Entrepeneur who partied with the rich and famous he promoted dies at 84

FITTINGLY for a legendary impresario, Harry M Miller made sure the last show he organised was his own funeral.

FITTINGLY for a legendary impresario, Harry M Miller made sure the last show he organised was his own funeral.

He unveiled his plans with a typical theatrical flourish in his autobiography, admitting he could not help himself: “It’s the producer in me, I guess.

“There will be no funeral service as such,” he wrote, “but a memorial, preferably at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. People will get up and speak and sing and they should have a drink without having to leave the premises.”

Harry M Miller described Simone Logue as the love of his life.

Miller released his memoirs in 1999: “When it came to sleeping with women, I often found myself in two minds — yes or yes.”

Miller, the self-styled cel­ebrity super-agent and promoter, who brought showbiz’s biggest stars to Australia, has left the stage.

The 84-year-old dementia sufferer died “peacefully” on Wednesday surrounded by his partner Simmone Logue, daughters Justine, Brook and Lauren and their mother Wendy.

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Miller was born in New Zealand in 1934 and came to Australia in the 1960s where he made a name for himself bringing The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Sonny and Cher to tour. His eye for a dollar earned him the name Mr 25 Per Cent.

Shock jock and Victorian senator Derryn Hinch ­tweeted yesterday that he “crossed the ditch seeking fame and fortune” at the same time as Miller.

Celebrity agent Harry M Miller with Maggie Tabberer at the launch of his autobiography.

Sonny Bono and Cher were among acts lured to tour Australia by Miller.

Judy Garland with Australian husband Peter Allen in Melbourne in 1964, when she disappointed audiences.

“A favourite line in later years: ‘If you shake hands with Harry, count your fingers’,” he wrote.

Miller brought Judy Garland over from the US for three concerts in 1964 and stood at the back of the ­Melbourne Festival Hall “copping anger and abuse as the public filed out” as the drug-addicted star turned in a shambolic performance.

It was a rare misstep for the agent who also helped boost the careers of Alan Jones, Maggie Tabberer and his former lover Deborah Hutton.

For years he was the man to turn to for those with a story to sell.

Miller brought The Rolling Stones to Australia

American pop group The Beach Boys pictured at Mascot Airport in January 1964, on a tour organised by Miller.

He brokered ­lucrative deals for falsely ­accused baby killer Lindy Chamberlain and Thredbo landslide survivor Stuart Diver.

In 1969 he cemented his position in Australia by staging the American musical Hair, hiring 16-year-old Marcia Hines at an audition in Boston without knowing she was pregnant. He became her guardian until she turned 21.

He went on to stage the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Jesus Christ Superstar and Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show.

Miller soared the heights of celebrity along with those he made his name with.

Through the 1970s Miller joined the board of Qantas, chaired the Art Gallery of NSW and was appointed as a director of the Meat and Livestock Corporation after breeding Simmental cattle. He was at the top of his business career.

And then it all came crashing down. He started a ticketing company called Compu­ticket with vision that one day people would be “able to book shows from their living rooms”. It was visionary but within six months the company was in receivership.

In 1982 he was convicted of misappropriating $728,000 from Computicket and spent 10 months in Long Bay and Cessnock jails.

Celebrity agent Harry M Miller talks to former girlfriend Deborah Hutton at his autobiography launch.

“I cried every day of those 10 horrific months. I can still recall, and not without a shiver, the sound of the cell door shutting behind me for the first time,” he wrote in his memoir Confessions off a Not-So-Secret-Agent.

Three times married, Miller also had an eye for the ladies who created headlines.

Simmone Logue takes Miller for a walk during his illness in August 2015.

He ­denied an affair with literary agent Jill Hickson, wife of then NSW premier Neville Wran, but he did admit to a night of passion with singer Shirley Bassey while she was on tour.

“When it came to sleeping with women, I often found myself in two minds — yes or yes,” he wrote in 2009.

“Did I oblige on occasions? Yes, but only when pressed. Did I hurt a lot of people? Yes. Do I continue making the same mistakes? Yes.”

He met Logue, a society ­caterer and businesswoman, in the late 1990s.

He later described her as “the love of my life”.