Fact, folklore, fiction and mystery. How distinct are these?I used to know the story of the Barry-Johnson nuputals years ago but the details have completely slipped from my mind. However, I'm inclined to be a disbeliever.
Why? Because Margaret was already married to an American.
Margaret stayed with me for 3 months and then again for another month in 1973-4. I negotiated for her with some pretty tough NYC bar owners and did a few opening spots at folk clubs like Lena's in Saratoga.
Another thing we did together was to record an interview of 6 or 8 hours in length which was bascially her life story. About 1982, I passed the tape on to Mick Moloney and asked him to find an archive for it. Sometime afterwards, I was staying at Mick's when we heard a (false) report of Margaret's passing. He got the tape out and played it from start to finish. Possibly on the tape but, more likely as a side comment when the wheels weren't rolling, Margaret made a statement that she would give up the music when her husband was finished with Hollywood.
Hollywood? Yes, Margaret confided in me that she was secretly married to the movie actor Robert Mitchum. Things, she said, were not going well for Robert and that she hoped he would soon come to his senses, leave Hollywood and return to her.
Not too long afterwards, Robert's career took off again when he appeared in a tv mini-series and, as far as I know, this long hoped-for reuniting of the lovers never did take place.
There, folks, you have it! I ask only that, if any of you meet Peter Johnson, that you do not reveal this story. Who knows what it could do to the man?
All the best,
Dan Milner