Category: History (Page 8 of 15)

Cher Respect: Little Bios and Forbes Magazine

April 12, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Some bloggy housekeeping: my parents will be in town for a few weeks so I'll be out and about with them. I'll be back to blogging in late April. And Cher News is reporting that Cher will be in the May issue of Elle as part of a feature about women in music. Miley Cyrus is on the cover.

Cher scholar Michael alerted me last week to the somewhat snarky bio of Cher on the music streaming site Rhapsody. I decided to look it up and compare it to what Pandora has. The artist bio ususally comes up on your device or computer when one of their songs play.

Rhapsody's page

Complete bio:

"Few entertainers' career paths have been as forked as Cher's. Getting her start when Sonny Bono took her under his wing and became her producer, collaborator and eventually husband, the duo produced some of the most popular duets of all time, including "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On." They parlayed that success into a 1970s variety show that showcased the pair's onstage banter and had everyone asking (as Joe Jackson would later put it), "Is she really going out with him?" Once divorced, Cher pursued a solo career with some success. "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves" and "Half-Breed" were imaginative story-songs in the Vegas revue tradition that established her as a torchy, impassioned vocalist. As her acting career began to take precedence during the '80s, her singing career fell into arrears, as evidenced on disco debacles Take Me Home and Prisoner. Recently Cher has reasserted her singing prowess and charting abilities with the 1998 hit Believe; both the title track and "Strong Enough" fared favorably on dancefloors. Clubby, slickly produced, and re-mix ready, Cher's new sound shows she'll never be too old to learn new tricks — especially when those tricks come from Madonna."

SNAP! That is a bit snarky.

Pandora likes Cher much better. They give her 12 paragraphs, which is more than they give most people, says Mr. Cher Scholar, the main Pandora-user in the house.

Pandora's page (and bio in full)

Bio Excerpt:

Cher has had three careers that place her indelibly in the public consciousness, and two have been in association with her then-husband, composer/producer/singer Salvatore “Sonny” Bono (b. February 16, 1935, d. January 8, 1998). She charted major hit records in the 1960s and 1970s, working in idioms ranging from early-‘60s girl group-style ballads to Jackie Deshannon folk-influenced pop, to adult contemporary pop in the manner of later Dusty Springfield. She also embared on an acting career, initially in the late ‘60s in association with her work as part of Sonny & Cher but later on her own, which led to a series of increasingly polished and compelling performances in Silkwood, Mask, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress."

Still, respect for Cher's career is a bit uneven. Which brings me to a Forbes article that appeared on the Yahoo Cher freaks group last week. Apparently, Forbes Magazine has published two (two!) articles on the financial success of Cher's D2K tour.

March 23: "With Strong Demand For Tickets, Will Cher's Dressed To Kill Tour Really Be Farewell?"

and April 4: "Price of Cher Tickets Continues to Rise Through First Dates of Dressed To Kill Tour"

Success should speak for itself.

Cher on Bad Biographies

April 5, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

There’s a new biography of Cher in German, “Cher, Die Biografie” by Peter Lanz. Cher responded to its existence on Twitter, saying “Don't buy this unauthorized biography crew. It p*sses me off when some *sshole I don't know presumes to write about me. Idiot." She went on to say she’s “not protected in any way, because I'm a public figure".

Biographies are a fascinating cultural artifact. They usually outsell many other categories of books. As a culture, we seem to care a great deal about trying to get to know our favorite people. This is either an obsessive pastime or some misguided intellectual quest to figure out other humans.

It is also bizarre this idea of being a “public figure.” Aside from the fact that entertainers use their “personas” as their product, I don’t see how they themselves can be defined as “public people” beyond having a public career. And to Cher's credit, it must be very discomforting to have a stranger tell your story incorrectly. Nobody can speak to how you felt.

But on the other hand, if there weren’t unauthorized biographies, there would only exist public relations spin. Although a celebrity controls the story in public relations, it isn’t necessarily always more truthful.

Cher is right that biographers don’t know her and likely get an embarrassing number of facts wrong. They may even have agendas. I always felt Lawrence J. Quirk had a conservative agenda.

But at the end of the day, even the best biographies are flawed artifacts. Every perspective is in some way prejudicial. Even one’s own. Although I enjoyed Lauren Becall’s autobiography By Myself, a book essentially made up of published diary entries, I don't doubt it's full of rationalizations, self-censures, agendas and untruths. It seems one’s own self isn’t even really qualified to write about one’s own self. And who are you anyway? Are you who you think you are, who your mother thinks you are, who most of your friends or co-workers think you are? It's hard to say.

And how would we learn anything about Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi or even Buddha, for example, if we had to rely on someone who knew them, all long dead. We should still be learning about historical icons even if their biographies are full of myths and mistakes.

Any book about Cher is doomed to this inaccuracy: a book by a stranger, a book by a friend, a mother, one of her sons, a book by Cher herself. But despite their imperfections, biographies make a good try at explaining someone’s trials and motives. Facts do tell a part of the story but certainly not all of it.

Without the messy attempts, I’d be left not knowing anything about why Frank O'Hara wrote "The Day Lady Died" or how a hard childhood in Oklahoma could make James Garner so prone to fist fights.

Which is not to say opportunists aren’t out there trying to make a buck off of celebrity fame. But who really thinks the spin Kitty Kelly doles out will affect how we view famous figures? The dis-credible biographers may make some ill-gotten earnings, but in time they tend to fall by the wayside.

The fact that Cher biographies exist at all matters. Think about how many films and books have been written about The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. None without mistakes I'm sure. There are factual mistakes in Sonny's autobiography.

And it’s fascinating to think about what Cher might mean to Germans. Too bad this book might not tell us. I still wonder why there aren't more international biographies of Cher.

