Category: Cher Outfit Watch (Page 1 of 8)

Cher At Large

October 9, 2023 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Fashion

Cher attended Fashion Week in Paris again this year with Alexander Edwards and it looks like “things” are back on. The week produced some beautiful pictures and happy-looking pictures of Cher.

Life

Then there was the big scandal uncovered in the released divorce documents between Marieangela King and Cher’s son Elijah Allman. The news sources online went batsh*t that day. I’m always uncomfortable commenting on Cher-family news, those private details we only know because Cher is world-famous.

And yet it is those personal stories that are the most poignant of any memoir or life story, those human moments that go beyond the journal of work experiences. And actually, this was what made the stage show The Cher Show meaningful I felt, the key idea being that Cher is not fearless (as we everyone might believe). She is, rather, a person full of fear and the show explores how she navigates in that space of fear. It’s beyond any movie, song or personal appearance, and yet it’s also about all that, too.

On Stage

Speaking of which, the stage show has finally hit the road with a list of shows coming to a town near you (except not a town near me because apparently most touring companies, like most Americans, consider New Mexico to be a foreign country). I would love to go see the show again but I’m not sure I will be able to make a show trip happen any time soon.

Peruse the touring schedule and watch a video excerpt: https://thechershowtour.com/

Even though the pre-Covid touring show was planning to hit the University of New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall in Albuquerque, this new tour seems to be playing smaller venues with a new cast. Oddly, there’s no update or mention of this show from the main Broadway page, https://thechershowbroadway.com/, which still lists a 2021 tour coming soon.

Music

The new single was released for the Christmas album and there are some good reviews.

from Attitude:

“to be as daringly un-Christmassy as possible. Save for some subtle sleigh bells here and there, that is. And you know what? It’s refreshing.

This is a cut-glass powerhouse pop-dance banger that would work just as well in the height of summer at a beach party, or year-round at circuit parties. Fire will be blasting it through the speakers come Christmas Eve, that’s for sure, and maybe through to Boxing Day.

After so many desperate attempts by modern artists to tap into the commercial viability of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ – when even Chris Brown is dropping cringe-inducing festive fare, you know all bets are off – Cher outshines them all with this cool, chill cut from upcoming album Christmas, which the icon promises is “not your mother’s Christmas album.” We don’t doubt it. Just call her Mother Christmas!”

The Rolling Stone review posted the track list: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/cher-holiday-album-single-dj-play-a-christmas-song-1234847962/

“DJ Play a Christmas Song” is the first record listed on the track list, which boasts guest appearances from Stevie Wonder, Darlene Love, Michael Bublé, Tyga, and Cyndi Lauper. The 13-track album features four original singles and new interpretations of “Santa Baby,” “Run Rudolph Run,” and “Please Come Home For Christmas.” Helmed by producer Mark Taylor, the album recreates Wonder’s “What Christmas Means to Me” and Bublé’s “Home. This meant she would entertain the thought of updating classics, but would also recruit Tyga to rap on “Drop Top Sleigh Ride” and drop it on the tracklist right next to the Bublé cut. Sarah Hudson — a pop songwriter with credits on records from Dua Lipa, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and more — helmed that unexpected collaboration, as well as “DJ Play a Christmas Song” and “Angels in the Snow.”

Billboard also did an article about the album: https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/cher-talks-first-holiday-album-christmas-1235435413/

And the wikipedia page also lists the tracks and other basic info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_(Cher_album)

The Pink News https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/10/06/cher-releases-festive-single-dj-play-a-christmas-song-and-the-reviews-are-in-top-tier/

Initial fan Tweets: https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/10/06/cher-releases-festive-single-dj-play-a-christmas-song-and-the-reviews-are-in-top-tier/

Cher Universe is also tweeting about how the downloads and presales are faring around the world: https://twitter.com/TCherUniverse

The Cher-effect is definitely already present in song one, but interesting Cher’s voice gets clearer as the song progresses. Voice manipulation will continue to be controversial. And I continue to evaluate my own feelings around it. I’m never excited to hear it. All my favorite singers have voices I like for their organic qualities. Whatever values they have, those voices are solidly themselves. I do not want to hear, for example, Barry Manilow’s voice put through a vocoder. Well, maybe for a minute, just for chuckle.

