TMS Muses of the Week: Mimi Machu & Deanna Mollner

(Henry Diltz)

This week, my MOTW series is bringing back the rare BFF set of groupie/girlfriend gals in classic Hollywood, this time with Mimi Machu & Deanna Mollner. While my previous pair of besties were hippy dippy flower children Kay Poorboy & Francine Brockey, Mimi and Deanna were on the other side of LA at the same time in the mid-1960s to early 1970s. But from the sound of it, the light-haired young ladies operated more like teen movie bad girls, not dissimilar to juvenile delinquents Girl Freiberg & Martha Wax. Both born in 1944 and brought up at the center of Los Angeles, Deanna Dail Mollner was known by friends as either ‘DeDe’ or ‘DeAnn,’ while Mimi Georgette Machu was often credited as ‘Mireille Machu’ or ‘I.J. Jefferson’ on screen credits. Deanna’s dad, Art Mollner, won an Olympic gold medal for basketball in 1936, making it no surprise the blonde grew to be naturally athletic and initially made a name for herself as a professional dancer. The pair were discovered by Bill Gazzarri, owner of the famous LA club Gazzarri’s, who instantly recommended them to TV producer Al Burton when he noticed them dancing on the club floor one night. Burton then hired the friends as the first two background dancers for KHJ-TV’s soon-to-be locally popular music program “Hollywood a Go-Go” (1964-66). From there, Deanna and Mimi supposedly ran the whole dance department of the show, picking their own costumes and make-up, and even recruiting all the other dancers; including past MOTW subject June Fairchild and choreographer Jacqui Landrum, who was roomies with Deanna for a while too. The dual leaders of the Gazzarri Dancers even went as far as to fire any girls who “pissed them off” on the spot and just replace them with a couple of friends. In between TV tapings, the group of girls regularly danced on stage at Gazzarri’s as well.

(via gazzarridancers.com)

Since “Hollywood a Go-Go” featured performances from all the then hot music acts, the dancers became pals with many rockstars and popstars, and even dated some, unsurprisingly. Deanna’s most serious boyfriend during this period was drummer Michael Clarke of the Byrds from 1964 until the same month he abruptly quit the folk-rock band in September 1967. Mimi had a messy fling with musician-producer Sonny Bono in 1963 and was movie star Jack Nicholson’s main squeeze when his film career was kicking off in 1967-70. Deanna can be spotted dancing directly behind the Byrds during their appearances on “HaGG” and typically attended the band’s California concerts. Mimi’s most memorable moment as a short-lived actress was as ‘Lady Pleasure’ near the beginning of Bob Rafelson’s Head (1968); where she French kisses every member of the Monkees and tells them their kissing techniques are all ‘even.’ Mimi landed this part through Jack, who actually wrote most of the script and was friends with Rafelson and his producing partner Bert Schneider. Which hints at the kind of sense of humor the couple had together. The former dancer also had roles opposite Jack in Richard Rush’s Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) and Rush’s Psych-Out (1968), and appeared in Jack’s own directed Drive, He Said (1971). Allegedly the relationship ended when Mimi suspected Jack of cheating while on location in Oregon and Canada during filming of Rafelson’s classic drama Five Easy Pieces (1970).

More highlights from the girls’ heydays include: Mimi having to take a break from “HaGG” for three months after she sprained her ankle while dancing at the Sunset club The Trip in September 1965; Deanna making history as one of the very first women to wear a mini-skirt [designed by fashion legend Mary Quant] on US television during an episode of “HaGG;” Deanna [a bit dubiously] claiming she was the first person to trip on acid with the Beatles; Mimi giving birth to a son, Sean, in 1964, who later failed to receive a portion of Sonny Bono’s estate when the star died in 1998, even after attempting to prove he was conceived during Mimi & Sonny’s affair with a blood test. Following the ‘60s, both ladies ventured beyond dancing and acting, with Deanna channeling her father by playing sports full time, including basketball, tennis, golf and skiing. Mimi had an impressive run as a film and TV editor throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which began following a gig as AD for director Jim Frawley on the production of The Muppet Movie (1979). She spent the first half of the ‘70s in Oregon before moving back to SoCal but has been a Hawaii resident since the 2000s. Deanna lived all over Europe until landing on Puerto Vallarta, MX, as her home until her death in 2021.

(Columbia Pictures / coolcherrycream.com)

What’s sad about Mimi’s and Deanna’s stories is that their close friendship didn’t last. While these dalliances and adventures in showbiz and groupiedom are primarily fleeting, I always admired how some of the girls remained friends in the long run. Kay & Francine both had bleak passings but were best friends all the way through, same with Monkee girls Jan Freeman & Roxanne Albee presently. According to Deanna from a 2017 interview with Shindig Magazine, the relationship crashed and burned in 1971, with Mimi refusing to speak to Deanna up until the latter’s death. The athlete claimed she wished they could have parted ways better, and often wondered if they could have patched up things to get back on speaking terms. The two blondes were confidants from 6th grade until their mid-20s, and Deanna said it was hard accepting such an important person in her formative years being gone. One can only imagine what happened to make Mimi move on and never look back. Based on the few interviews and retellings out there, these two did not sound like nice girls, with habits of being brutally honest and no problem throwing people they deemed uncool under the bus. Perhaps it was just a matter of time before the judgment reflected personally. The takeaway here might be to not take the people around you for granted, because it could be too late when you realize how important they are.