Me? I could never write a Cher biography. I’m too shy to do the interviews. But I can speak to the cultural subtexts in Cher’s persona and her works and the impact these things might have had on our culture. Does this say something about me? Yes it does. I'm rationalizing Cher. But that's we do as consumers of pop culture. We interpret everything we consume, whether we think we do or not. I may not interpret things the same way Cher would. But I am not having the same experience in life as Cher is having.

There will be crappy Cher bios. (I just read an e-book that was pretty bad). But frustration just leads to suffering. You desire the biographies to be something they can never be: well-intentioned and perfect. From a distance, they’re all part of the whole mass of good and bad. Having some at all, in some way, is a sign of importance.

But there’s nothing amiss with Cher saying, “This is a bad biography. There are a lot of errors in it.”

Did you know Sonny’s sister self-published a biography last year? I found Bono vs. Bono, A Battle Royale by Frances Erikcson when I was searching for Cher eBooks. It's also available in paperback.

Here is a case in point. Sonny's sister is telling the story of her battle with her father’s last wife over Sonny’s father’s small fortune. Although you are sympathetic with Frances as you read the book, you still get an unsettling feeling that she might be skewing the story her way. She often seems too much the victim in battles with her family, and in minor battles with banks and nurses. There are too many perfect betrayals, dramatic to the degree of melodrama, and yet she keeps coming back as the perfect daughter. And you know what, this may even be true. The point is, it’s difficult to believe the narrator of her own story.

That said, the book was a fascinating read, even though Cher isn’t really in it. In fact Sonny & Cher are barely in it. The worst Frances has to say about Sonny is that the siblings grew apart when he became famous, partially because her first husband was a Hollywood player-wannabie. In any case, Frances has nothing bad to say about Cher or Susie Coehlo or Mary Bono. She doesn’t really have much to say about Sonny either, except that he sided with their mother in the family saga. This is a book about the feuds between Jean Bono (Sonny's mother) and his two sisters, with the father being the pawn in much of it. Sister Liz is often mentioned as siding with Frances, but you don’t get a clear picture of her or her story.

Forget about a Cher biography. If you strung together all the dramas of Sonny’s family, Cher’s family and Gregg Allman’s family, you could have a soap opera that would run for 10 years.

Just as I was mulling all this over this week, I came across a poem by Jane Hirshfield. It says all there is to say about biography.

It Was Like This: You Were Happy

It was like this:
you were happy, then you were sad,
then happy again, then not.

It went on.
You were innocent or you were guilty.
Actions were taken, or not.

At times you spoke, at other times you were silent.
Mostly, it seems you were silent—what could you say?

Now it is almost over.

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.

It does this not in forgiveness—
between you, there is nothing to forgive—
but with the simple nod of a baker at the moment
he sees the bread is finished with transformation.

Eating, too, is a thing now only for others.

It doesn’t matter what they will make of you
or your days: they will be wrong,
they will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,
all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,
you slept, you awakened.
Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.

Cher in the 1970s

March 8, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher’s life an career through the mid-1970s is what the book Strong Enough is about. It goes into the struggles the Sonny & Cher had from 1973 to 1975, including the fact that Cher grew up and Sonny’s fatal flaw was not recognizing the changes. Josiah Howard interviews witnesses to speak on how Sonny was behaving with everyone and the strain on the whole staff. He talks about their cancelled shows, what the tabloids were saying, the bloat (in many senses, including the title’s) of their last record album Mama Was A Rock and Roll Singer…

I appreciated how the book slowed down to really detail:

- Cher’s appearances on award shows
– Cher’s Emmy and Grammy nominations and wins
– Details on their divorce (Cher used Lucy’s divorce lawyer) and how they behaved with each other at concerts
– How CBS and MCA responded to the drama
– How the lawsuits settled out
– Cher’s outings to concerts and parties
– Which major magazines she appeared on the cover of while she was a “newsstand staple.” We also learn how the tabloid The Star built itself on Cher stories around this time.

Cher's love life after leaving Sonny has been covered extensively through the years but this book goes into Sonny’s relationships with “models and dancers” and his long term affair with “secretary” Connie Foreman, how it was Sonny on his dates with Connie that actually blew open the story about his split with Cher. (See tabloid photos of Sonny & Connie)

The book also goes into more detail than I’ve ever seen about Sonny’s solo show and the press surrounding it. How they unfortunately tried to spin him as Chaplinesque. We also learn about Cher’s real reaction to the show. This biography is also the first one to deal with Sonny’s Mimi Machu scandal. And the first Cher biography to track more fully the struggles she had with her father at this time, although I felt there was a lot more to tell here. Did he work for Sonny & Cher (I heard he did), did he really try to make money off of his connection to Cher?

The book combs through all the starting players of Cher’s solo show, called simply Cher and not The Cher Show: George Schlatter, Art Fisher (and his affair with Sally Struthers), the head writer and the writing staff, set designer Robert Kelly (remember the Cher logo and the tongue set stage?), musical director Jimmy Dale, choreographers Tony Charmoli and Dee Dee Wood (I just saw that she did that unforgettable choreography for Mary Poppins), Ben Nye II doing makeup, her PR photographer John Engstead, producer Lee Miller, her unusual dressing room, the rock and roll guests she wanted on the show and who was unavailable, her sponsors. The book details the excitement at CBS during the first few shows with other stars and dancers dropping in.

We learn again more about the beauty regimen: about her skin problems at the time (due to pancake makeup, Kleig lights, stress and bad eating), her Christina Smith eye lashes, lighting tricks used to hide acne, her hair darkenings (from warm Armenian brown to black), her Minnie Smith manicures, Jim Ortel hair and Renata Leuschner (Rena) wigs.

