The California Dream Girl
When Michelle Phillips joined the Mamas & the Papas, she might have known drama would follow. She just had no idea how much.
1. She Was A Rock Goddess
As a member of the tumultuous 1960s folk group the Mamas & the Papas, Michelle Phillips was involved in some of the biggest feuds and breakdowns in rock history. In fact, despite her angelic face, she was at the very center of the drama—and when the group broke up, her scandals just grew bigger.
Dunhill Records, Wikimedia Commons
2. Her Childhood Was Ruined
Michelle Phillips has lived no ordinary life, and it all began when she was still just a child. At the age of five, her mother suffered a fatal brain aneurysm, and afterward, her father Gardner “Gil” Gilliam swept up Michelle and her sister first to Mexico then back to their native LA again in an itinerant, bohemian life.
But during these formative years, Michelle was learning unsettling lessons.
Lifetime, Intimate Portrait, Michelle Phillips (2002)
3. Her Father Had One Huge Vice
By Michelle’s own account, her father Gil was an extremely positive presence in her life, teaching her discipline and care. His behavior behind bedroom doors, though, was something else entirely. Throughout her childhood, she watched as her father took woman after woman to bed with almost compulsive frequency.
This would end up having a profound effect on her, but not before she witnessed something even worse.
4. She Met A Hollywood Horror Story
When she was 13 years old, Michelle met Tamar Hodel, a much older Hollywood socialite whose father Dr George Hodel was (and remains) the prime suspect in the infamous Black Dahlia slaying. Despite this ignominious lineage and Tamar’s own troubled life, Michelle admitted, “I took one look and said, New best friend!”
For better or for worse, Tamar would seal her fate.
Steve Hodel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
5. She Was A Wild Child
Tamar had suffered horribly under the hands of her father and wanted to act as a mother figure Michelle never had. Instead, she opened a dangerous world. Soon, Tamar had the eighth-grade girl supplied with a fake ID and a steady stream of uppers, and the pair waltzed around Hollywood listening to all the music they could get their hands on.
In 1961, when Michelle wasn’t even 17, the two women moved to San Francisco—and began the chapter that would change Michelle’s life.
6. She Fell In Love At First Sight
Not long after arriving in San Francisco, Michelle encountered John Phillips, the leader of the buzzy folk band the Journeymen. From the first moment she saw him, Michelle was already head over heels. “I fell in love with his talent, his poise, his ability to be leader of the pack,” she once said.
But anyone who went after John courted a very specific kind of disaster.
ABC Television, Wikimedia Commons
7. Her Crush Was Off Limits
The first snag Michelle hit in her quest for John was almost immediate: He was married. Indeed, he was in a bar phonebooth when Michelle first spotted him, obviously making “The Call Home,” as she called it. That wasn’t all: 25-year-old John not only had a wife, society ballerina Susan Adams, but also two children.
Not that any of this stopped Michelle.
8. She Confronted His Wife
Michelle had grown up in a permissive household, and even from her still-tender age, she was very comfortable with her powers of attraction. So, when she inevitably caught John’s attention, she was uninterested in sneaking around. The bold teenager knocked on his wife Susan’s door one afternoon and announced, “I’m in love with your husband”.
Still, there was a twist.
9. She Was In Love With A Bad Boy
Michelle was nowhere near John’s first affair, and Susan—battle-hardened and weary—only calmly invited her in, then told her that her husband had a girl in practically every port, and that willowy, flower-child Michelle was just the latest. This was true, but it’s not the twist. The shock was what came next.
Lifetime, Intimate Portrait, Michelle Phillips (2002)
10. She Stole Someone’s Man
John Phillips may have been a lothario, but he fell just as hard for Michelle as she fell for him; he later wrote that it was as if she “stepped out of a dream” and into his life. The Casanova was cuffed: By 1962, John and Susan were divorced, and he and Michelle had moved to New York and gotten married.
Of course, by then John’s other problems began to surface.
Lifetime, Intimate Portrait, Michelle Phillips (2002)
11. Her Husband Was A Snake
John Phillips was incredibly musically talented, but he was also—as one of his circle put it—akin to a “charismatic snake-oil salesman”. Inconstant and opportunistic, he’d already chased trends like doo-wop and ballads to try to conquer the popular musical landscape. Perhaps because of his own innate caprice, John was also extremely possessive, and insisted Michelle stay in supervised dorms when he was away on tour.
