Category: Scholarship In Action (Page 11 of 15)

Elton John Is Top Gay Icon

December 11, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

In other very important news, Elton John and Judy Garland were declared top gay icons by OnePoll.com. This is an interesting choice of Elton John. At first I didn’t like it but it is growing on me.

This choice shows us that gay icon represents more than just a singer gay men or women love, but a person in the position of ultimate representation and activism. John’s recent efforts to adopt a son have highlighted family-value issues as understood within and outside of the gay community. So, it’s a fine choice.

It is interesting to see how the male/female winners and contenders were different in the ways they tended to be iconic:

The male list was predominantly made up of gay men – including late Queen singer Freddie Mercury, British TV star Stephen Fry and ‘Faith’ hitmaker George Michael – apart from soccer hunk David Beckham, who is married to Victoria Beckham.

Meanwhile, the female list was full of glamorous female stars – including singers Kylie Minogue, Madonna and Cher – rather than famous lesbians.

Blogs on Cher’s Birthday (And that Accent Thingie)

May 28, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

There were some blogs loving on Cher on her birthday which was last Wednesday.

Cher clips galore can be found on both:

The text below was excerpted from the second link:

“Cher has always and forever will be one of the grooviest gals around…Here are 10 Groovy Facts about Cher…”

[These 10 fun-facts seem designed to serve as a Cher mini-biography–or a biography presented as a fun 10-item list. Neato.]

1) She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California. Her father was an Armenian refugee, while her mother was of Cherokee, English and French descent.

2) She was an introverted young girl with an active imagination, but after watching Disney’s Dumbo at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater, she broke out of her shell and dreamed of becoming a singing and dancing animal.

3) Due to severe, undiagnosed dyslexia, a frustrated Cher quit high school at 16 (she was later diagnosed at age 30). While she was in high school, she had a brief relationship with actor Warren Beatty.

4) In 1962, a 16-year-old Cher met 27-year-old Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, who was an assistant to record producer Phil Spector and offered the runaway a spare bed in his apartment. He assured her that he "didn’t find her attractive in the slightest". They became fast friends and eventually lovers before marrying in Tijuana, Mexico, on October 27, 1964 (they divorced in 1975).

5) Following an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in the fall of 1965 in which Sullivan pronounced her name 'Chur' during their introduction, she began spelling her name with a (misleading) acute accent: Chér (in 1979 she legally changed her name to Cher, with no surname or middle name).

6) Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman in 1971 while guest-hosting The Merv Griffin Show, and he offered the duo their own variety show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, which debuted on August 1, 1971, as a summer replacement series (it ran from 1971-74 and 1976-77).

7) She and Sonny performed together for the last time during their appearance on Late Night With David Letterman on November 13, 1987, in which they sang "I Got You, Babe".

8) Cher auditioned for the role of Bonnie Parker in 1967's Bonnie and Clyde, was offered the part of Thelma in 1991's Thelma & Louise, and wanted to play Morticia in 1991's The Addams Family. And her Oscar-winning role in 1987's Moonstruck was originally intended for Sally Field, who turned it down.

9) "Believe", the Grammy Award-winning title track from her 1998 album, made Cher the oldest woman (at age 52)to have a number one hit in the Hot 100 rock era. It also gave her the distinction of having the longest span of #1 hits (more than 33 years). She is also the only female artist to have solo Top 10 hits in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

10) Following her rocky relationship with Sonny and before her marriage to Gregg Allman in 1975, Cher turned down a romantic weekend in Las Vegas with Elvis Presley because she was too nervous about spending the night with The King. She still regrets turning him down as well as Marlon Brando, who also asked her out. However, she did have a passionate fling with a 23-year-old Tom Cruise when she was 39.

All the rest of that list is some same-ole-same-ole but the accent thing has been bugging me for decades!!

What was that about? Was it French 'cause it wasn’t proper French. I can see how some pronunciation notation might have been necessary for the likes of Ed Sullivan types but it was needed more to introduce the soft sounding “ch” part of this exotic new name. Maybe there was a fear peeps would pronounce her name like “shear”. Was this Sonny’s idea or Chér's? And honestly, I don’t care how incorrect it was, I LOVED IT. Why did it disappear all of the sudden?

