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Famous Muses & Groupies in Rock Music Pt. 51

GROUPIE: Mimi Georgette ‘Mireille’ Machu (AKA, IJ Jefferson)

This series is currently just an excuse to make bios on Monkee girls I find interesting (which is a little funny because I originally started this project as an excuse to write about Zeppelin groupies/girlfriends, lol). Mimi’s another lady who can easily fit into either the music section or film section of this series, but I chose to go with music since her fling with Sonny Bono ran a bit deeper than her thing with Jack Nicholson. Mimi was born a Los Angeles, CA native and broke through professionally when she was 20 years old as part of the LA’s famous Gazzarri’s Dancers troupe. While with the group from 1964-66, Mimi performed regularly at popular Hollywood clubs and TV variety shows, most prominently “Hollywood a Go-Go,” where she was also a choreographer. In September 1965, Mimi broke her ankle while dancing at The Trip nightclub and was personally escorted to the ER with none other than a member of Buffalo Springfield (weirdly enough, there’s no credit to exactly which member aided her that night). Because of her injury, she had to take a three month break from dancing.

Mimi’s most famous moment in showbusiness was appearing as ‘Lady Pleasure,’ i.e. the lucky girl who kisses all four Monkees in their film vehicle Head (1968). At the time she was dating soon-to-be movie star Jack Nicholson, who was then a friend and writing partner of the film’s director, Bob Rafelson (which was basically the only reason she got a cameo in the movie). Shockingly, Mimi’s never been interviewed or spoken on record of her memories of filming this #iconic and #legendary screen moment (that I can find). So unfortunately we don’t know if the kisses were really ‘even’ like she claimed in the scene or who was really the best (it’s totally Mike). Besides Head, she also appeared in Hells Angels on Wheels (1967), Psycho-Out (1968) and Drive, He Said (1971), all featuring Jack as a co-star and the latter as also the writer-director. Their relationship ended when Mimi became suspicious of Jack cheating while on location in Canada and Oregon shooting Bob’s Five Easy Pieces (1970), which is a little bit of karma because Jack left ex-wife Sandra Knight for Mimi.

After Mimi and Jack broke up, Mimi left Hollywood and spent a few years in the Oregon mountains before returning to SoCal in the mid-1970s for arguably the most interesting period of her life and career. Feeling the need for a change from dancing and acting, she signed on to be former “Monkees” episode director Jim Frawley’s assistant during production of The Muppet Movie (1979); and it was through Jim that Mimi became pals with fellow film director Hal Ashby. This then led to her crossing over to film editing, where she worked on Hal’s movies Being There (1979), Second-Hand Hearts (1981) and Lookin’ to Get Out (1982), which eventually led to her editing for Paramount’s TV department up into the late 1990s.

Besides Jack, Mimi also had a fling with another celebrity, musician/producer/politician Sonny Bono in 1963, which resulted in son Sean born in 1964. Sonny was dating future second wife Cher the whole time they were together, so that was primarily why their dalliance only lasted a couple of months. I guess Sonny was never really a part of Mimi’s and Sean’s lives because when he died in 1998, Sean filed for a portion of Sonny’s estate and had to prove he was his son with a blood sample. Cher also filed her own claim at the same time for overdue alimony (even though she was loaded too…). Awkward. In the end, Sean withdrew the case and wasn’t included as an heir.

Contemporarily, Mimi resides in Haleiwa, HI near Monkees producer Chip Douglas’ homeland. During her heyday in the 1960s, fellow Head actors/Raybert girls June Fairchild, Teri Garr and Toni Basil were also close friends of Mimi. Surprisingly, ‘Mimi’ is her real first name and not a nickname, yet for whatever reason she was only ever listed as ‘Mireille Machu’ or ‘IJ Jefferson’ on film and TV credits.