The book also confirms CeeCee Bloom’s character from Beaches was based on staff-writer Iris Rainer’s experiences working with Cher.

We learn about all the skits (in fine detail), what skits never aired, which were “banked,” and how the show fared in the ratings and with the press as the weeks progressed. I found it ironic that CBS typically cut songs for original airings (famously for Raquel Welch, Bette Midler, The Spinners) and when the show finally re-aired on VH-1, the majority of the skits were cut out.

One thing I could never get used to was Cher’s move from the cut-up bitch on her show with Sonny to the hip-talking, ingratiating nice girl on her solo show. "Far out man." "That’s cool!” This slangy, wanting-to-be-liked was ironically unlikable. Everyone seemed to prefer the stoic tough broad.

From the start, the show seemed to have dysfunctions built in: staff fighting, the star’s missed rehearsals and troubled private life encroaching on the schedule, inconsistent material, the show always suffered a lack of a strong point of view. Either because of this or encouraging the sense of something missing, often tapings occurred without a live audience.

Although her femme fatal characters were mostly gone, the show did profess power to the gals with memes such as “Girls are smarter,” women behind the men, and “Trashy Ladys” skits.

The book talks about how variety Shows were starting to decline around this time as detective shows were on the rise.

This is why I find it interesting each time I hear a Cher reference on The Rockford Files (a show which I watch obsessively when I can):

I’ve seen two Cher references so far since I’ve been re-watching them on ME TV: one episode was about the cut-throat LA real estate business. A real estate agent tells Rockford that he just sold a house to “Cher and Gregg.” Interesting that viewers would know what that meant. Would they today? The other episode was about tabloid journalism and Rockford was hiding out at a tabloid on a private investigation on a burglary. Rockford bemoans the potential lack of privacy in hospital records and warns about the dangers of coming across “Cher’s last physical.” The tabloid office eventually burns down.

Sonny & Cher presenting Best Original Song at the 1973 Ocsars; watch them present pretending to be couple-y.

The 1974 Grammys appearance, Cher’s first public appearance without Sonny.

Cher in FLATT Magazine

February 24, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher scholar Michael recently informed me that Cher did an interview for the new magazine FLATT. FLATT is a philanthropic arts organization that “celebrates creative entrepreneurs and contemporary philanthropic ideas.” I found my copy on eBay because I am two states away from a decent newsstand.

The cover is gorg and the interview was done by Christina Lessa. It was an exceptionally good one, too, and not just remarking on clichés about how Cher is an iconic diva. Lessa effused instead about Cher’s humanness and her status as an underdog and as a pioneer, how she always tends to steal the show (even still), and how she never looks like she’s trying. Yes, thank you! Cher herself talks a bit about singing with her mom, grandfather and uncle, her grandfather playing the guitar (love those stories!). Cher also talks about the dichotomy in her personality of being both loving and mean. She admits she has “a list” of at least one item she requires in a mate: he must be a good artist. She talks about doing a PSA for suicidal servicemen (so heartbreaking!) She also talks about discussing reality shows with Elijah and how she hates them. It even seems unlikely that she would like one with Elijah in it.

This is a big beautiful magazine with lots of amazing art and photographs. Surprisingly the magazine had two sections of poetry! “Poetic Narrative” by Marc Straus (with artwork by Bruce Robbins) was my favorite of the two represented. His were lyrics with a lot of juxtapositions of random lines. But there was an undercurrent of a story about a father. These poems reminded me of William Carlos Williams as they were written from a doctor’s point of view. His poems also contained a large amount of scene-setting, some interesting lines like “Rivers drowned in each others’ mouths,” class issues touched upon in “He went to the suburb where/they judge your lawn,” and American critique: “He said that 90 inch drapes were 89 inches long./That one inch made America rich.” The other poet Jason Armstrong Beck was included with a poem called “Dust Storm” mostly a visual study.

Quite an impressive magazine but the typos drove me nuts.

Strong Enough Biography: The Pre-Breakup 1970s

February 13, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

In the new biography, Josiah Howard covers how Sonny & Cher went from “50,000 screaming kids to 25 unimpressed adults" singing in nightclubs, living as "professional guest stars on talk shows."

This is the first book that delves into detail about how the skits and segments of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour came into being and from where all the players came from. The book also explains more of the creation of Cher's Laverne character. One of my favorite stories was how they had to bribe 250 people from the farmers market next to CBS Studios with food to attend the first taping. Howard also summarizes the initial reviews of the show and the types of fan mail the show received. Hair guru Gary Chowen said the show was about 3 things: Cher’s put downs, fashion, and hair. Chowen even elaborates on the odd ways the hair constructions were put together.

Seeing as I had just seen the Sandy Duncan episode (and noticed something vaguely discomforting about it), I was amazed to read that Cher and Sandy Duncan had then fought over Duncan's come-on to Sonny and that Truman Capote had made a pass at Sonny as well (Philip Seymour Hoffman RIP). It was also fun to read about visitors to the set, like Sammy Davis Jr., over from taping All in the Family, the POW, Ronald Reagan, and more about S&C's mysterious 21-room mansion on the old-Hollywood Owlwood compound.

The book also lists Cher's occasional award nominations, from the Grammy for best pop performance by a duo for the Sonny & Cher Live album by duo to the best pop vocal performance nomination for "Gypsies Tramps & Thieves," and Howard elaborates on the vocal changes Cher was going through, losing her “teenage angst whine” and taking on a “new sultry, low-register, contralto accentuated by a dancing vibrato.” Howard also details more about the Bittersweet White Light album including the discrepancies on the back cover credits and he interviews the songwriters to some of Cher's biggest hits of the early 1970s, hearing their later-day opinions of her versions. He also captures some interesting old reviews, including the fact that Rolling Stone Rolling Stone thought her voice (with its country sound) was attractive and that Creem loved "Dark Lady."

