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Cher Mags, Shows, Movies, Music, TV, Fashion, Merch

November 28, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

What a Cher year it’s been, starting all the way back in January with “Prayers for this World.” It’s a bit overwhelming and I can’t believe I haven’t blogged since Halloween! My own Fall has been crazy with three sets of house guests and the production of a new political poster for the my art action group ArtBrawl (we decided on a name last summer). We also recently launched a Facebook page that has been tracking our goings-on. Two weeks ago we started screen printing.

For Cher this seems like a critical mass era where she’s producing a plethora of new things, all while older work is getting re-evaluated constantly (her fashion, songs and movies).

Tributes

Bob’s Burgers did a tribute to Cher on their Halloween episode. Technically Linda is dressed as a “Cher-iff,” a sheriff dressed like Cher (or Cher with a badge).

Linda explains her costume as having “handcuffs, a badge and a body that just refused to age!” She also wears a diminutive cowboy hat. “OH, I LOVE her!” she says and then says to Bob, “Snap out of it! From the movie!”

Linda stays in her Cherfit for the whole episode. The outfit is basically the Turn Back Time V-fit with extra Linda coverage, darker stockings and the leather jacket and Cher’s own latter-day boots. I appreciate that the cartoonists put Cher in the original Turn Back Time V-fit and not the concert version hole-fit that everyone now associates with the song.

Some clips:

– Linda explaining the costume
– The family trick-or-treating

While searching for show clips I also came across this story about Ellen wearing the hole-fit version a few years ago. They’re very different outfits and now when Bob Mackie talks about designing the Turn Back Time outfit I have no idea which outfit he’s talking about.

Magazines

Closer magazine came out with a Cher tribute issue in November which is pretty good. Some new pictures and stories inside. There have also been some new online articles about Cher like these on motherhood and retirement.

Cher scholar Tyler also located this Travel Girl article on Cher: http://travelgirlinc.com/cher-glamorous-gorgeous-still-going-strong/

Charity & Social Causes (Twitter)

Cher has been busy with social and charity causes. She’s working with Ben Stiller and others to get supplies to Puerto Rico:

Cher also took part in an auction for veterans on Veteran’s Day.

And (thanks to Tyler again) here’s a found clip of Cher’s interview at the One Young World Conference where she launches Free the Wild and talks about how she’s been working with Bob Geldof’s manager to launch the animal rescue charity. She talks about her fake fur and a few rescued elephants. She also says the song “Walls” was from “Believe” producer Mark Taylor.

In the Twittersphere, Papermag has also offered “A close reading of Cher and Rihanna’s Twitter Exchange”

Cher Shows

Las Vegas: There’s Las Vegas and then there’s the original Las Vegas. I went to them both in the last few months. The older one is actually in New Mexico, an old west town rougher than Tombstone. Mr. Cher Scholar got his masters in archaeology there a few years back (which is why we live in New Mexico now). We took Mr. Cher Scholar’s brother to The Plaza Hotel there to do some ghost hunting. Mr. Cher Scholar’s brother even has ghost hunting gear. There also happened to be a Halloween party there that night.

A few weeks later we went to the other Las Vegas where I finally saw the November 11th Classic Cher show. Our seats were not as close as the cancelled show seats we had in spring, but they ended up being better seats than I thought. Cher opened her monologue with “You’ve probably planned a long time for this.” Tell me about it! I was shell shocked the whole weekend worried about a cancellation. Sigh. Sometimes I think I just want it too much. Cher talked about mid-era Sonny & Cher days working show rooms and living in Motel 6 like motels with Cher attempting to cook their diners in the rooms.

It was a great show. I particularly liked the new graphics for “Walking in Memphis” and “The Shoop Shoop Song.”

I really loved the faux Cher Vegas sign. So retro and fun!

News about the show:

Cher also recently released tickets for 2018 spring dates.
An interview with Cher’s lady bass player Eva Gardner, daughter of Kim Gardner (thanks Tyler for this too!). Gardner says she doesn’t usually experience sexism from her peers, but an older generation of men who are not used to seeing women playing and would rather talk about her legs than her craft.

Broadway Show

There’s a page for the Chicago shows of The Cher Show. It would be nice to see a bit more of the performers involved and a better logo. An article from Junkee on the show which captures a lot of her tweets related to it.

Cher Music

“Ooga Boo” is now for sale and when you buy through smile.amazon.com, money goes to charity.

Cher did an interview for the BBC ostensibly about her new song “Walls” but the interview is kind of fluffy and truncated before we get to discussing the song.