Trivia question for you: can you guess which album her name first appeared naked?

My Divas Book of Essays

May 21, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

There's a new book out called "My Divas" and it's a large collection of short essays by gay men ruminating about the famous women who inspire them.

The only writer I recognized was the poet Mark Doty who talks about writer Grace Paley. Mark was a prominent poet figure while I was in graduate school at Sarah Lawrence in the mid-90s and was very popular and well-liked. I've seen him read a few times at the LA Book Festival – in what I have dubbed the "poetry nook." He's a very funny poet and an astute critic of poetry at the Book Festival's poetry panels.

But anyway, such fine divas as Cher, Bette, Ava Gardner, Jessica Lange and Tina Turner are discussed. But there are many, many more divas included and the essays are short – about 5-10 pages.

Poet Aaron Smith (who wrote "Blue on Blue Ground") wrote the essay on Cher. I wonder if he has any Cher poems. I’ll try to find out. Anyway, his essay was more of a brief personal diary of his most memorable Cher moments. It didn’t delve into characteristics of Cher specifically.

The book's jacket however does provide some illumination on why divas are so sticky with devoted fans…because they pose as simultaneously: “sister, alter ego, fairy godmother [that one seems important], and model for survival” for not only gay men by for "anyone who ever needed a muse" and that these women represent both "vindication and transcendence" and can be “where we find our courage.”

So, some interesting theories to chew on. I’d like to read more about evidence of vindication and what that might mean. A good review can be found here:

http://blog.nola.com/susanlarson/2009/05/gay_men_reflect_on_cher_and_av.html

Three Nifty Cher Scholars (Expert Corner)

May 14, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Recently I’ve added a new section to CherScholar.com called Expert Cornerand it’s a place where other profound Cher thinkers can ponder the deep questions of the Cher. It's been my pleasure to post a standard Q&A on Cherness and also the first in (hopefully) a series of timelines that show the arc of the Cher phenomenon from different angles. Material so far has been contributed by these very fine Cher scholars:

Ward Lamb
The first time I heard about Ward Lamb was at the first Cher Convention at Chicago in 2000. Everyone (and I mean everyone) left the main floor in a rush to go hear his Cher seminar. I was a bit peeved that I couldn’t attend too. I had to hold down the fort at my Cher Zine table next toMary Anne Cassata’s (of the awesome Cher Scrapbook) and her magazine table. Then I remembered I had read his very thorough Cher album retrospective in Goldmine the year before. Later at the convention, I met him at the final banquet dinner. I had just won a framed Italian print of Tea with Mussolini while those convention auctions were still winnable. Ward introduced himself with compliments about the zine. At the next Cher convention two years later in Vegas I made sure to attend his seminar on rare Cher 45s–I loved it. My friends asked him if he was related to the novelist Wally Lamb (he wasn’t). He entered in the first Cher game, a trivia contest I was hosting and he won first place. He went on to do quite detailed liner notes for Cher’s Sundazed and Rhino re-releases.

Ward's essay on 3614 Jackson Highway: http://www.geocities.com/marcapreguntas/chernotes2.htm
Ward's liner notes for Sundazed: http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/wilderness/468/ward.htm
Ward's expert corner Q&A: http://www.cherscholar.com/lamb-qanda.htm

Robrt Pela
Years ago writer Robrt Pela contacted me with some very kind words after having read through CherScholar.com and since then he’s been a great source of not only great wit and Cher commentary but cultural commentary in general. His pushes me to be a better scholar.

Robrt's 2003 article on Cher: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2003-09-11/music/cher&page=158
Robrt's 2005 article on the movie Chastity: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2005-03-17/film/the-virtues-of-chastity/
Robrt's NPR stories: http://kjzz.org/inside/bios/commentators/robrtpela/allstories
Robrt's expert corner timeline: http://www.cherscholar.com/cher-hair.htm

(By the way, both Robrt and Ward have expertise in the decade of Cher I am particularly weak in – the 60s.)

Mike Khouri
Recently I read some of Mike’s liner notes for Cher’s DVDs and a few compilation albums on MCA. He also did the liner notes for the re-release of I Paralyze, filling in some detail on the making of that that oft-glossed-over album.