But the point is, Cher doesn’t like her natural voice. So shouldn’t she be afforded the artistic license to use it as a material to manipulate like, for example, clay or paint? What I don’t like personally, I do defend intellectually. And at this point if you criticize Cher for using voice manipulation, she’ll give you the middle finger. Which is what we have here, in a nutshell, as a Christmas song. And that’s just as badass really as having the reputation for hiring four hitmen to rescue the son of Gregg Allman from a British pop singer.

There are four new songs by Sarah Hudson (who turns out to be the daughter or Mark Hudson from The Hudson Brothers) including the dance track. Billboard describes another one of her contributions, “I Like Christmas” as bluesy. Also on the album are 3 1960s-era R&B/Soul songs, 1 1950s-era rock-n-roll classic, 2 pop songs, a big-band jazz song, 1 rap and 2 country songs. Pretty good spread.

“DJ Play a Christmas Song” – new song
“What Christmas Means to Me” (duet with Stevie Wonder)
This Motown Christmas staple popularized by Stevie Wonder in 1967. The original b-side of the record was “Bedtime for Toys.” One 3 occasions on this album Cher revisits originals with their artist of note, which is a nice way to express her respect for these songs.
“Run Rudolph Run”
According to Wikipedia, this 1958 hit was “written by Chuck Berry but credited to Johnny Marks and M. Brodie due to Marks’ trademark on the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Oh boo. The b-side was “Merry Christmas Baby.” You may remember the Bryan Adams version if you are a child of the 80s and had that first red “A Very Special Christmas” album with the Keith Haring cover.
“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (duet with Darlene Love)
The nice thing about this duet with Darlene Love is that Cher and Love worked on this Greenwich-Barry-Spector-penned song together back in 1963 (Cher singing background vocals) on the Phil Spector Christmas album, “A Christmas Gift for You” where the song originally appeared. It wasn’t technically a single but the song has become one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. Darlene Love reports that she and Cher were very excited to re-record it together again. And Darlene Love doesn’t get nearly enough popular attention for her amazing vocals nowadays, so it’s significant that she’s on this album getting some spotlight.
“Angels in the Snow” – a new song
“Home” (duet with Michael Bublé’)
This is an unlikely choice, Michael Bublé’s 2005 single “Home.”
“Drop Top Sleigh Ride” (duet with Tyga) – a new song
“Please Come Home for Christmas”
“Please Come Home for Christmas” was a 1960 Charles Brown hit, later re-done very memorably in 1978 by the Eagles (a favorite band of Cher and so this technically adds to her covers of Eagles songs). The b-side of the Brown hit was the awfully parenthetical “Christmas (Comes Once a Year)”… but it starts in October so…
“I Like Christmas” – a new song
“Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without You”
This song is not yet linked on Cher’s “Christmas” album Wikipedia page so its provenance is a bit mysterious. It might be from the 1965 “Christmas with Buck Owens and his Buckaroos” album, although the song, co-written by Owens, is technically “Christmas Aint Christmas Dear Without You” on that album which also contains the charmer “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy” and “Santa’s Gonna Come on a Stagecoach” which unfortunately sounds more interesting than it is.
“Santa Baby”
This big-band/jazz smash by Eartha Kitt with Henri René and His Orchestra from 1953 was also covered by Madonna on that first 80s “A Very Special Christmas” album. I hope Cher takes it in another, less baby-doll direction.
“Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart” (duet with Cyndi Lauper)
Cyndi Lauper and Cher sing this country song together, one of the songs LeAnn Rimes performed on her 1997 ABC movie “Holiday in Your Heart” about Rimes (playing herself) “preparing to make her debut at the Grand Ole Opry at Christmas” (Wikipedia). I liked Cyndi Lauper’s 2015 country album, “Detour” so I’m looking forward to this duet. Plus those two have great chemistry with each other.
“This Will Be Our Year”
This is the track that gets me all verklempt. This Zombies song was not even a single from their 1968 Odessey and Oracle album. I started the year with this song; it my New Year’s Day Tweet. And I grew quite attached to it during the year. That Cher closes her Christmas album with it and thus my year will end with it…well, that’s really quite moving.