Except this was just the beginning.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
12. She Gave Up Everything
John wanted Michelle completely to himself, not just in the bedroom but in all aspects of life. It led to a fateful decision. Michelle, sporting that angelic face, had recently won a teen modeling contract, but John had other ideas. To keep her in his sights, he insisted she turn the contract down, enrol in voice lessons, and join his band.
Michelle agreed, and their most iconic moment came soon after.
Alan Light, CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons
13. Their Music Was Something New
John always had his finger on the pulse, and quickly decided their folk band needed a rock angle to stay in the zeitgeist. However, he also drew from his ballad years when he wrote songs, which he frequently came up with on substance-addled walks around the city.
One such night, he formed the lyrics “All the leaves are brown / and the sky is grey / I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day” in his head. But he’d need Michelle to complete the work.
14. He Made A Strange Request
Later that day, Michelle got a rude awakening as John, still addled and wired, shook her out of bed and begged, “Help me write this!” Annoyed, she protested that she’d do it tomorrow only for him to push again, saying, “Help me now. You’ll thank me for this someday”. She got up, and it turned into the best decision of her life.
eBayFront and back, Wikimedia Commons
15. She Helped Write An Iconic Song
In their room that day, one of the first things that came to Michelle’s mind was her recent visit to St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Accordingly, the lines she came up with were: “Stopped into a church I passed along the way / Well, I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray”. Michelle has said John, averse to religious schooling, “hated the line,” but kept it anyway.
Thus was born “California Dreamin’,” one of the most iconic songs of the 1960s. The iconic band came hot on its heels.
16. She Started A Legendary Band
Around this time, John met Denny Doherty, a beautiful tenor who looked like “a fragile lute player”. Then came the inimitable singer Cass Elliot, whose sister lovingly described her as “a fat girl with a 190 IQ—so witty she never made the same stage quip twice”. Together, the foursome became the Mamas & the Papas.
But before they even got together, the cracks were starting to show.
RCA Records, Wikimedia Commons
17. She Knew How To Fight For Herself
Unsurprisingly, John Phillips’ obsession with controlling Michelle didn’t let up as their marriage went on. But Michelle’s reaction stunned him. Instead of submitting to his whims, petite Michelle began to rebel. After one particularly vicious argument, she simply got in the car and drove away, leaving John and another friend stranded.
Then, when John pushed harder, Michelle pulled a power move.
CBS Television, Wikimedia Commons
18. She Turned The Tables On Her Husband
During her tug-o-war with John, Michelle happened to meet her sister’s new boyfriend, Russ Titelman. Despite their respective partners, the pair fell fast in love and started a full-blown affair together. That’s right, it was Michelle who two-timed the philandering John, not the other way around. Her husband didn’t take this role reversal sitting down.
Sulfiati Magnuson, Getty Images
19. He Threatened Her Lover
John was so incensed, he called Michelle’s new beau up and threatened, “You know, a different kind of guy would be waiting outside your door with a shotgun”. This, despite John’s own numerous forays into infidelity. But the warning worked, and Titelman reluctantly broke up with Michelle. Not that this fixed John’s problem.
American Broadcasting Company, Wikimedia Commons
20. She Refused To Feel Shame
Michelle ended up going back to John, but she didn’t go gently. Her husband was once more shocked to find out that Michelle had zero remorse about her affair—after all, she’d grown up watching her own father with countless women, and she had no shame about her sexuality.
In frustration, John wrote “Go Where You Wanna Go” about her, with the lines, “Three thousand miles, that’s how far you’ll go / And you said to me, ‘Please don’t follow’”. The trouble was, it wasn’t just John and Michelle anymore. They had a band to keep together—and that band was about to explode.
Dunhill Records, Wikimedia Commons
21. She Was An Overnight Idol
In 1965, the Mamas & the Papas released “California Dreamin’” as a single to instant, rabid success. Soon they were playing The Ed Sullivan Show, partying late into the night—and fighting like cats and dogs. “There were so many soap operas,” their producer Lou Adler noted, especially because while John tried to control everything, Michelle “could always push John’s buttons” in turn.