Strong Enough Biography: Childhood Through the 1960s

February 2, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

So we've been discussing the new and wonderful Cher biography in detail. I wouldn't say this is my favorite Cher biography, (that would be hard to choose), but this is definitely a packed one and only the second one to have been published since I started this blog.

The two pictures here are not included in the book but they are new pictures I've come across recently (Cher posting on Twitter?) that seem to epitomize something interesting about a particular time in Cher's life.

All biographies give Cher's ancestry and childhood short shift. This biography spends even less time on her childhood since the book is ostensibly not a full-fledged bio. That said, the book does illuminate a few shadows in her story. This is the first biography that I have read that tells the story of Georgia's father trying to kill her and her brother and about her life in LA's Skid Row.

I also appreciate how the book gives more detail to Uncle Mickey. He seems like a somewhat important fixture in the story and we don't know much about him or his relationship to Cher and Georgia (except in flashes). He was involved peripherally in the Hollywood music scene after all. This book gives us more information on that in tidbits.

We also get a bit more about Cher's father. Although he was a troubled, often absent figure, his story is important. His story (and even the story of his parents and grandparents) matter in explaining why he was a troubled and absent figure in Cher's life (and why he was trouble when he was present in Cher's life). If he had been the perfect Dad, Cher wouldn't be who she is today. She'd be, for better or for worse, someone completely different. So his story matters, good or bad.

American Indian writer Leslie Marmon Silkos has some famous quotes; one is "You don't have anything if you don't have the stories." She meant that if American Indians lose their stories (and therefore their culture), they've lost everything. But I think we can extrapolate this idea to what we value about everything. Nothing is more valuable to us than our own story. And no story is disconnected from the stories of our parents.

So it's good to finally know why Cher was born in El Centro. Why were they down there? Turns out this has to do with her paternal grandfather trying to help out her father.

I love how Howard really breaks down her name and is concerned with the spelling of it. Finally!

The book also details Georgia's marriages a bit more (although I swear this trail of marriages needs a flow chart or some kind of visual aid or something). I wish we could get a detailed list of all the LA neighborhoods Cher lived in and all the schools she attended.

Along with many more childhood stories. I loved the ancestor stories in Cher's special Dear Mom, Love Cher but we need more, more, more. You don't become Cher right out of the box, for Chrissake.

This early picture of Sonny & Cher intrigues me because I think Sonny's main "Achilles Heel" regarding Cher was that no matter how far she grew into a glamour girl, no matter how much she matured, Sonny could never see anything but the young girl in this picture. And that was his fatal flaw.

I like how the recent Easlea and Fiegel biography put their music in context with what was happening at the time. This biography goes into more depth as well, but not regarding the music. Howard talks about how Sonny & Cher first connected and why, the desires they had in common. Howard also fleshes out Sonny's relationship to his first daughter Christy a bit.

And Howard also adds some new light to their financial situation through "Baby Don’t Go" and "I Got You Babe." Did you know "I Got You Babe" is the second most played song by astronauts, number one being Rush's "Countdown."

The book also is the first one to address Sonny's temper and witnesses to his explosions, from Les Reed talking about working with him on the show Ready Steady Go to quotes from friends who saw his personality change as Sonny & Cher became more famous. Is this because Sonny has passed away and people finally feel free to speak about it?

The book also addresses rumors that surrounded Sonny & Cher from their inception: that Sonny beat her up, that Cher was really a man. What wackadoodle things people are saying about you, this is a constant phenomenon that would plague Cher throughout her whole famous life.

The book lists out the various public service announcements Sonny & Cher were involved in, not just the anti-marijuana one. What would Sonny make of the current legalizations of marijuana? There was also the stay-in-school psa which you can hear yourself at the end of the "Hello" track on your The Beat Goes On, The Best of Sonny & Cher CD. This spot is overly ironic since neither of them did, in fact, stay in school and they were doing just fine and therefore were horrible examples for such a message. Sonny & Cher also did a spot apparently for National Bible Week. Surely it was the cumulative effect of all these unhip psa's helped to put their career in the shark tank.

By the end of the decade, after essentially funding their own interestingly flawed independent film (ahead of its time really; everybody is now funding their own interestingly flawed independent films), Sonny & Cher were, as we all know, broke and owning the government $200,000 in unpaid taxes. My question to this factoid has always been, why did they owe this much in back taxes? Did they have a Willie Nelson moment or was it some unscrupulous accountings?

Strong Enough Biography Overview

January 25, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 3 Comments

Because this book was so dense and illuminative, I'm going to have to take discussion and scholarship of it into sections, starting with her childhood and going through the decades, even dividing up the 1970s into several separate posts.

Why is this? Because this was an actual book of Cher scholarship. Made for a Cher nerd like me. And amazingly, like a real book of pop-culture scholarship, its scope was very narrow, primarily a review of Cher's life in 1975. Just one year! A whole book about one year!

Not only that, but the book delves into that solitary year and 29 episodes of a TV show most people don't even remember existed! How awesome is that? It's great for someone like me but most likely confusing for someone looking for a balanced biography of her life. The book's narrowness is not indicated from its cover. This is not a pop-star biography. This is more of an academic book. The thing has notes in the back for pete's sake. All pop-culture academic books have notes.

This is not a criticism against other fine Cher biographies out there by George Carpozi, J. Randy Taraborelli, Mark Bego, and recently, by Daryl Easlea and Eddi Fiegel. These biographers may in fact have had notes for their books as well; but possibly they were not published due to constraints from a publisher or due to audience expectations. Notes aren't mandatory but they do provide a wealth of information for further studies.