I forgot to mention this but back in January, Cher and Eric Esralian published an Op Ed in Newsweek about Armenia: https://www.newsweek.com/you-cannot-erase-us-opinion-1776282

Cher Shows Completed

September 30, 2022 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher just made a big splash (or two) at Fashion Week in Paris:

- Rolling Stone
- The Guardian
- People

I’ve been keeping my nose in projects lately. On top of that, ICANN had a meeting in Kuala Lumpur so it was the nightshift for me last week. And now cleaning furiously for a visit next week from my friend Natalie (the real Lion in this story) is visiting and we’re taking a scenic train trip on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic from Colorado to Chama, New Mexico. We’ve been trying to plan this trip since Covid started. Sigh.

And I’ve been continuing to work diligently documenting Cher TV shows. Recently I finished the tour through the solo show. As part of that I watched the Bob Mackie interview in the Cher TimeLife DVD set. Here's a summary of that:

Mackie said he started working with Cher when she would ask for him whenever Sonny & Cher did early 1970s TV specials and Cher liked working with him because he was young. She was intimidated by old people in show biz, Mackie said. “I’ll never be older than 30,” she told him. “I’d be old then.” Mackie added, “look as us now.” Turns out death is kind of more intimidating that old age.

Anyway, Mackie says he saw S&C as a novelty group back then and that after the Beatles arrived they weren’t really getting booked anymore so they transitioned to a nightclub act.

He acknowledges Sonny & Cher were the same height, but that Cher had “a tall look.” He said for the first season of their variety show the network gave them no money and so Mackie had to recycle Carol Burnett dresses (they are the same size and measurements) and keep using the same basic white dress made over with embellishments. He said Cher always looked better than the models in his clothes. He said Sonny and Cher had a good PR agent and Cher was getting a lot of magazine covers.

Mackie says he was there for the first variety show planning session and he remembers the writers didn’t really know what to do with Cher. Was she like Keely Smith? No. Mackie could see Cher had something nobody else had. “She looks like nobody in show business.” Was she American Indian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic? He reiterates that he thinks her armpits are her best feature. He said she had a nice “soft six pack.” He said once the censors saw the show’s huge ratings, they relented on the belly button thing.

Mackie says they were always running late and pulling all-nighters on sewing outfits. Dresses would be hand-beaded and take hundreds of hours to finish. Cher was always very happy with bugle beads, crystals, feathers and rhinestones. Mackie’s favorite dress was the Time Magazine/Met Gala dress. “It looked like you could see something but you couldn’t.”

He says Cher outfits have been experiencing Internet nostalgia recently and he sees copies of his dresses on young celebrities and drag queens everywhere.

He says their outfits were never vulgar, never trying too hard. Cher was “never posey” and could rock a t-shirt and jeans as easily as a historical costume dress. He said she was fearless with outfits and unlike other glamour girls wasn’t afraid to look silly. He said Cher was really laid back and easy and full of energy.

As we know, Mackie was doing the full suite of costumes for The Carol Burnett Show and only had the bandwidth to do Cher’s outfits on all her variety shows. Ret Turner took over, working with Mackie, on the rest of the cast including Sonny and Chastity. Turner and Mackie had worked together on lots of shows, Mackie said.

Of the Tina Turner, Kate Smith, Cher Beatles medley, Mackie says, “you will never see that again” and “you have to see it to believe it.”

He says the Laverne character is the complete opposite of Cher. He says he worked with Teri Garr earlier when she was a dancer on Hullabaloo. He said the 1970s was the Golden Age of Variety (which surprised all of us, Mackie said, “because we thought were at the end of the road.”) But never again would networks spend that kind of money on a big orchestra, couture-level costumes, sets and all-around glamour.

Mackie said in the recent Broadway show think-tank sessions Cher’s likeability kept coming up as a phenomenon. Cher wins you over, Mackie says, and people have an “odd fascination” with her. People “always wanted to know what Cher was doing.” He said it was “tough for the girls playing her. Nobody’s quite like her.”

I really enjoyed re-evaluating the Cher episodes in chronological order this year and I came to have more respect for what the show was doing: more overt feminism, trying to present Cher in her own right, a stronger focus on musical guests. There were a few cringy moments but there were just as many, if not more, really fabulous, history-making moments the show doesn’t get nearly enough credit for. It’s the show I was probably the least familiar with going into the project, having never seen any episodes before VH-1 re-aired some in the 1990s. I definitely could see a continuation of the cultural work the Comedy Hour was doing but with a bigger bang.