Mike's I Paralyze liner Notes: http://www.justplaincher.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=23
Mike's expert corner Q&A: http://www.cherscholar.com/khouri-qanda.htm

I hope you enjoy these Cher writings as much as I have. These are three swanky-smart Cher scholars!

Cher is Not Sorry

May 7, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Why do I scan the Internet…err…rather read my daily Cher RSS Yahoo feed and leach off the Cher research of CherGroups posters 🙂 …for news of Cher every week? For blogs like this one, that's why.

Sure, some years I coast by…keeping up with the latest Cher deeds and automatically regurgitating some inane thoughts about them week to week. But then once in a while I get re-engaged in the ever-interesting topic of “what cultural phenomenon is going on with our fascinations and, for some, negative attitudes, about Cher." Deep thoughts is what I mean.

I’m always looking for some Cher Scholarship out there on the wires. Which is why I’m excited about my new Cher Scholar section Expert Corner – two new posts will be going up this week, too. But this blog below was not written by a Cher Scholar; she's an everyday-Jane-Cher-appreciator nicknamed Pilgrium Soul. And it’s a pretty smart Cher theory she speaks of.

http://www.harpyness.com/2009/04/30/youve-got-me-cher/

The article begins by talking about her conflicting like and dislike of the movie Moonstruck and its “weird gender issues.” I would love for her to elaborate about this. I suspect there is something to this, and it might be an Italian cultural thing in play. But then she defends her love of Cher (against claims of commercialism, plastic surgery and the silly costumes thing – familiar proclamations of Cher’s lack of seriousness). But she loves Cher anyway. Why? Because…

“Before I knew I was a feminist I knew Cher was not sorry. She was not normal, she was not what people expected and she did not seem to care.”

Cher isn't (publicly) sorry and that's something to chew on. I think this explains a lot about why certain fans have gravitated to her. Fans who, for whatever reason in their lives, have been made to feel or have made themselves feel sorry.

And Pilgrim Soul verifies that this hearkens back her to own childhood of sorryness (as opposed to sorrow) and her own feelings of guilt and sorryness over her self-perceived flaws.

“I grew to love women who grew tired of making apologies for themselves.”

That is so awesome. It reminds me of what an influence my 11th grade English teacher was on me, someone who got married later in life, was having a kid later in life, and had a “why worry” attitude about pretty much everything. She also had a Tyne Daily air about her. She too wasn’t sorry.
I wanted to be like her. What a life that would be, I thought. Empowered and unapologetic.

I feel like Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck right now: “That’s it!…No, that’s it!”

Ask Cher Scholar & New Expert Corner!

April 9, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 7 Comments

CherScholar.com has a new section: Expert Corner — more details at the end of this post!

On Wednesday, January 13, 2009 James Smith wrote:

My question is about Cher's wigs. I do consider myself a huge fan, but something that friends sometimes ask me about is her wigs, and I don't know very much at all. I really really find it difficult to tell with wigs… No matter how hard I look, I simply just can't tell if they're wigs or not.

I know Cher's real hair is apparently long and black, so was it her real hair throughout the 60s and and 70s?
If it was her real hair up until after the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, when did Cher start wearing wigs? Was it sort of late 70s, after her divorce?
Was the black hair during her Geffen 87-89 period a wig? It is black but it just seems so big…
The hair on the front cover of the Believe album, is that her real hair?
Is it her real hair when she performs “Way of Love” during the Farewell Tour?
I have no idea if you'll know this, but do you know how many wigs Cher owns? I know she has a special room for them, but how many of them are there?!

Cher and wigs: complicated, in a word.

Cher Scholar Interviews Rona Barrett

March 21, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 7 Comments

My bf and I spent one evening watching the new Rona Barrett DVD Rona Barrett’s Hollywood, a set of iconic interviews of 70s celebrities.

Honestly, we were struck by how fresh and honest the interviews were in comparison to the stale, stiff Barbara Walters interviews we’ve come to know over the last 25 years. Don’t get me wrong: I have loved me some Barbara Walters interview in my day. But seriously, I can’t stand The View and haven’t watched a pre-Oscar special in years.