Music History

Cher scholar Robrt found this 2016 commercial that uses Cher’s 1967 song “It All Adds Up Now.”

Cher scholar Tyler found this clip of Cher lip synching her way through “I Found Someone in chain-mail-fit”

Cher Movies

It was announced that Cher will play the part of Meryl Streep’s mom (in flashback) in the sequel to the movie version of Mama Mia.

Movie History

A great article about Witches of Eastwick seen from 30 later.

Television History

My favorite Cher wig is the multi-bun. It’s best seen on The Carol Burnett Show. Here’s a clip of the sketch.

I heard news that the Get TV Cher shows were coming back. But there’s no sign that they will air any new episodes. Last night they played the same Christmas show they aired last year. This run of shows has been mildly disappointing.

But we can console ourselves with this: Cher scholar Tyler located an opening segment of Laugh In with Sonny & Cher. See Sonny in his groovy scarf. And wow! Some Cher eyelashes there! Cher also gets on a bike. Here’s another Laugh In segment with Cher and Tim Conway.

And the full episode of Sonny & Cher on The Glen Campbell Show.

And another tribute to Sonny & Cher on David Letterman 30 years ago!

Fashion Influence, Peripherals and Stuff

Ode to an Idol: https://www.image.ie/fashion/in-ode-of-an-idol-the-iconic-and-timeless-wardrobe-of-cher-88368

The New York Times ran a story about a republican mayoral candidate who happens to be a big Cher fan.

Cher is planning to release more Christmas merch on her site soon. See the products on her Twitter. It looks like the themes will be Chercophanie and Black Rose. You can still buy scarves, too!

Happy Halloween From Sonny & Cher

October 30, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

The cast of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour with Jerry Lewis (and Teri Garr up in the left corner) circa early 1970s.

Don’t forget to watch Sonny & Cher visiting a haunted house in the 1960s.

Cherwolf

She’s posing with the Werewolf there. Cute.

And this year Kim Kardashian made another splash of a Cher-tribute. She arrived at Cindy Crawford’s annual Halloween bash as Sonny & Cher:

Cher tweeted that this Cherfit is called “Dream of India” and was designed by Bob Mackie for when Sonny & Cher presented at the Academy Awards in 1973:

I love Halloween. I really do.

Throwback Thursday

October 12, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Living in New York in 1982

Cher fans recently came across an old Cher interview with Andy Warhol from March of 1982 in Interview Magazine.

Remember back then Cher's career was in Nowheresville. This was on the heels of Black Rose and Las Vegas showrooms and Cher was part of the cast of Robert Altman Broadway play. In the interview, she had just offered a role in Silkwood. No one expected much of anything from her and it was amazing that she made the cover of Interview at that time. I loved the cover so much I had it hanging on my wall all through high school.

The piece is filled with a few glaring typos. (talking about the record "I’m Paralyzed" and mentioning Cher’s sister Jeannie). When asked about New York City's Mayor Koch, Cher says “I don’t know anything about politics…I don’t watch the news. I’m pretty unenlightened.” So in 30 years, we’ve seen lots of changes on that front. She’s now described as a news junky and Trump foil.

The article also talks about her recently ended relationship with professional hockey player Ron Duguy and her current relationship with two men, young actor John Heard and music producer John Leoffler.

John Heard just died a few weeks ago of a heart attack at age 72. Cher’s tweeted her thoughts and picture presumably from the time she dated him.

The Witches of Eastwick

Cher scholar Tyler recently shared this interesting article on Witches of Eastwick in Racked.

It's a good article to see how millennials see this movie today. Be warned, it’s nothing they would recommend. They like the visuals and the fashion, but find the gender politics weird, (and outdated probably). They consider it something their parents likely saw on date night. Ouch! But you can’t argue with the plot flaws of the thing and the weak characters, such as Daryl who “doesn’t seem all that powerful, all things considered.”

The author proposes the idea that Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon flying might be about orgasms. Huh. Interesting.

I sent the article to my Jack Nicholson-obsessed friend, (she of the Cher Zine 2 Cher vs. Jack Cookbook Cook Off) and she remembered having to see the movie with her Dad when she was underage and they were both terrified of the orgy scene from the movie trailer that never made it to the final cut.

Here are some retro interviews around that time:

Remember the weird floral couch interviews? In this one, Cher talks about working with Sudie Bond in two previous movies.

Another floral couch interview.

An interview in Germany. Sonny & Cher here are called the first hippies in the world.