In some sense, the next incarnation of the Cher TV with Sonny would seem like a regression. But it wasn’t. After sweating it out on her solo show, Cher could now hold her own side-by-side with Sonny and it shows.

And any tension underscoring their post-divorce reunion may have turned America off (as the show’s ratings didn’t stay high), but looking back the show was nonetheless interesting in some entirely new ways.

New-Old Cher Releases, Sonny Bono Dinner Party, Cher in Vogue 1971

July 30, 2021 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

Re-Releases!

First things first, Cher has been rereleasing her classic 70s-era Warner Bros. remastered on her YouTube channel. First Stars was released a few weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/c/cher/videos

Today her channel announced that I'd Rather Believe in You will be next, coming out in August: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQc8H3CgeD8

This is happy news for fans who, although stocked with bootlegs, have been pestering for an official release for over two decades. The remastered Stars sounds pristine and hopefully the albums will someday be available on other streaming platforms or in physical form (with some scholarly words of perspective). Very happy July surprise!

In other music news, the single copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album with the Cher vocals on two songs, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, has been sold by the feds. Follow the story here. The second buyer paid millions once again and their identity will possibly be revealed in a few months. The Wu-Tang Clan wishes that the album be played only in small groups for 88 years from the date it was first sold to the nefarious Pharma Bro back in 2015, which means most of us will not live long enough to hear it. That is unless the resale contract was interrupted by federal confiscation.

Sonny Bono Dinner Party

July has proven to be busy for Cher Scholar. I've started listening to KCRW again (lots of great stuff I’ve missed over the last five years I’ve been away) and I've thrown three small parties in as many weeks, and learned how to use my new braille machine.

For my upcoming birthday I received some meditation/introspection playing cards from a friend and the first one had the question: What makes you weird? I have a million answers to this but the one that pertains here is the fact that last Saturday I threw a Sonny Bono Recipe dinner party. And what's even more weird is the fact that it's not the first one I've thrown. I did it once before when I was 12 years old as a last-hurrah to my Sonny & Cher fandom, right before I decided it would be somewhat less weird in the 1980s to go solo with Cher.

But last Saturday I invited my friends Priscilla and Mikaela over and they were gamely willing to test out a few of these Sonny recipes. Mikaela also came over to teach me how to use my new braille machine. The fact that I just bought a braille machine is also a little bit weird.

I made the recipe for Sonny Bono's Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce from The Dead Celebrity Cookbook by Frank DeCarlo.

Mr. Cher Scholar made Sonny Bono's Pollo Bono from the Baltimore Sun.

He made a vegetarian, fake-chicken version for me.

Cheap table wine: check. Everyone liked the results. The biggest critique came from me, which was to say the fake chicken was rubbery (but very tasty). Mikaela said the chicken was "fantastic, excellent" and she loved the spaghetti too. She said she especially loved watching the video I showed them before dinner of Sonny & Cher cooking on The Mike Douglas Show (thanks to Cher scholar Jay for that). Priscilla said she loved the Pollo Bono too and is usually very picky about her chicken.

Mr. Cher Scholar said, "I like his recipes because they’re authentic stuff made at home, not over-the-top elaborate. Simple ingredients. Simple process." Afterwards he said he would make it again for his brother. "It's not hard."

Alterations: Our chicken breasts were huge. Monstrous. So he ending up baking them for 50 minutes at 375 degrees.

Spinning up the braille machine wasn’t so easy. Mikaela works at a school for the blind and she was able to bring me some braille guides. She showed me the basic concepts of the braille “alphabet.” We had a paper-loading issue which was solved by my googling "braille paper-loading issue" and getting the result "How do I load paper into the ^*#! brailler?"

Then we had an issue with the carriage return that caused us to take the whole machine apart, which Priscilla did with our drill. We all then looked at inside and provided speculative theories about the problem. Mr. Cher Scholar saw some "teeth" inside which needed to catch the return. He adjusted the margins and then it worked.