The next button she pressed had the potential to set off a nuclear reaction.
22. She Made A Scandalous Decision
Michelle’s affair with Russ Titelman had caused enough trouble in the Phillips’ household, but her next choice of lover threatened the very future of her band. After long rehearsals full of mutual magnetism, Michelle finally struck up an affair with her other male bandmate, Denny Doherty.
At first, John’s reaction seemed to be his usual; he wrote a song, “I Saw Her Again,” about his heartbreak. This time, though, it didn’t end there.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
23. Her Husband Hit Back
Around this time, John and Michelle decided it was best to live apart, and John decided it was also best to get a new girlfriend, choosing socialite Ann Marshall to warm his bed instead of Michelle. Michelle’s payback was sneaky—at first. Just to soothe her own ego, she began a down-low tryst with the Byrds’ musician Gene Clark.
It was all supposed to be hush-hush. Except it wasn’t.
Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
24. Her New Boyfriend Showed Off
Whatever Michelle’s thoughts about her new relationship, Gene Clark apparently didn’t feel like hiding in the shadows. One night, he showed up to a Mamas & the Papas concert in a bright red shirt and sat in the front row. It was a loud and clear message, and Michelle, suddenly feeling game, began to belt out songs right to Gene’s face, as John looked on—with Cass Elliot happily joining in.
Michelle was triumphant…right before the situation turned on her in the worst way possible.
25. She Got Kicked Out Of The Band
John could barely take Michelle’s behind-the-scenes affairs, and he was apoplectic about this public shaming. After the show, he screamed at her, “I made you who you are, and I can take it away”. Then came two horrifying words: You’re fired!” Worst of all, when Michelle looked to her bandmates for help, they backed up John.
In the blink of an eye, she was out of the group she founded, and for something as trivial as a boyfriend. She was not, however, down for the count.
26. She Got Replaced
Michelle—angelic-looking as she was—was magnificently furious about her expulsion. This only got worse when the band took on Jill Gibson, the girlfriend of their producer Lou Adler, to replace her. Suddenly it was sinking in for Michelle that they really meant it. In response, she got a jaw-dropping revenge.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
27. She Threw A Fit
One day when the Mamas & the Papas were in a recording session, they got an unwelcome visitor. Michelle Phillips showed up, and she certainly wasn’t there for a routine social call. She screamed that she would “bury them all!” and when Denny Doherty refused to stand up for her, she tried to hit him.
Still, this was the Mamas & the Papas, and more twists were always in store.
28. She Got Payback
The Mamas & the Papas were nothing if not volatile, and despite Michelle’s behavior that day, they eventually took her back into the fold. But Michelle wasn’t done with her payback. Once she was secure in her position, she decided to mess with her would-be replacement Jill Gibson, and Gibson’s producer boyfriend Lou Adler.
Michelle strode into the pair’s hotel room just as they were toasting with champagne and announced that she was in love with Lou. In response (and distress), Lou reportedly dunked his head in the champagne’s ice bucket.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty images
29. She Was On Top Again
For a brief moment after this reconciliation, everything looked as rosy as it had ever been for Michelle. The Mamas & the Papas were still defining the 60s with their music, playing the Monterey Pop Festival next to future icons like Jimi Hendrix and turning their song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” into an anthem of the Age of Aquarius.
Yet it was Michelle’s personal life that was really taking off.
Ary Groeneveld, Wikimedia Commons
30. She Settled Into Family Life
Michelle and John used their newfound money to buy a mansion in Bel Air, where they hosted lavish parties with rock gods and movie stars. Besides that, Michelle also discovered she was pregnant with what would be the couple’s only child, daughter Chynna Phillips. Yet new house and new baby aside, this domestic bliss hid a deep darkness.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty images
31. Her Husband Treated Her Like A Doll
Throughout this time, John was still controlling Michelle, perhaps more than ever. Cass Elliot’s sister recalled of the Bel Air mansion: “I didn’t feel comfortable in that house; it was dark—and so was John’s vibe”. More than that, Tamar Hodel described how once when she went to visit Michelle there, John wouldn’t let his wife come out.