But this makes this biography's title (and lack of a sub-title) all the more confusing. Why such an open title with no indication that this is not a mainstream biography? It would seem this just frustrates a more casual fan who isn't into reading the minutia of every single episode of a somewhat obscure (in retrospect) television show.

Josiah Howard is an excellent researcher and reporter (something I admire and will never be; too shy). And as a Cher scholar, I fundamentally appreciate his efforts in combing through Cher artifacts, researching press clippings and conducting interviews with as many players as possible to throw a light on a year many other biographers pass through quickly. I would love to see this kind of treatment made individually for Cher's other television shows and specials, her movies, her videos, and for her albums and concerts.

Howard really brings to life the schedule of a television show, something J. Randy Taraborrelli also did well with his book on Carol Burnett (Laughing Til It Hurts: The Life and Career of Carol Burnett). I'm fascinated with the ins and outs of television production. You get perspectives from producers, stage-hands, choreographers, guests and regulars. Gailard Sartain did contribute his experiences but uunfortunately (and noticeably absent) were interviews from Teri Garr, Martin Mull, and Steve Martin. Teri Garr and Steve Martin, in their respective biographies, have not really spoken in detail about their experiences working for Cher or Sonny & Cher. Not only did Martin write and perform on both The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Cher but he opened for Sonny & Cher on occasion. Teri Garr appeared in The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, Cher and The Sonny & Cher Show. I've followed their interviews and autobiographies for years and their silence or briefness on this topic is a little unsettling. You wonder if they are they all still friends.

Howard not only covers the show in detail but he puts his head around large-scale issues of Cher's tumultuous personal life, her hopes for the show (its focus on rock music), the reasons why variety shows started to falter in the mid-1970s (reflected in the issues that made her show a struggle to do: family hour, the political life of America, the show's competition). Howard documents sketches, songs and guests, detailing stories about production, the rise of Cher in the tabloids and other gossip boiling around that time.

So much food for thought. Next week, let's talk about how the book deals with Cher's childhood and her life in the 1960s.

Review of The Lowdown CD

January 19, 2014 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

For those of you who bought the Lowdown biography CD from 2011, you know by now that half of the product is something you already have, the Maximum Cher biography CD from 1999. What a rip off!

Anyway, I listened to Maximum Cher again while on my trip to Pennsylvania. There are very few Cher audio clips on it (despite the CDs bold promises) and it's mostly a UK-biography told by a female narrator who pronounces her surname funny. The narrator also mistakenly refers to mother Georgia as Georgeanna. The audio biography does tell the stories of Cher’s mother’s almost-abortion, Cher loss of virginity to an Italian neighbor named Jeff and the story shows us a streetwise kid with bad teeth, nose, posture, and complexion and how she created an unapproachable teen persona to hide herself. According to bio, Cher was 7 when she moved to LA. Harold Battiste originally hired Sonny (because he liked his enthusiasm) to do record promotion.

The CD does elaborate on the early awkwardness of being unaccomplished performers and how Hollywood looked down on them, seeing Cher as aloof and abrasive and Sonny as a comical and a nasal hippie. The CD details the Princess Margaret Charity Ball fiasco, where Sonny & Cher had to play to the Hollywood elite instead of the teenagers they were used to entertaining and how they experienced sound problems and Cher was amplified too loudly and eventually was cut off. Then Sonny's stand-up routine was seen as bad and offensive. Eventually they were heckled by a drunk and the Hollywood stars laughed at them. It seems traumatic but the narrator remarks how Cher would go on to outshine all of them.

The bio also talks about their The Man from UNCLE appearance, how the script was written for them and how Sonny took a few blows in the fake-fight scene. The bo claims there were 200 guests at Cher's wedding to Gregg Allman. Is that true?

Apparently the Brits loved Mermaids and the “The Shoop Shoop Song” spent five weeks at number one. The album Love Hurts also spent six weeks at number one. The narrator calls the movie Faithful an “excellent film.” Other errors on the CD include the mention that Cher performed the song “Bang Bang” in the movie Good Times, the claim that the Cher show saw its debut mid-1975. The CD makes no mention of Cher's very public affair with Gene Simmons (although it lists her many other lovers, big and small) or anything about her band Black Rose but states that “a friend Jean Simmons offered HER home in NY” to Cher before she found her own apartment. The CD also claims Cher recorded “Many Rivers to Cross” with Beevis & Butthead. The CD calls Cher a “living legend in a two-faced, backstabbing LA” and also “The Queen of Pop.”

Cher The Interview is the second CD in the set and it is a repackaging of various TV interviews going back to the mid-1980s.