He usually avoids fixing stuff like an allergy so I asked him later what inspired him to do that and he said it was working with a manual typewriter all those years as a show-biz writer. So this was a real four-person team effort.

Then Mikaela taught me how to use the braille keys! Which are very cool and insanely complicated at the same time. I have to practice, she says, before I start typing out poems on the thing.

Perfect Pork Chops (Correction)

Another early birthday present I received yesterday was Celebrity Recipes, a newsstand publication from the 1980s judging by the big Heather Locklear, Linda Evans and Michael Douglas pictures on its cover. Anyway, on page 32 it claims that Perfect Pork Chop (the recipe I also have from Singers & Swingers in the Kitchen, The Scene-Makers Cook Book by Roberta Ashley) is actually Cher's recipe.

Cher in Vogue

The following spread is from Vogue, September 1, 1971. This was the same year their first live album came out. while they were still on the nightclub circuit.

Their live album cover is unusual in that the gatefold only shows a large photo of Sonny & Cher facing each other, a kind of extravagant gesture for a gatefold of recording artists on the skids. The photos are also very shadowy and almost abstract, especially the front cover.

So it's good to see another shot of Cher in the album outfit and have it described by the scribes of Vogue magazine.

Cher, Elizabeth Taylor and Helen Hardin

March 30, 2021 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Notice the caption in the image to the left ("anticipates Cher") from an Elizabeth Taylor biography.

I'm doing a poetry/story HTML project right now for a class on Digital Literature and I needed to beef up on the subject of Elizabeth Taylor for it. I was never a huge fan because (a) this was my mother's era and (b) Taylor was on somewhat of downward slide when I first learned about her in the late 1970s. But I've gained a lot of respect for both Taylor and Richard Burton since reading more about them.

So it's come as a bit of surprise to see some natural parallels between Cher and Elizabeth Taylor, especially considering Cher doesn't call out Taylor as a major inspiration like she does Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn, aside from the obvious references to the movie Cleopatra: Cher's eyeliner methods and Sonny & Cher first calling themselves Caesar and Cleo.

But there are a few other connections I:

Elizabeth Taylor loved to make big entrances in shows and in life. Many times in books, people mention her "big entrances." This might go back to the biggest entrance of all in Cleopatra.
She pushed some fashion envelopes. See above. The big headdress screamed Cher when I saw it in one book. The second book I picked up even calls it out. 2.b Costume Changes: apparently Taylor broke a record for most costume changes in a movie with Cleopatra, a record eventually broken by Julie Andrews.
Elizabeth Taylor embraced the good and the bad about being famous and was able to cope with it. Cher often expresses the same kind of ambivalence but not bitterness about having to deal with mobs and the wheels of show biz.

I didn't find a lot of Cher-Taylor mashups online but Cher did appear at Taylor's televised 68th birthday bash. See the photo below of Taylor and Michael Jackson clapping to Cher's comments.

And here's a link to a 60s-era photo of Sonny, Cher and Taylor.

Interestingly, the tabloids were also trying to get rumors going about an affair between Cher and Richard Burton, which seems funny in retrospect.

Also, I finally came across this picture of artist Helen Hardin on the cover of New Mexico Magazine with her late 60s wings. This photo always reminds me of Cher's wings in 1968:

And in 1969:

More Moonstruck, Bobbleheads, Biden and Interviews

March 5, 2021 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Another good Moonstruck review appeared in The New Yorker while I was away.

B.D. McClay admits this movie’s “selling points have always been a problem" and then delves into the psychology of our inner wolf-ness. Huh. Something just dawned on me. Anyway, many characters in the movie, McClay notices, are “torn between who [they are] and who [they believe] themselves to be.” Loretta can’t “admit that she is a wolf, too” and “her coverup is a form of agency, ” her “own wish to feel in control, just as nothing is driving her father’s affair but his refusal to admit to his wife that he fears death.” Interesting.

McClay also interestingly notes that Ronny’s exasperation of Loretta in his line “I ain’t no freakin’ monument to justice!’ is ultimately ironic because he has indeed become a monument to his own pain. McClay also feels the idea of family is almost more important in this story than the escapades of the couple, “being a member of a family, you assume a kind of doubleness among people who have known you for a long time, which is part of what makes trying to be somebody else appealing.”