Interestingly, in Rona Barrett’s interviews there are no “million-dollar” questions and yet somehow she gets into a superstar’s comfort zone with graceful civility. Personally, I think this is because she knows how to have a comfortable conversation and celebrities feel at ease. I’m reminded of Jon Favreau’s Dinner for Five shows except without the extra four dinner guests. Which means less grandstanding chat between stars.

My bf thinks Ron’s gift is that she sounds genuinely interested.

Cher Scholar JeffRey had this to say about the prospect of watching Rona Barrett’s new DVD: it feels like visiting a friend I haven’t seen in a long time.

In the DVD’s Cher interview, Rona says she’s known Cher since Cher was a “street kid” in the 60s and that she
admired Cher because she “had guts” and was honest. The interview takes place after Cher’s breakup with Sonny and David Geffen, right as she was falling in love with Gregg Allman. She squeals with affection and like other interviews of the mid-70s, she is unusually unguarded and open. She seems remarkably comfortable. She has striking eyebrows, long eyelashes, glamor nails and uses phrases like “bummed out.”

As I watched it I thought what a beautiful mouth Cher had. And those teeth. The Rona Barrett DVD is full of very 70s celebrity teeth, pre-hyper-perfection. I miss Cher’s teeth. I do not miss Burt Reynolds’ teeth, however. It’s also amazing how candid Rona gets asking about sex and Cher talks about how liberated and sexually free she had planned to be after leaving Sonny. However, she just wasn’t the type to sleep around. Great interview!

Many people my age also remember Rona Barrett’s fan magazines of the 70s that sat on newsstands right along Picture Screen and Photoplay. Magazines full of Sonny & Cher candid photos and wacky stories. Recently, a friend of mine gave me this copy (cover above; click here to see full image) of Rona Barrett’s Hollywood
from a celebrity-signing fair in LA.

Inside Cher is on practically every page, but the magazine has two (two!) full-page articles about her as well. The first one discusses the recent calls for censorship on The Cher Show – was Cher dressing too slutty? According to one Ohio TV station manager she was. Fans were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the topic.

Click here to read the full text and fill out the survey. (You may need to adjust your screen resolution.)

Please forward your responses to the comments section of this blog post!

In the back of the magazine there’s a second article, this one an interview in color with Laverne. Sweet! Click here to read the full text. When I saw Cher in Las Vegas last weekend, Cher’s mock interview with Laverne before Laverne’s “I Got to be Me” video reminded me of this article. Laverne deserves more airtime. Cher may have changed. But Laverne stays the same.

Anyway, I had the privilege of being able to interview Rona Barrett last week about the new DVD, her charity foundation and the Rona Barrett magazines.

Click here to read the full interview where she talks about interviewing Cher and Cher’s longevity.

L.A. readers
should know that Rona will be appearing for a DVD signing Wednesday, March 25 at
7:30 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble located at The Grove at the Farmers Market (Fairfax &
Third).

A Cher Essay

January 29, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

Someone wrote an essay defending Cher! http://thedartmouth.com/2009/01/27/arts/music/

I would be SO excited about this literary event except that it’s so bad. The worst quote I can cull from it would be that the song Half Breed was about:

“the challenges she faced growing up as a half-Cherokee, half-Caucasian woman.”

The author also states that Cher would be a phenomenal commencement speaker which was really hard for me to picture (because that would be a bit of a boring existence for Cher – doing the Bill Cosby at uuniversities and colleges); although I agree she would have good life-experience to impart and two of the speeches I've heard from her (Sonny’s eulogy and her Academy Award acceptance speech, for example) have been good. On the other hand, I do seem to recall a few not-so-hot speeches (Billboard Awards Life Achievement Award speech).

This blogger also claims Cher is a “Diva of bygone days, star of the cinema and wise-worded woman, Cher brings much more to the table than she is given credit for.”

Diva of bygone days? Ummm…she is still kicking ass as a diva in Vegas, still active fodder for the 'bloids, still a big deal when she makes an appearance on TV, still winning awards, still being offered movie projects. I mean why cite Tea with Mussolini to sum up her crowning movie achievements? To not mention Mask or Moonstruck when making your argument, or even her more recent Stuck on You?