No Regrets! is the Cynthia McFadden primetime interview Cher did in 2002 where she talks about always worrying about money, Sonny being scientologist, the interview where she said, “I was as smart as I was gonna get at 40.” She talks about her depression, and how you “make a hand with cards you’re dealt.” She also voices her support of Hillary Clinton in the election, how she knows Hillary and how Jimmy Carter was done-in by his inexperience and she feared the same would happen with Barak Obama.
So Long, Farewell is an Australian Farewell-era interview where they ask her if this is really her last tour and she says, “It’s got to be. It won’t get any better.”
What a Life is the uncomfortable Living Proof-era phone interview with the nervous guy. You feel sorry for him with all his “ums” and his nervous laugher. They talk about what it feels like to be an underdog and how she’s not trying to save NYC with her song “Song for the Lonely.” Cher insists she gives the most about who she is in interviews (I agree with this). She draws attention to the fact that most of her movie roles are not glamorous. They talk about the NYC dance-clubs she used to frequent and the DJs she liked. She said she would go to Studio 54 a couple of nights a week and that she also loved the club Heartbreak in NY. The interviewer asks if “The Music’s No Good Without You” is a reference to Sonny. No. He asks her “What’s a “cell” for you” and she says “hiding yourself.” She calls the tabloids soulless, Godless trash and tells him that pain isn’t worst thing that can happen to you.
The Fame Game is the Matt Lauer interview from The Today Show around the time of Living Proof. She calls “Song for the Lonely” anthemic and she appreciates its grandeur in strength. She talks about coming up in show business, how in 1964 she and Sonny started out rough-edged. They had no stylists or dance instructors. They sewed their own clothes and were definitely “not polished, not perfect but real.” She says today’s atmosphere allows for no work in progress. She says she would trade for Bruce Sprinsteen’s voice in a minute. She says this is her great last tour, that it’s a really good one, and she “not sure how much longer I can cheat death.”
Elephants Are Very Human is the interview Cher did at the premiere for the movie Elephants & Man, a Litany of Tragedy and she talks about riding the elephant Margie around for 3 weeks in Good Times and how Margie was her best friend in that “terrible movie.” She talks about the elephant Billy and how he needs a family and how the LA Zoo still uses cattle prods and bull hooks.
A Life on Film is some pre-Academy Award show interview around the time of Silkwood. Cher says she spent eight years trying to get into acting work, alternated between giving up and making a living. She talks about being the worst auditioner in the world and that Sandy Dennis said her Jimmy Dean audition was the worst she had ever seen but that she was fascinated by what Cher was doing. They joke about how she says Dolly Pellicker in the movie and how they did the car scene (coming to work with Karen and Drew) a million times. Cher said there was lot of Cher in Dolly but Dolly was not her and that changed her walk for the role, make herself more slumped over with downcast eyes and that she was embarrassed by the cup-with-pinky-at-high-tea airplane scene. She said she was intimidated to look “like a truck driver” with no makeup and she found it interesting that Meryl Streep is accepted for her work alone without any curiosity about her personal life or how she looks or what her image is. We find out Cher was the running favorite that year (1983) in the supporting actress category. Linda Hunt ended up winning for The Year of Living Dangerously.
This is a Cher World This is the Rosie O’Donnell interview around the time of It’s a Man’s World (1996). This is a very important Cher interview because it was a very clear truce after years of publicly dissing Sonny and it occurred two years prior to his death. When people surmise that Cher was an opportunist at Sonny’s funeral and that she had spoken nothing but negative slurs about him prior to his death, I always point to this interview. Rosie leads Cher to say something negative and she stays positive. They talk about how Cher is recognized everywhere (except maybe Japan), their thoughts on David Letterman, how Sonny & cher cheated to make “I Got You Babe” the pick of the week in 1965. Rosie plays with Sanctuary items, and Rosie asks her about when she used to needlepoint before she left Sonny, when she was losing her mind. She says she doesn’t talk to Sonny much and Rosie takes umbrage with Sonny and how Chastity is also angry with him over politics. But Cher sets the record straight regarding their ongoing and permanent connection with each other, how she will always be S&C, and about her fondness for Sonny. Rosie says Sonny wouldn’t be anywhere with out Cher and Cher insists she wouldn’t be here without him either. This is the interview where Rosie hilariously tells Sonny to "sit and spin."
My Dear Daughter is a British interview on the Parkinson Show that included comments by actor Stephen Fry who was sitting next to Cher. She talks about life after Sonny and how she had no experience making decisions and taking care of money, how she was fine with him being the boss until Chastity was born. She said they were full partners on the TV show and that the show came easy to her. She said she couldn’t live like a child with him but that his death was devastating. She thought they’d always be able to argue. They talk about Chastity’s coming out and how she questioned her motherhood afterwards and feared the press would hound Chaz. She said she discovered what her convictions were and about the book Family Outings where she comes across as “the bad one.” She said she wished she had had a different reaction, but that’s the reaction she lives with.
Sonny’s Funeral Speech This is her speech in full and I always feel uncomfortable listening to it or watching it, as if I don’t really belong in that private space. Hearing it every once in a long while I notice different elements of it. Cher talks about working on it for 48 hours. She talks about Sonny’s enthusiasm and how it swept everyone up and everyone “just wanted to be there.” She talks about how he was Sonny long before S&C and how he loved his friends and cooking (“not eating, tasting”). The speech is well written and an honest and fitting tribute.
I’m Not a Sell Out This is the old Phil Donahue interview of 1985 where she talks about conserving energy, exercising on the S&C show. She talks here about Sonny being not as good a friend to her as she is to him, but that she will always be there for him; they’re just not good day-to-day friends because he treats like she’s 16 years old and “you can’t disagree with him.” She talks about being more than one person and that selling out to her is being one flat identity. I can’t help but think about Dolly Parton when she says this. I love Dolly but she's so oppresively a caricature of a real person.

The C-Word, Best Foot Forward, Cher History and Thanksgiving

December 1, 2013 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

I just spent an hour working on this post and my Firefox crashed. For the love of God! But my arms are shot and so it’s mostly lost forever. Here is a slim overview of what I said.

Cher scholar Robrt sent me a message reminding me about a good photo of Cher’s feet from the 1970s. I loved this photo as a child: the hair, the tan, the feet, the hand posture, the look, the accent over the E.