“You could flip over the table and see what happens” McClay says about taking life risks and compares the movie to Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, especially As You Like It. The movie “shares the same spirit. It’s a comedy, but it’s deeply obsessed with death, to the point that it opening a funeral parlor.”

Not many reviews and pieces for Boobleheads came out and they were ultimately unsatisfying anyway. People Magazine interviewed Cher. She says, “No one has ever asked me to do voice-overs” and called her voice “a strange voice.” She also states, “This is a film for young people. Little kids don’t know who I am.” I wonder if little kids believe Cher is simply just another a character or bobbledom. “For me, it was a story about being yourself…[a movie] that sends a good message.”

When asked, she admits she does have a bobblehead of herself (I’m assuming custom made) and says she “might be a little bit old [for them].” Well, not me sister. For some reason this movie has made me feel insatiable with the desire to own a Cher bobblehead. There's also a mention in Entertainment Weekly and Exclaim for some reason only reviewed the trailer. Dude, we can all watch the trailer. What purpose do these trailer reviews serve?

There were also some bigger general interviews:

Good Housekeeping

Kayla Keegan notes Cher’s “fearless devotion to being herself” and catalogues all of her public activities of 2020 and summarizes her life a bit. Most interesting was Cher's memory of the first book she actually enjoyed reading (after struggling with dyslexia), a book given to her by Sonny called The Saracen Blade.

The Guardian

Simon Hattenstone elicits some good comments in this Guardian interview. He notes on the outfit that made such a splash in London in December, the “two-tone black-and-white beret, matching jacket, skinny jeans, black boots, black mask, and an elephant-shaped knuckle-duster.” They discuss Trump and Biden, Kaavan the elephant, her Free the Wild and Cher Cares charities, the California fires that burned the side of her house, the price-tag for her Vegas show (an estimated $60 million a year but she defends that this supports 100 staff…Hattenstone also notes her estimated worth of $360 million). Sonny is referenced as her “Svengali and lover” and they talk about her feelings about him after he took all their shared earnings and then some. She talks briefly about Camilletti and Allmas as well.

Hittenstone notes that Cher “has a touch of Mae West about her” and “a surprising stillness.” He calls her a “serious, understated actor” but also notes her recent “gloriously camp cameo” in Mama Mia. (You could say that about all her recent roles.) He says she’s “never quite received the acclaim she deserves” and that “very few women have been so empowering for other women” due to her independence, longevity, chutzpah and level-headedness. He also remarks on her “steadfast” sobriety despite her very public dramas.

He mentions that in his experience other “megastars are evasive, talk in soundbites or reel off anecdotes on autopilot. Cher answers fully, as if considering every question for the first time. She doesn’t pretend to be your friend or feign intimacy.”

Although she refuses to accept his linking her past plastic surgeries to the current trend of teenage girls going under the knife. Hittenstone calls her “freakishly fit” which seems like only something you would only say in 2021.

She mentions in the piece that she’s working on saving a gorilla and another elephant now.

CNN

Oscar Holland at CNN talks to Cher about gay men, her son Chaz, Kaavan and Biden and the recent news that she may be directing a movie soon, tangentially related to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She’s also working on a new album, which begs the question of where the ABBA2 album got off to. Maybe it succumbed to Covid-19. Hopefully not.

Cher Copies at the Met Gala 2019, a Cher Meme and Vincent Price

November 10, 2020 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

Dresses

Looking at a recap in Cosmopolitan magazine, I noticed two dresses at the 2019 Met Gala that seemed very derivative of past Cher dresses. I don't know why but the Kim Kardashian dress reminded me of Cher's 1998 dress for the Academy Awards. Is it me?

And Jennifer Lopez wore Cher's "Take Me Home" dress (live version).

Cher Meme (I’m here)

Cher set off a meme October 21 when she simply texted "I'm here" after being away from Twitter for awhile. Many people responded to finish the thought. For example, Alanis Morrissette replied "to remind you."

My version was "I'm here…I said to the cobwebs forming in the bathroom we use everyday."

Read other responses:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/cher-im-here-meme

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/9472313/chers-im-here-tweet-alanis-morissette

Vincent Prince on the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour

A few months ago I watched the early 1970s Dr. Phibes movies and got really into Vincent Price, "the Gable of Gothic," even buying one of his cookbooks and reading Vincent Price, A Daughter’s Biography by Victoria Price.