If they only knew what was really happening.
Borsari, Peter, Wikimedia Commons
32. She Suffered In Silence
To this day, Michelle remains tight-lipped about everything that was going on in that house, both before and after she gave birth to Chynna. The details she did reveal are chilling. Although there was apparently just one incident of John physically attacking Michelle, she admitted, “It was serious. I ended up in the hospital. That’s all I’ll say about it”.
It was eventually all too much for her to take.
Lifetime, Intimate Portrait, Michelle Phillips (2002)
33. Her Marriage Fell Apart
By 1968, Michelle and John’s daughter Chynna was just a newborn, but the horror story of her life at home was only getting worse. It brought Michelle to a gut-wrenching decision: She had to divorce John. More than that, she knew John would break apart after she left; as she said, “I was John’s muse, and now I was gone. I was the person John drew all his despair and joy from, and he didn’t know where to go from here”.
Where he ended up going was a tragedy.
34. Her Ex Spiraled
By this time, John Phillips was deep into serious substance use, and though the Mama & the Papas were no strangers to this kind of partying, John had always been the most self-destructive in his behaviors. Without Michelle watching on, he fell apart. Though he quickly rebounded with a new girlfriend, actress Genevieve Waite, the pair spent most of their early time trying to snag the intense drugstore narcotic Dilaudid.
Apparently, the father of Michelle’s child was so out of control that no less than rocker Keith Richards once asked him to leave his party. But Michelle was having troubles of her own.
35. Her Band Disintegrated
The same year John and Michelle divorced, the fate of the Mamas & the Papas was also all but sealed. With Cass Elliot wanting to pursue a solo career and technological advancements leaving the group in the dust, the band petered out before officially getting released from their record contract in 1969.
John and Michelle were no more, and so was their band. And this was where Michelle faltered.
36. She Met The Ultimate Bad Boy
After the death of her music career and her marriage, Michelle rebounded with actors and acting. She briefly dated an up-and-coming Jack Nicholson as she auditioned for various roles. Soon enough, she nabbed the female lead in The Last Movie, which was counter-cultural hero Dennis Hopper’s follow-up to the iconic Easy Rider.
When Michelle signed on, she must have been aware of Hopper’s notorious reputation for very hard-partying and erratic behavior. The trouble was, she didn’t see these as warning signs. She saw them as lures.
37. She Wanted To Save Him
For Michelle, used to John Phillips’ own brand of volatile rock god, Dennis Hopper was catnip. The production of The Last Movie in Peru was infamously rowdy and substance-addled, and once more Hopper was at the center of the chaos. Michelle, meanwhile, fell madly in love with the director-actor, mostly out of—as she puts it—a “Florence Nightingale instinct” to save him.
In trying to save him, however, she nearly doomed herself.
Globe Photos, Wikimedia Commons
38. She Made A Huge Mistake
Shortly after meeting Hopper, Michelle made a bad decision. The pair felt that marrying was the best way to declare their love, and they tied the knot right after production on The Last Movie wrapped in late 1970. Those present at the Bohemian wedding described “candles stuck in paper bags” as decoration and the fact that Hopper bizarrely read the whole wedding ceremony himself from the Gospel of St Thomas.
Then again, it was the morning after that really told the grim tale.
Jorge Cubells Biela, Shutterstock
39. Her New Husband Was Extremely Volatile
Hopper was, unsurprisingly, extremely not sober on the day of their nuptials, and according to one report the actor had been so out of it that waking up the next day in his marital bed, “he didn’t recognise his bride”. A friend also reported that the groom, who was an avid gunman, scared both Michelle and her daughter Chynna by shooting his pieces inside the house shortly after the wedding.
Somehow, though, Hopper was just getting started.
40. She Was In Grave Danger
According to another report from a friend, Hopper—again likely on something—tried to handcuff and restrain Michelle during this time because he claimed she was a witch. This darkness apparently extended to the bedroom as well, where Hopper reportedly made “unnatural” demands of his bride. As for Michelle’s perspective, she will only describe it as “excruciating”.
She knew she had to get out, but it took a push to do it.