Tweets & Cruises

October 12, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Cher made the top page of Yahoo! for one of her Trump tweets.

She's also involved in a new lawsuit over her investments.

Cher gave comments on the new trend of Cher hair in In Style:

"It's a good look! I saw Kim [Kardashian West] do it, and thought it was so great," Cher said. "I've worn my hair like that ever since I was a girl. For now, it's back, but then girls will start doing something else when they get bored."

In Closer Weekly, she talks about relationships with past loves.

And hey! There’s a Cher Crewz in November 2018. You can hang out with other Cher fans and two top notch Cher impersonators, Chad Michaels and Candi Stratton.

Check out the website: https://www.chercrewcruise.com/

And Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CherCrewCruise/

I can't go but you should!

Fabulous Fun Fan Fall: Memoirs

October 12, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Stage

In the New York Times article about Cher’s musical, I learned these productions are called “jukebox bio-musicals” and the September 10, 2017 NYT reported that there has been a written but aborted Bruce Springsteen musical, (his one man show sold out in October but he nixed a musical based on his songs), and a list of artists with juxebox bio-musicals:

Jersey Boys (The Four Seasons)
Beautiful (Carol King)
Mama Mia! (ABBA)
Movin’ Out (Billy Joel)

Upcoming:

Escape to Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffet)
Donna Summer
The Temptations
Cher
Tina Turner

The Rolling Stone article about Cher's jukebox bio-musical.

Book Memoir

Yes! A new Cher memoir is now officially a thing. Publisher HarperCollins has just won the rights to the book. We don’t know if a book actually exists yet or if it will take a few years to exist, but what great news. I was worried the Broadway show would be the only self-interpretation of Cher’s life we might get. Not that I’m complaining about that. But as a book nerd…yippee!

And I’m sure the book has the potential to have lots of salacious stories about Hollywood. And that’s always fun. But I really think the existing books (including her own The First Time) are mostly lacking evidence of her childhood and ancestry, both which have much more bearing on a person than backstage run-ins with Raquel Welch and Red Foxx. Although that is interesting too. There’s the cake and there’s the icing.

Fabulous Fun Fan Fall: Music

October 12, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

Walls

This is like my favorite time to be a Cher fan. There’s another new Cher song out! She “performed” a song called “Walls” solo last weekend at the One Young World Festival in Bogota. Here’s an audio clip.

It’s very "Sirens" sounding. Allegedly a single will go on sale to benefit Cher's animal welfare foundation, Free to Wild. Keep a look out for the official recording to purchase. Cher is putting her vocals behind some really great projects this year: Syrian refuges, character-building children’s shows, animal welfare. Hopefully we can all contribute to these causes officially.

This is Cher’s fourth new song this year. Three of the new songs were released as a surprise without PR fanfare and none have been officially released as singles. According to reports, “Walls is expected to be released in the near future with proceeds from sales to be donated to Free The Wild, Cher’s foundation which was created to protect wild animals in captivity.”

Cher was recently trying to free the elephant Kavaan.

According to Newnownext, "It’s always a cause for celebration when Cher releases new music. But when it’s a soulful ballad that subtly knocks President Trump, it’s doubly amazing. The Dark Lady premiered “Walls” over the weekend at the One Young World Festival in Bogota. While it’s ostensibly about emotional barriers, it’s also a dig at Trump’s favorite pet project—a wall along the U.S./Mexican border.”

It’s actually primarily about animals in cages. But I really do love the fact that the song can be read on three layers. They lyrics are vague enough to be read as tearing down Trump’s Mexico wall, tearing down political, emotional or interpersonal barriers, and about cages keeping in wild animals.

In college I made a mix tape of animal welfare songs. And yes, "Bless the Beasts and the Children" was in the mix, completely un-ironically. However," Tame Yourself" by Raw Youth has always been my favorite animal welfare song. Although I see now that the finger crossing in the video is a little over the top. The song was recorded to benefit PETA and was released as a compilation with other animal welfare songs.

Cher’s song is not maudlin or accusatory. And it does seem elastically vague enough to be readable with multiple interpretations. We don’t know who wrote it yet but it could be another Diane Warren song. The vague language kind of reminds me of her style.

Which reminds me that Paloma Faith, who has a new album coming out soon and a new single posted on YouTube, now has a Diane Warren connection.

