All the guess-work was over. We knew IT had happened. Micky and Sammy had got themselves hitched over there in the Hollywood Hills… so finally ending all the gossip and rumours. And Micky was due to telephone me, as representative of all his well-wishing fans here.
Honest, I don’t know who was more excited—him or me. Micky because he was fair bubbling with all the news… because I wanted to congratulate him and hear all about it. The call came through only a few minutes later, but it seemed like an eternity. The connection was eventually made and there was Micky.
“Hi there, Jackie. This is Sammy’s husband here! You know, the NEW Mr. Juste. How are you going? Boy, am I glad the secret is finally out… it’s been murder trying to keep my own mouth shut, never mind the good folk who turned up for the ceremony. But I’m glad we didn’t go for the full publicity bit. Both Sammy and I wanted to keep it quiet as possible because if you get photographers from all over the world around it becomes more of a circus than a wedding. I believe a marriage is a very solemn thing, don’t you?
“I sure hope the fans your side don’t think I was gonna try and keep it quiet for ever, though. We just wanted our bit of privacy and a chance to get settled in on what is for sure a big step for both of us.”
Me: Well, tell me all about it, Micky. Say, were you nervous? And what about Sammy?
“Me? Nervous? You listen carefully and you can still hear my teeth chattering and my knees knocking—and that’s just over thinking about it. Sure I was nervous. One time I had about seven cigarettes going… and I don’t even smoke much! Sure I was nervous! But the pad looked great, I must say that. We had it all done out in flowers. Like everywhere you looked there were flowers—round the swimming pool, all round the patio, inside the house. It looked beautiful, believe me. We had this gang of experts in and they varied the colours and made a real pretty show of it.
“And then there was Sammy. She had to walk right through this kinda bower of flowers. That’s when I first saw her, on the big day. Walking up through those flowers, all the colours of the rainbow. She wore this rather simple, long, white dress, with long sleeves. She had this deep-brown tan which kinda set off the dress. And this garland in her hair, made up of small yellow and red roses.
“And Sammy was so composed. Like a princess, in fact. All these glorious flowers and right there in the middle, Sammy. I’m telling you, it was a great moment.”
Me: Never heard you in this sort of mood before, Micky—why, I can really picture the scene.
“Well, I wanted to give you the details. We didn’t have too many pictures taken —just by friends and so on. But it was really a great moment. I guess there were about thirty of us altogether. Davy, Peter and Mike were there, along with Phyllis and a couple of girl-friends. I kept thinking about the stunts people pull on bridegrooms at times like this, but everybody was pretty well behaved, at least till later on…
“Ric Klein was my best man. He looked a bit baffled by it all but sure looked smart. He had on this brown double-breasted suit, with white shoes and a coloured scarf. He had to wear somethin’ other than black… ’cos I was in black! I didn’t want any mix-up over who was actually the bridegroom!
“My suit was made up specially for the occasion. Black, but with this thin stripe running through it. I had it tailored on the 1890-type style and it came out great. A white ruffled shirt and black shoes—and that was me. I had a bit of a lecture from my mother who figured my hair was a bit long for such a serious ceremony… but nothing too serious! Must admit it really is growing out these days, but I like it that way. And so does Sammy.
“You may have heard that my stepfather, Dr. Scott, handled the ceremony. My new mother-in law and father-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Slater to give ’em their proper names, came over and don’t give me any of that ma-in-law talk because Sammy’s ma is just great. A wonderful person.”
Me: So who else was there?
Micky: “Well, specially important was my sister Coco, who was the Matron of Honour—that’s kinda chief bridesmaid. She was real thrilled abut [sic] the whole thing. We also had guys like Herb Schlossberg, Ward Silvester, Ric Neko (Likely Neko Cholis), David Pearl… long-time buddies who we just had to let into the secret.
“I’ve faced big audiences but just having thirty folks there made me nervous. But it was a pretty short ceremony. It started around 4.30 in the afternoon and twenty minutes later I was married! Then it was down to the celebrations. We had quite a scene, going right through until ten’o’clock when everyone left.
“We crammed about a dozen people into the recording studio I have built in my house and we jammed for hours. I played drums, Peter was on lead guitar—and for the rest… well, everybody played anything they could lay a hand on. We really made music!”
Me: Do you want to talk about exactly HOW you proposed?
“Well, not really, Jackie—I hope you don’t mind too much. I think there are some moments you just wanna keep between the two of you at times like this. And anyway I’m not sure there was any ONE moment… it’s just that we both thought about marriage a lot and somehow KNEW that one day it’d happen. Maybe we didn’t see it as an open-air ceremony out there on the patio, but we knew that it was right that we did get together in marriage.
“I guess the guests all had a good time. The champagne flowed a little bit and while I can remember what Ric said when he was toasting the two of us, I doubt if he can! How do you say it—he had one over the eight? But he’s a great guy and he did his job well. He even helped hand round the food… we laid on a sort of curry-with-everything, just to keep everybody’s strength up.”
Me: No Honeymoon?
“Well, no! You see Sammy and I have been travelling round the world in the past year or so and we figured we’d be happier just staying at my—I mean OUR —home here in Hollywood. There’s a lot to be done and we both like working around the house. But Sammy will go ahead with her scheme to open up a boutique and I’m gonna give her all the help I can. Maybe she won’t travel round so much with the Monkees from now on —though I know I’d be very lonely without her.
“The whole thing is swinging, believe me! I’m one real happy guy, Jackie—and I thank all of the fans who’ve sent goodluck messages and charms since the news leaked out. We’re so happy—and we’re happy that you’re happy too. Doesn’t make any difference to me, you know… still love you all madly!”
Me: Well believe me WE are all looking forward to seeing you our side of the Atlantic—both of you! The best of British luck to you.
“That’s swell, Jackie. Once again it’s been real nice talking to you. Our love to you all. This is Sammy’s husband ringing off…
And Micky was gone. Sammy was in the process of cooking him a super late-night supper!