Fairchild Archive, Getty Images
41. Her Father Had An Intervention
In the end, for all the interminable torment she faced with him, Michelle’s marriage to Hopper lasted only an incredible eight days. It was Michelle’s father who struck the final blow; she described how “My father dragged me into his attorney’s office and said, ‘Men like that never change. File for divorce now”.
She listened, and her love life was never quite the same.
42. She Was An It Girl
After surviving both John and Hopper, Michelle would never again submit herself to a man like them—in fact, she emerged out of these unions as the aloof It Girl on the Hollywood scene. She rekindled a romance with Jack Nicholson for a year, then left him and quickly struck up a relationship with the infamous rake Warren Beatty.
Even so, a dark cloud was about to come into Michelle’s footloose and fanciful world.
ohn Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com, Flickr
43. Her Friendships Lasted A Lifetime
Michelle always maintained a relationship with her old bandmate Cass Elliot. The pair shared almost everything, and often set up their respective young children as playmates, with Michelle’s daughter Chynna being just a year younger than Cass’s own daughter Owen. But there was one thing missing.
CBS Television, Wikimedia Commons
44. She Asked The Million-Dollar Question
No one—not even Michelle—knew who young Owen’s father was. In the summer of 1974, as they were lying by a pool together, she bolstered up the courage to ask Cass Elliot about the girl’s paternity, even though Elliot had kept tight-lipped for years. Laughing, Elliot waved Michelle off and said, “I’ll tell you when I get back from London,” where she was due to perform solo.
Except Elliot never came back.
45. She Got A Weepy Phone Call
Cass Elliot had been feeling poorly for weeks before her London shows, but she still managed to knock the performances out of the park. She even called Michelle afterward on the phone crying from happiness at how well they went over. Then everything disintegrated in front of Michelle’s eyes.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
46. She Lost A Love Of Her Life
The next evening after that phone call, 32-year-old Cass Elliot was dead. Despite all the rumors to the contrary, the diva died of a heart attack, with no substances in her system, in her hotel bedroom. Yet no matter the manner of her death, Michelle must have been stunned when she heard the news.
Cass Elliot left a void in Michelle’s heart that she would spend the next decades trying to fill.
Arthur Dark, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
47. She Tried To Move On
Over the next years, Michelle took on other long-term partners, had one more child and adopted another, and even briefly married radio executive Robert Burch. Yet more perhaps than even her own family, she began to look after the families of others. As Cass Elliot’s daughter Owen once put it, “She became everyone’s Mama Michelle”.
But in one case, this led to utter scandal.
48. She Got Into A Custody Battle
In 1977, it became clear to Michelle that her addicted ex-husband John Phillips and his partner Genevieve were severely neglecting their son together, Tam. But after Michelle convinced them to send Tam to her to get a better childhood, it all fell apart. Before long, John and Genevieve regretted their choice, snatched Tam back, and then won a painful court case to reinstate their custody.
Michelle was heartbroken at the result, and it perhaps led her to her next mission.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty images
49. She Set A Trap
By the mid-80s, Cass Elliot’s daughter Owen was becoming curious about her infamously mysterious parentage, and asked Michelle for help finding her long-lost father. This was how Michelle solved a decade-long mystery. Michelle called in every musical connection she knew to find the man’s name.
Once she had it, she placed an ad in the paper claiming a royalty reward and directing the man to call an accountant—her accountant, that is. That way, she would be able to finally communicate with him. It worked like a charm.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
50. She Solved The Mystery
Soon enough, Cass Elliot’s old lover inadvertently contacted Michelle, who revealed the truth to him—according to Michelle, he “wasn’t all that shocked”. From there, she helped Owen have a meeting with him and go on to form a relationship.
Although the man’s identity was known only between the most inner circles for years, after his death in 2008, it was finally made public that he was guitarist Chuck Day, who played with the Mamas & the Papas on tracks like “California Dreamin’”.
Tom Marcello Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons
51. She’s A True Legend
Throughout her long career in entertainment, Michelle Phillips continues to excel in various mediums. For years, she picked up various singing performances, and even had a much-loved run on the popular late-80s show Knots Landing as scheming mother Anne Matheson Sumner. As of 2024, Phillips is 80 years old and showing little sign of slowing down.
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