Cher scholar Michael sent me an email discussing the negative implications of Cher using the C word. I never got around to covering this last week. I was so wrapped up in talking about the ironic response. I do support people “taking back” negative word meanings. Gay and queer are a good examples of reclaimed words. Third wave feminists believe they can reclaim the words bitch, slut and whore, disemboweling them of their power to offend. However, not everyone agrees words can be reclaimed of their power to hurt. And when groups do try to reclaim words, this can cause confusion between culture groups. For instance, when gay men say something is “so gay” or when black men use the N word, many people can't understand the nuances of one group owning rights to certain words. However, I do believe language is always in process and undergoing change. I do think Cher meant to use the word pejoratively thought (much like Alec Baldwin last week when he used the f**g*t word). She meant the word to be insulting. In this case, we have to ask ourselves, why is this meaning assumed to be negative? Why is a woman’s va-JJ such a bad thing it can so easily be hurled as an insult by men and women?

I’m reading a book now by Kim Addonizio where she discusses writing about sex and the glam-box (my new term). She says the c-word comes from the Middle English word cunte. Middle English. Huh.

Another friend also sent me word of Cher’s comments about Thanksgiving:

"Thanksgiving is a day to see family, eat food together and watch a movie…Not 2 celebrate the beginning of a GREAT Crime… We gave them Blankets laced w/ Smallpox,” Cher concluded.

This is interesting to me in light of my raised consciousness while working at the Institute of American Indian Arts last year. Some hot button issues in that community, (issues mainstream American is completely oblivious about), would be Thanksgiving and wearing their ceremonial clothing as costumery. I don’t know how Indian activists feel about Cher’s representations as Indian over her career; but I do think that since she has that history of costumery, because she claims Indian heritage, this is a positive statement from her about American Indian consciousness and makes available a high level of public awareness.

So after I questioned Lady Gaga’s ability to do variety TV last week, she goes and does a Thanksgiving special with the Muppets. I had no idea and didn’t see it. Was she any good? The ratings were bad according to reports. I wonder if American might be suffering brand confusion with Gaga (similar to what American experienced with Cher between her Vegas shows, Sonny & Cher on TV and the Allman & Woman and Black Rose products and tours). Gaga did topless photos in V Magazine. She releases a meta-single called “Applause” and then does work with the Muppets. Is she an adult or all-American act?

Am loving the new Cher bio. Am very impressed with the copious amounts of research and interviews Howard has done. Am learning a lot and finally, another Cher historian who cares about surname spelling!

For next week: Cher on Vivement Dimanche — see the clip on Cher News.

Cher Interviews for New Cher Album

September 22, 2013 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

I have to say, except for that time I threw a hissy-fit when I was about 15 years old and my Dad couldn't hook up my VCR to Cher's Mask-era interview on Phil Donahue fast enough, (after which my Dad refused to try anymore and I missed the interview entirely until I saw it later in my late 20s), this has been a very frustrating Cher press junket season for me. First of all, I gave up cable months ago. I'm still not sure I'm going back to it. Then I broke my TV antennae moving it last month. Then I find out I can't receive CBS in Albuquerque. Is this an issue with the broken antennae, I do not know.

Well, at least I'll be able to watch The Today Show concert tomorrow. Not so fast, Cher freak! I need to take my husband to the airport exactly during air time tomorrow morning. What the!! So I'm totally dependent, like a Cher fan on a deserted island (with wireless, however), to watching these interviews and promotions online.I spent all day today (on and off) stalking the Internet for a clip of this morning's CBS interview.

The This Morning CBS Interview

This clip has sound issues but it covers the interview. This is the interview that caused Cher so much Miley Cirus grief this week. This preview in particular. First Cher is asked about her secret to being provocative. The host surmises it's her sense of humor but I think it's her genuine commitment to being herself, in other words–her authenticity in the act. "I just do what I want," she says. She never made a cynical play for attention. Also, she understands the art of the tease. If you show it all, game over.

As each generation tries to "up the ante" on provocation, the area for the tease shrinks and the game becomes harder to play. "I just do what I want," Cher said. But then they go on to critique Miley Cirus' Video Music Awards performance.

The press (and some of my friends) loved Cher's candor about it. Cher News tracked the story well:

Cher's initial comments: http://www.chernews.blogspot.com/2013/09/cher-on-mileys-vma-performance-i-didnt.html
Cher's backtrack of remorse: http://www.chernews.blogspot.com/2013/09/cher-ashamed-of-miley-remarks.html
CBS touting its own story: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57604026/cher-speaks-her-mind/

I always enjoy Cher's candor but I can see why she expressed regrett for her statement, being almost led into a bitch fight by CBS. Maybe innocently enough, but it's all so unproductive. It's just one appearance by Miley Cirus and she didn't commit a felony, as Cher said. Except maybe a fashion felony. But those laws are so subjective.

On the bright side, the CBS interview gave Cher plenty of respect, saying she's earned every honor show biz has to offer. They showed the Cher Show skit with Cher, Bette Midler, Elton John and Flip Wilson in an entertainer's old folks home and later Elton telling Cher she'll be going strong in 50 years. Cher again talks about hating the aging process. How can the world stop worshipping youth, if Cher won't stop worshiping youth? CBS agrees that even the word icon doesn't cover Cher anymore. They quote a line stating she's the "Sherman tank of divas." When asked if she wants to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame she says she doesn't need a hall to rock. In truth, Cher has defined fame and has broken many records in service of the industry of rock music. But a clique's a clique. Rock stars are so hypocritically insiders just posing as outsiders.

Cher jokes that she uses witchcraft to stay young. We get to see a young picture of Sonny shirtless. After watching so many episodes of The Sonny & Cher Show, I have developed a taste for seeing Sonny shirtless. Cher talks about how she came to fashion, how women would tune into the TV show to see what she was wearing. She started to care about it then, too, and it got "interwoven" (no pun intended) into her personality. I love how she talks about clothes being neither an aid nor barricade (in the theory of ex-boyfriend Josh Donen) to her true self. "Clothes are nothing" she says.

