others were bulldozing them.
Described as a “man’s man and a ladies man,” the notoriously flirtatious Miller also managed to earn the devotion of three wives, and whose magnetism would weave together loving relationships between his five children: Simon, Miles, Justine, Brook and Lauren.
Lauren Miller, who worked beside her father and took over his management business, shared how grateful the family was for his love and the extraordinary life they lived with him.
As an example of how connected her father was and unusual her childhood, Lauren was christened by the Reverend Ted Noffs, her godparents were Graham Kennedy and Maggie Tabberer, she received tennis lessons from Australian ace, John Alexander and “was the only person I know who had a beer sponsor at their 21st.”
Given the final word, she echoed what had been her father’s ambition for the occasion, when she said: “the magnitude of the man, the love that we have for him has been so brilliantly celebrated here today ... and this [was] the best bloody memorial I have ever been to in my entire life.”