So Paloma is an artist that I love so much I’ve accidentally purchased one of her albums twice. And I did this recently. After buying her third album twice, I became enraptured with the video and the song "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" and for about a week I listened to it nonstop before I realized it was written by none other than Diane Warren. I love this song. And I know I’ve been pretty vocal about my feelings about Ms. Warren. Like most people, I’m too opinionated about music. And way less opinionated in poetry where I'll return to writers I don’t like to see if I might become more open to them.

Most Cher fans love her Diane Warren songs. My friends, all 80s kids, love her songs, too. I’m pretty much a minority of one in my distaste for them. In fact, my friends and Cher-fan friends might say I have a bonafide prejudice. And in this world of over-opinionization, opinions have become pretty meaningless. I’ll argue strenuously any day of the week that music preferences are completely subjective any way you look at it.

But it’s my blog so I can complain if I want to. However, I’m now faced with the issue of there being Diane Warren songs I like.

To recap what I haven’t liked: 1) simplistic melodies (Cher’s “Turn Back Time” being particularly grating), 2) easy rhymes and platitudes (Cher’s “Love and Understanding” maybe the worst offender), 3) ubiquitously found on everybody’s albums, including now the incomparable Paloma Faith!, 4) if you write a song about smiles, it has to live up to the smile of the person singing it. (The whole sub-genre of smiling songs we can leave to another day.)

And this reminds me that John Waite has also released a new album with a good version of Donovan's “Catch the Wind” which Cher covered too in 1966. Which yet again reminds me of that day in 1989 when the first Bad English album and Cher’s Heart of Stone were released on the same day.

And in full disclosure, of all the many, many Diane Warren hits I have liked the following: "Unbreak My Heart," "If You Asked Me To" (Patti LaBelle’s version), and as a preteen I really did love the build-up and synthesizers in Laura Branigan’s "Solitaire." Oh, and Michael Bolton’s "Time, Love and Tenderness" was one of the few cassette singles I ever bought because it felt like an updated, edgier version of the Barry Manilow’s cheer-up song "I Made it Through the Rain."

But I can live happily never having heard these songs again: "Because You Loved Me," "Look Away," "Blame it on the Rain," "Don’t Turn Around," "Rhythm of the Night," "Don’t Want to Miss a Thing" (ugh, really hate that one), "I Get Weak," "How Can We Be Lovers," "Just Like Jesse James," and Heart’s "Who Will You Run To."

I can’t argue with the powerhouse that is Diane Warren. All I can say is that I love "Only Love Can Hurt Like This" and have to throw some of the credit for that to Paloma Faith who has really taken the song and made it part of her retro-ouvre.

It will be interesting to find out who wrote “Walls” and if I’ll have to eat my hat again over liking it for the very same reason I don’t like Warren’s other vague lyrical material.

Everyday People

More material from Cher’s commercial with Future (that news feels like old news now, huh?).

Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r55jDosZDM
The Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjYP5nuxTDo

History of the Cher Look

September 28, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Discussion about the Cher look has been all over the news over the last few months. It’s cray-cray.

Kim Kardashian did a photographic Cher tribute of Cher that made a big splash:

– Billboard
– Harpers Bazaar
– Daily Mail
– People
– The Today Show

And Cher approves of her “little Armenian sister"

- People
- US Magazine
- Page Six

It’s odd to me the kind of sites that do Cher outfit reviews. It’s becoming the new click-bait.

Now here is an outfit review with a point of view: the best jumpsuits of all time.

I even updated my own page of Cher in cowboy hats!

And various other articles posted giddy news about Cher’s health and beauty routines:

How Cher stays fabulous at 71 years old (CNN)
Cher loves a Kim Kardashian outfit (People)
The Cher hair trend (Bravo TV)
Cher’s Workout routine (WellandGood)
Cher’s Workout routine (People)
Cher uses Proactive! says Proactive’s site
Cher has an important message for Sonam Kapoor and Kim Kardashian West (Vogue)
Looking good is more important than looking fashionable': Cher on being stylish at 71 (Telegrah UK)
Cher On Why That Bob Mackie Oscars Outfit Still Plays On Her Mind (Vogue)

And in celebrity homes news…is the Sonny & Cher house haunted? It was back on the market with a new look (Architectural Digest)

Cher in Movie History

September 28, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Thanks to Tyler (again! He's a Dr. of Cher scholarship) for sharing this great blog post on Good Times.

"Good Times" is not necessarily a good movie by normal cinematic standards. In fact, let's come right out and say it — it's a bad movie by most cinematic standards. But it's still fun to watch, especially if you think of it as a series of music videos instead of a movie. Or maybe just think of it as a preview of their TV variety show from a few years later.