I found I have a few things in common with Vincent Price, including St. Louis, Missouri (growing up there I already knew that), Albuquerque, New Mexico, a love of Native American art and a love of the horror genre. So I've been watching a lot of Price movies on streaming.

Plus, one of the long lost episodes of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour is the Vincent Price episode so I was interested to know if Victoria Price would mention this episode in her book. I actually had trouble finding it at first. Turns out her parents were going through a divorce that year which took up most of the chronological section of the book in 1973. In chapter 29 where she catches up with Vincent Price’s early 1970s TV appearances she covers the show:

“…I did meet a few famous people who really impressed me. During my one allowed hour of television I often watched reruns of I Love Lucy, so when my father guest-starred on The Lucy Show in 1970, my mother took me to watch the taping…A few years later, my father took me with him to tape an episode of The Sonny & Cher Show [really really the Comedy Hour]. I had seen the famous duo on TV, and was causally interested in meeting them. Their daughter Chastity was a baby, and I was introduced to both mother and daughter in what seemed more like an exotic boudoir than a typical studio dressing room. But much more exciting than meeting Cher was meeting their other guest star, George Forman, who had just been crowed heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He seemed so big that when he shook my hand I was afraid he would crush it. But he had the gentlest handshake. I was thrilled to meet him because I was a sports fanatic. Growing up in Hollywood, I never idolized movie stars. I never found them glamourous because it seemed to me that they were simply my father’s colleagues. But sports were another thing. And animals. For my tenth birthday, I was taken to meet my favorite movie star—Lassie.”

Chastity too was duly impressed by Lassie when the dog appeared on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

George Foreman actually didn’t end up airing with the Vincent Price episode. This isn’t unusual as guest stars were probably filmed, cut and aired as needed. Vincent Price’s episode aired with The Temptations on December 5, 1973 (Jerry Lewis had the Halloween spot for some unfathomable reason). George Foreman ended up in the #56 and #60 episodes which aired on December 12, 1973, and January 16, 1974 respectively.

Cher in Vogue, November 1969

October 13, 2020 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Right around the time Sonny & Cher appeared on The Mike Douglas Show in the fall of 1969, Cher also appeared again in a 10-page Vogue spread in November. Her hair is the longest I’ve seen it here. Was this before the live performance she recalls when her hair got caught in her dress zipper and she had to cut it off? Anyway, the photo spread is a great example of this transitional period where some pics look like Cher circa the 1970s and some still look like her 1960s self. The spread is called “Fashion to Enjoy/The Price is Right/The Girl is Cher”

The first pic reminds me of Cher's 1971 album cover, the long eyelashes, the eyebrows.

She wears a $13k bracelet, 2 of them in fact set with 16k diamonds into platinum and the rest is 18k gold and an Etruscan finish. The credit talks about "total cartage…Considering all this, the tab figures. Right? Right.”
(ugh, how the rich talk)

In the second photo you can see Cher's bangs growing out. I love the flowing dress. It's really a long leotard and a long wrapped skirt, all for $123. The copywriter loves her "glorious hair." The credits say, “She of Sonny-and-“

She wears a bun on her head for this one and Egyptian sandals. Cher, like Ali McGraw, has big feet.

This is a Paynne velvet silver dress for $36 and at the time could be found at Sax Fifth Avenue.

This is a $110 silver colored knit once to be found at Bloomingdales. Some great bang flowing out there. And look how long that hair is!

I think of this first outfit as the odd Phyllis Diller Dress. It's $90 chiffon from either Lord & Taylor or Famous-Barr.

More big boots in the second pic, a $35 star dress from Lord & Taylor. The caption references her 30-inch hair…did they measure it?

Hard to believe she just had baby 10 months ago! This is a $135 purple Halston dress. The caption says that "after her success in Chasity" she's planning another movie, title undecided.”

