Mickey Deans
Encyclopedia
Mickey Deans a musician and entrepreneur, was the fifth and last husband of Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

.

Early life

Born Michael DeVinko in Garfield, New Jersey
Garfield, New Jersey
Garfield is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 30,487.When the area that is now Garfield was first developed in 1873, it was known as East Passaic. In 1881, the community's name was changed to Garfield in honor of...

, on September 24, Deans was a discothèque manager.

Judy Garland

Deans met Garland in 1967 when he delivered prescription drugs to Garland at her hotel in New York City, according to both his own book Weep No More, My Lady (1972) and Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir
Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir
Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir is a memoir written by Lorna Luft recounting her mother Judy Garland's life, Luft's life with mother and dealing with life after her mother's passing...

(1998) by Garland's daughter Lorna Luft
Lorna Luft
Lorna Luft is an American television, stage, and film actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and the half-sister of singer and actress Liza Minnelli.-Biography:...

. Upon marrying him in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, on March 15, 1969, Garland said, "This is it. For the first time in my life, I am really happy. Finally, I am loved." Three months later, Mickey found Garland lying dead on the tiled bathroom floor of their rented Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

 house dead from an overdose of barbiturates.

After Garland

Following Garland's death, Deans co-authored a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...

 of Garland with Ann Pinchot, Weep No More, My Lady. The book includes autobiographical elements of Deans' pre-Garland life and their time together. The book was published in 1972 by Hawthorn Books with paperback editions issued by Pyramid Books.

Work

Mickey played jazz piano professionally, often travelling when not working at New York's Jilly's nightclub. After Garland's death, he worked as assistant to impresario/producer Roy Radin in putting together old-fashioned vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

-type revues associated with The Police Conference of New York, a police fund raising organization also associated with Roy Radin. (Radin was found murdered in 1983 in the infamous Cotton Club
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem, New York City that operated during Prohibition that included jazz music. While the club featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era, such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith,...

 murder, so named for a film Radin was producing.) Later, Deans settled in Cleveland, where, at one point, he opened a "haunted mansion" to paying customers.

Personal life

Mickey spent time at his summer home getaway in a quiet suburb outside Cleveland, Ohio. There he kept to himself, barely making an appearance in his few-acre hideaway with a swimming pool and three-acre pond.

Death

Mickey Deans died of congestive heart failure in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

 on July 11, 2003, aged 68. Rather than being interred with Garland at Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery
Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located on Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, about 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian...

 in Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....

, his ashes were sent to an individual in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. Before much could be learned about Mickey Deans, his son also died just a few months later.

Publications

  • Weep No More, My Lady ISBN 0515029890 Pyramid Books Edition, & ISBN 0816160392 G. K. Hall (1972), aka Judy's Story (1974)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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