You say she “brings to the table” and then list out none of her sweets. I ask for chocolates and I get rice cakes.

Criminey! I can’t do this by myself! 😉

Collecting Cher

January 15, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

At first I got excited that this article on collecting Cher stuff was out there! Finally, something I could send my parents to ensure them I’ve investing my money properly. 🙂

Who am I kidding?

This article addressed none of the financial advantages I’ve always hoped there’d be in collecting Cher junk. And the author, Victor, is a bit stodgy to boot.

Typical sentence:

“A complete discography of her collectibles is not something to be taken lightly. Ideally, a complete collection could be gathered, giving you something that can be proudly displayed.”

Proudly displayed? A Cher collection can take over your house. Or Basement. Or parents’ basement. Or storage facility B.

“You could also try collecting her t-shirts from all of her different tours. This could also be quite a task to complete as she has toured a number of different times. Gathering a complete collection of these shirts could prove to be a challenge, yet one that you could have a great deal of fun with.”

Victor lists possible avenues of collection: Records, the aforementioned t-shirts, autographed photos, autographed movie scripts, the S&C model cars, stuff from her perfume line, the “look-alike dolls,” alarm clocks and night lights (Jesus, I don’t even have a Cher alarm clock!), wristwatches, trading cards, and musical instruments…

“can all bear her name and because of this, you would do well to add any of these items to your memorabilia collection…Cher has certainly always been a vibrant personality in our culture and building up a stock of her celebrity collectibles could not only be a bit of a challenge, but give you a great deal of fun in the meantime.”

Psst…Victor makes it sound WAY more boring than it actually is. I see that this is because he reuses bland monosyllabic words over and over again in his piece. I’d recommend a thesaurus, which you can also have quite “a great deal of fun with.”

The Captain & Tennille Show

January 15, 2009 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

For Christmas, among other things (like the awesome Carol Burnette "Went with the Wind" doll), I received a collection of the Captain & Tennille variety show episodes which aired on ABC on Mondays from September 1976 to March 1977.

I can’t help but compare this show to The Sonny & Cher Show running at the same time. In the episodes I’ve seen so far there are far less skits on C&T and more musical numbers, sometimes more experimental (there was a word jazz segment with Penny Marshall, Tennille and Ron Palillo –Horseshack- and Lawrence Hilton Jacobs -Freddie Washington- from Welcome Back Kotter which was good) but for the most part the show is heavy on Tennille singing alone or with musical guests, including an amazing duet with Dionne Warwick. The Captain actually speaks on the show and is actually pretty charming and has good comedic timing. I like him. They’re talented to be sure. And I do love variety shows, pretty unconditionally, including this one. Trouble is, the show lacks something sparkly that S&C had, despite all the required rhinestones on Tennille’s dresses.

And in the premiere episode they go through a long joke setup with Jackie Gleason, mistaking each other for other iconic celebrities of the time culminating in Gleason confusing them with Sonny & Cher. Which was probably the big elephant in the room. “We’re not Sonny & Cher” the joke seemed to say.

Which is something all new variety seems to feel compelled to say, especially if co-hosted by a man and wife. Nick and Jessica Simpson were emphatic before their TV special a few years ago — we’re not trying to be Sonny & Cher. Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne also recently declared their new show would not be a new Sonny & Cher. It’s kind of a back-handed compliment. They’re saying simultaneously, we’re not trying to copycat what has become known as the standard of couple-variety shows and we intend to be much cooler than that.

And that’s the fascinating paradox of Sonny & Cher. When they hit town in the 60s, they were hyper-cool, then in the mid-60s they were perceived as waning-cool. Then in the late 60s definitely not cool due to their anti-drug stance and the changing musical culture. Back on TV, they were cool kinda but not cool kinda because older people were now watching them.

Category: Scholarship In Action (Page 11 of 15)

Elton John Is Top Gay Icon

Blogs on Cher’s Birthday (And that Accent Thingie)

My Divas Book of Essays

Three Nifty Cher Scholars (Expert Corner)

Cher is Not Sorry

Ask Cher Scholar & New Expert Corner!

Cher Scholar Interviews Rona Barrett

A Cher Essay

Collecting Cher

The Captain & Tennille Show

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