Another great article about Cher music on TV and in the movies.

The article singles out the recent covers of “Believe” on singing competition shows and also super rarities in the movies, like the song “Human,” the never-released gem from the soundtrack of Stuck On You. It's one of my favorite later-day Cher songs although the production sounds a little back bedroom. Another interesting mention is Cher's performance of “Little Egypt,” the infamous, badly-lit scene cut from the final release of Mask. You can see the outtake here (and in Peter Bogdanovich’s Directors Cut DVD). It's the part of the movie where she runs into Gar at a picnic that turns into a party and she's trying to lure him back into her life.

I haven’t seen this movie in years. Maybe it’s time.

Cher in Television History

September 28, 2017 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Nostalgia TV

So much good TV history stuff this summer, but I’m a bit frustrated with the ever-repeating reruns of reruns that is Sonny & Cher on GetTV. For all of you who didn’t kill yourselves to get this channel, you can rest happily. As a consolation, GetTV has provided a quiz on their website: Are you more Sonny or Cher? I scored as Cher: a free spirited, outspoken, wise cracker.

Over at the other beloved re-run channel MeTV there is a story about Classic TV Stars Who Are Still Touring and 10 Iconic Facts about Cher.

Carol Burnett Show

Cher scholar Tyler discovered this delectable early Carol Burnett Show episode with Sonny & Cher from the mid 60s. The full episode includes everything (the solo of "You’d Better Sit Down Kids" and the duet "Living For You," plus the big finale number) but Cher’s solo is missing audio.

For that solo, you have to visit this other link. Carol Burnett introduces Sonny & Cher as part of a “wild, way out movement [hardly]. They country jam this groove-fest.

Cher comes across as a shy, morose teenager in these numbers and at one point actually creeps off the set. Sonny tries to be so groovy, but WTF is he wearing on his leg? Cher’s correct, though, he has very nice hands.

The big number (at mark 45:10) is really something to see. Cher in very shy and unsure as Carol Burnett and Nanette Fabray exhibit the kind of duo chemistry that makes Cher look like a big third wheel. It’s exactly the same shut-out that occurred in 1975 between Cher and Tina Turner, when Kate Smith looked like the third wheel in the big Beatles tribute.

Magic on The Cher Show

Another great find (thanks to Tyler) was this Cher Show appearance by magician Mark Wilson. Cher plays his assistant. It’s pretty cheesy by today’s standards, there’s a big overhead of assistance, lame jokes and is that Gloria Steinem in the un-enthused crowd?

Love American Style

Truer than the red, white and blu-oo-oo! The full episode of Sonny and Cher’s appearance on Love American Style from January 1971.

It’s called “Love and the Sack.” I loved this show as a kid. This time I noticed how goofy and Mary-Tyler-Moore the set looks: a wicker chair, peace sign art, 1960s plants, and the ubiquitous guitar in the corner.

Cher (as April) is waiting for a surprise marriage proposal from her boyfriend Henry. A sack arrives with Sonny in it, postage due. Sonny says, “I mailed myself to you” as if that’s not a creepy-stalker thing to say. Stranger danger!

Sonny, who’s name we never learn, tries to convince Cher/April that life with Henry would be a mundane affair of track housing, missionary sex and too many babies. Meanwhile he has a motorcycle, a loft in the village with a bathtub sofa, (I looked that up and found nothing but a slew of bathtubs converted into sofas), and promises her a Turkish-bath honeymoon (I looked that up too).

So Henry shows up and Cher says “get back in the sack!” See, in the 60s, sack was a double-entendre. Anyway, Henry comes in and offers to take Cher out for Cock-a-doodle Chicken. (This show is so randy!) And bingo, all of Sonny’s predictions come true. Henry IS a stiff who wants her to be a baby factory. Henry calls Sonny a bag of soft potatoes and calls Cher/April a kook and a weirdo for having a man in a sack in her living room. Sonny tells Henry to offer Cher/April “Italian sausage.” I kid you not.

I honestly feel this skit shows a solid preview of Cher’s future acting chops.

Glen Campbell and Jerry Lewis

We lost both Glen Campbell and Jerry Lewis this summer. Cher worked with Glen Campbell back with the Wrecking Crew in the 1960s. He also appeared on Cher Shows; Cher appeared on Glen's shows, both with and without Sonny. Cher was also a guest on Jerry Lewis’ TV show and he appeared on hers, with and without Sonny. These are my favorite clips:

Cher and Glen do one of their last medleys (of many) together.

Jerry Lewis on Cher’s show.