I'm also so glad she's telling interviewers to piss off about her love life. That's so right. The last line of the interview is funny…Cher asking about herself, "Isn't she over?"

Note: the online posted Extended Transcript seems to go on much longer than the 13 minute interview. I haven't read it yet but it printed out to 18 pages!!

Cher at Grauman's Chinese Theater to see The Wizard of Oz

This week, Cher made an appearance in Los Angeles. You can see clips of Cher at Grauman's in the CBS interview. Cher News also has photos.

Recap of interview in Gay & Night

Last week I linked to the interview in the Netherlands magazine Gay & Night. She talks about her record label, about the themes of this album and not intending it to be about women's empowerment, about how painful leaked songs can be and why "The Greatest Thing" came not to be. She says "Dressed to Kill" is "a drag queen dream come true. She talks about hesitations over touring again, about the only outfit she regrets having worn. (Think Take Me Home era roller skating party). She admits she's had "a couple" of loves of her life: "I've had three."

Oh boy, another Cher fan guessing game. I vote for either Robert, Gregg & Sonny or Robert, Gregg & Current Mystery Bf.

She talks about why she dated younger men and about what her tattoos mean to her now, how passe they have become (Miss Kansas at Miss America last week was half-tattooed). She also says she hasn't yet purchased a plot at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris but that she still hopes to eternally rest there.

She talks about Chaz and her gay fans and she talks about her mother's circle of friends and her mother's lack of prejudice. Cher says her first best friend was Jewish. I would LOVE to hear more Cher-as-a-kid stories.

Cher talks about the structure of the possible Broadway show based on her life (which is very interesting and I hope that comes to be).

Recap of Interview in Canoe

Last week, I also linked to the interview in Canoe. She talks about paving the way for Katy Perry, Madonna, Lady Gaga and how rough it was for early Sonny & Cher with their then-unusual outfits. They talk about Cher's ability to hit high notes, the quality of her voice (Cher says she was pretty bad in the beginning), being able to watch her movies or look at photos of herself and how she loves Tony Bennett and Betty White.

Cher Interview in USA Today

Cher also appeared in USA Today. They called her a "stage warhorse" and "fashion daredevil." They talk about her voice, touring, Tina Turner touring. She "sips Dr. Pepper" during the interview and her cat, Mr. Big, attends. The article jokes about her age and "crossing the Medicare threshold."They talk about her album cover and how she was trying to to be camp, like a Playboy cover. Which just proves how much you can't do camp on purpose. She says people took it so seriously. She talks about being a fan of Bruno Mars and the civic duty of the stars to "give back." She talks about Buddhism and the 1980s being so fun. She says the low point for her being after her divorce from Sonny and all the financial trouble she was in. She says something interesting as she's talking about being in that financial hole in the mid-1970s, "A lot of people were gigantic, and then they were gone."

This is what constantly amazes me watching the Sonny & Cher shows…all those celebrities who were on top, more on top than Cher was, celebrities who Sonny & Cher had to pay deference to as guests on their variety show: Chad Everett, Lorne Greene, Sandy Duncan, Bobby Sherman (just the stars I watched last night alone) and they're all gone. Think of this, Sonny & Cher were equals with Peter Noone and Herman's Hermit's in the 1960s. Less than 10 years later, they had Peter Noone on one of their "Years" specials as a nostalgia act. All the hot 1970s stars then disappeared by the 1980s. The 1980s stars were gone by the 1990s, and so forth. There's a 1950s skit in the first "Years" episode of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour where Cher sings an satirical 1950s-style song called "Superstar" in a space outfit and then goes on a tirade telling everybody how "big" she's gonna get, bigger than all the guests on the episode, Frankie Valli, Dick Clark. The whole skit is eerie.

In USA Today, Cher talks about how much she didn't like her early voice, "My voice was so strange and different." She talks about Pink and writing "Lovers Forever" for Interview with a Vampire with her friend Shirley Eikhard and how her songwriting tends to be dark and personal.

My favorite quote: "Even Cher underestimates the power of Cher."

The Guardian Interview

Last week, Cher also appeared in The Guardian. She talks about where she learned all her British swear words, about Sonny and Mark Taylor being her favorite producers. Really? Sonny? After having to do all those takes?

She talks about how odd Phil Spector was and working on background vocals for a John Lennon album with Phil and Harry Nilsson. Which song(s) was this for???

She talks about song leaks and Hillary Clinton and showing her navel on TV.

The Sunday Morning Herald Interview

Cher was in Australia's Sunday Morning Herald this week as well. She talks about how "women should hang together" and stop "bitch fighting" which is why I think she regretted her Miley comments. The interviewer calls Cher, "two parts rock chick, one part opinionated lady, with side orders of mother and superstar…She's detailed like a prestige car."

She talks about not remembering how many albums she's made and forgetting she recorded certain songs, how for her Sonny was "total hero worship." The magazine claims Cher says their marriage was a happy one. Earlier this year, Cher described it as Russian Roulette. But she says they never discussed politics. She talked about how she struggled to get into movies and how Francis Ford Coppola made her cry (after telling her she should be in movies) and how brave Robert Altman and Mike Nichols were to finally cast her. She talked about making the documentary about her mom and the title of her new album….

…which I hope to get soon. I've been holding off listening to it until I get the physical thing in my hot little hands.

Category: History (Page 8 of 15)

Cher Respect: Little Bios and Forbes Magazine

Cher on Bad Biographies

Cher in the 1970s

Cher in FLATT Magazine

Strong Enough Biography: The Pre-Breakup 1970s

Strong Enough Biography: Childhood Through the 1960s

Strong Enough Biography Overview

Review of The Lowdown CD

The C-Word, Best Foot Forward, Cher History and Thanksgiving

Cher Interviews for New Cher Album

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