They caption calls this $300 Halston tie-dye tan and brown pantsuit $300 “pas sic Cher” (thus everywhere)

I love these next two outfits. This is a $130 semi-see-through gauze apricot. One of the sandals is too small for Cher's foot. The caption talks about her “3614 Jackson Highway album in Muscle Shoals, Alabama”

The accordion dress! Mauve gauze in "a cloud of pleats" including pleated sleeves and scarf. This could be found at Saks Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus

Cher in Furs

August 7, 2020 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

We've all seen those iconic photographs of Sonny on the phone brokering business with Cher in the foreground in a black and white fur coat. I always thought maybe this was their house office.

Well, those photos are from the Vogue shoot from November 1967 as it turns out. And it also turns out that this room is “Sonny’s Sunset Strip office.” Well, what an affectation a Sunset Strip office is!

The article says, “Sonny is all business, of course. He has to be, what man isn’t…” Apart from having two sentences needlessly separated by a comma, that casual sentence is hilariously sexist.

What is Cher doing while Sonny is all business? “Cher diligently reads her fan mail.” Not business-related I guess.

Here are the actual photos that ended up in the magazine (click to enlarge):

Cher is also shown in her Excalibur “tooling” around.

She’s also shown shopping at The Sunset Strip store The Psychedelic Conspiracy. The first picture is in the magazine, the second is an alternate image online.

I must say I love these jumping pics though.

All photos display Cher wearing her fur coats and include notes on the stores where she purchased them. It reminds me of Cher's 1986 Blackgama ad.

I could be wrong, but it seems doubtful she would do a fur spread these days.

She seems much more furry-friendly and less fur-friendly now.

Cher and Gene, Billy and Christie

April 24, 2020 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

I came across a picture of Cher and Gene Simmons from the late 1970s that reminded me of the paparazzi pics of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, the joking way the couples dealt with the press. This was before the craziness of late-80s aggro paparazzi.

Back then Gene Simmons did not appear in public without is KISS makeup on. So when the couple went out or did publicity, Gene would have to obscure his face or hide behind Cher.

In this snapshot, Cher is obscured but seen to be joining in the game of wearing a handkerchief.

Which reminded me of this shot of Christie and Billy (I actually remembered this pic from seeing it in the 1980s!):

Stuck at Home with Somebody Variations

April 7, 2020 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Stuff to Hold Us Over

Cher tweeted the picture (right) of herself staying at home. Which is what most of us are doing right now, give or take an ocean view.

A small list of things cancelled on me recently:

– Cher concert in Kansas City
– My 50th birthday Rio Grande rafting trip
– A local family reunion
– Mr. Cher Scholar's mother's internment
– All plans to leave the house

It sucks to be human right now but you have to keep reminding yourself, it could be much worse. Crazy enemies could be bombing your house. That would be a lot worse, especially because you'd lose your internet connection.

We're so spoiled.

Anyway, this month was to be my first visit to see a Cher show this tour but, as we all know, everyone's everything was cancelled this season or postponed and all our plans were given wedgies.

Maybe this will give me time to catch up on tour reviews.

In the meantime, hopefully you aren't going crazy by forced inactivity. Like toilet paper and frozen pizzas, here are some things to hold you over:

A few year's ago Cher scholar Dishy sent me a song on a 45 record. I didn't have a record player at the time. I dug it out last weekend and played it, Sonny singing "I'll Change." Cher scholar Robrt informed me recently this was originally a Don Christy (Sonny's pseudonym) track on Rush Records in 1961. It was released a few times after Sonny became well known, including this misleading 45 label indicating Cher had anything to do with it.

The lovely CR Fashion Book cover is out. Read the interview, see the pics here.

Along with the 45 above, I dug out all copies of my favorite Cher song, "Somebody." Here's a breakdown of the versions:

The LP version without the gospel wailing outro. I didn't know this version even existed until one of the compilations came out. My first LP had the outro, but I've since found LPs that didn't have it.
The LP version with the gospel wailing outro and the single version (this is also the single version, the B-side to "A Cowboy's Work is Never Done"). My parents had the LP album with this version on it. So from my narcissistic viewpoint, this feels like the canonical version.
There is also a radio edit version that's so dramatically different it will blow your mind.

And finally, for years I've been trying to locate a picture of Sonny & Cher's wedding rings together. I know I had seen that somewhere. I was looking through the opening credits of the movie Good Times when I found it. Now I've totally forgotten why I was looking for this but…here it is. I'll remember someday and by that time completely forget that I left it here.