Cher (2 page)

Mark Lasswell

Walter McBride

Michael Messina

Marie Morreale

Bob Noguera at Strider Records, NYC

Jim Pinkston

Ross Plotldn

Bobby Reed

Sherry Robb

David Salidor

Frank Sanello

Shea Scullin

Barbara Shelley

Andy Skurow

Mark Sokoloff

Leor Warner

Lori Weiss

Kelly West

Mary Wilson

PREFACE

Take Me Home

I know for myself, if something happened to my face, or something happened that would change me physically, my career and my life would pretty much be down the tubes
.—Cher to Mark Bego, 1979 (1)

In a very real sense, I have been working on this book for thirty-five years. It was in 1966 that I bought my first Sonny & Cher album, the soundtrack for their film
Good Times
. Although it was years before I saw the famed rock and roll movie, I loved the music, especially “It’s the Little Things.” It fact, it is still my favorite Sonny & Cher song. I remember the first time I saw them on a syndicated dance party–style TV program,
The Lloyd Thaxton Show
. I’ll never forget the fashion statement they made: Sonny had his classic Caesar haircut, and Cher was wearing a pair of her trademark bell-bottoms.

In the 1970s, when I went to college at Central Michigan University, I wrote the record review column in the campus newspaper. One of the first LPs I wrote about was the 1971 album
Cher
, which featured her first solo Number 1 hit, “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves.” When I moved to New York City, I began a career as a magazine writer, reviewing and reporting about the music scene for
Billboard, Record World, Us
, and anyone else who would purchase my writing.

When Studio 54 opened, on a night in 1977, I was there. My date that evening was actress C. C. H. Pounder. Amidst all of the partying, at one point I turned and pointed at someone in a straw cowboy hat, and said to C. C., “Oh my God, we’re dancing next to Cher!” That was my first live and in-person encounter with the diva. (Since that time, C. C. has starred as the owner of the title business in the movie
Baghdad Cafe
and was one of the stars of Cher’s film
If These Walls Could Talk
.)

From 1978 to 1980, I had one of the most exciting jobs of my Manhattan writing career. I was the nightlife editor of New York City’s famed
CUE
magazine. It was a guide to everything to do in Manhattan, and my “beat” included every discotheque, cabaret, nightclub, piano bar, and supper club in town.

In early 1979 I was informed by my editor, Daphne Davis, that I would be doing a big cover story interview with none other than Cher herself. She had just released her disco album
Take Me Home
, and I was invited to all of the festivities surrounding it. Two days before I was to interview Cher, I was a guest at the
Billboard
Disco Convention’s late-night skating party in Brooklyn, hostessed by Cher.

Not only was that evening memorable for roller skating on the same rink as Cher, it also became memorable for the accident I was involved in. While I was skating, and craning my neck to follow Cher, someone skating behind me started to lose his balance and grabbed at the nearest thing he could find—me! Not only did he pull me down on the floor, someone else rolled over my right forefinger, damaging the cartilage in it.

Bob Weiner wrote in the
Soho Weekly News
gossip column (March 8, 1979), “
Cue
magazine’s Mark Bego was one of the many casualties at Cher’s Empire Roller disco party last week. Some stoned freak roller skated over his hand, which is now in splints. The party was the highlight of the fifth
Billboard
Disco Convention” (2).

Two days after the party, when I arrived at the Pierre Hotel for my one-on-one in-person interview with Cher, I had a metal splint holding the forefinger of my right hand in an extended position, and I was still very much in pain. Cher was upset when I told her how I was one of the casualties of her disco party, and I appreciated her concern. I found her to be warm and frank, and very relaxed when talking that day. She was standing at a crossroads in her high-profile career and was pondering the idea of getting into acting—both on Broadway and in the movies. Much of the material from our 1979 discussion is included in this book. Also present at our interview was a surprise guest star, Cher’s boyfriend at the time, Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS.

My career focus shifted from magazines to books when I first hit the
New York Times
best-seller list in 1984, with a Michael Jackson biography I had written (
Michael!
). Now with forty books written, and ten million books in print, I became the biggest-selling rock and roll biographer ever! However, one of my biggest disappointments was the way my 1986 book
Cher!
was published and then promptly disappeared. Part of the problem was timing. I was simply ahead of the game. Cher’s huge 1980s peak—winning the Oscar for
Moonstruck
—came two years after my
book appeared, and no one seemed to want to listen to my suggestions to update
Cher!

Undeterred, my passion for and interest in Cher continued. I twice saw her on Broadway in
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
, I went to the press preview of
Mask
, I watched her reunite with Sonny on
Late Night with David Letterman
in 1988, and I continued to save every interview, article, photo, review, and detail I saw about Cher.

In January of 1998, when Sonny Bono was suddenly killed in a skiing accident, newspapers and television shows raced to cover the tragic event. That same month, the
New York Post
wrote an article about the fact that I was shopping for a publisher for this book. Days later, I received a phone call from the producers of the
Sally Jesse Raphael
TV show, asking me to be a guest on the program. They were assembling several of Sonny’s family and friends to speak about him and give him a fitting tribute. I was honored to be invited to speak about the importance of his career in the music world. On the set of the show I met his mother, Jean Bono; his third ex-wife, Susie Coehlo; and a couple of his friends, including Tony Orlando.

As you read this book, you will discover just how thoroughly the lives of Sonny and Cher will forever be linked. Without Sonny Bono, the entertainment world would never have heard of the diva we have all come to know simply as “Cher.”

Finally, in 1999, thanks to the song “Believe,” Cher was back on top again, and I was ready to chronicle her latest career peak. This book,
Cher: If You Believe
, began as a reprint of my 1986 book,
Cher!
, with post-1986 updates. However, once I started entering the old book in my computer (the original manuscript was created on an electric typewriter), from the very start, I began rewriting the old material and giving it a whole new perspective.

I don’t know a single author who wouldn’t want a second chance to tinker with one of his or her previously written books. I always maintained that
Cher!
was one of my favorite books of those I have written. I made it my goal to eclipse that book with this one.

There are a few segments of the pre-1986 material that are from the book
Cher!
, as well as several of the original photos. Other than that, this is truly a whole new book. I got a big smile on my face recently when someone informed me that they saw a rare copy of my original
Cher!
book on the Internet auction site eBay, selling for $80. (The original cover price upon publication was only $3.50!)

Not only does this book contain material from my original interview with Cher, but it also encompasses several new interviews with many of her friends and coworkers, including record producer Bob Esty, Academy Award–nominated actress Sally Kirkland, Randy Jones of the Village People, Sarah Dash of LaBelle, and Mary Wilson of The Supremes. I have seen and photographed Cher’s new Malibu mansion, attended the Phoenix opening night of her “Believe” tour, and was in the audience at the Grammy Awards in February 2000 to witness Cher’s name being announced as one of that evening’s winners.

The year 2000 began my fifth decade as a Cher follower and fan, and I am thrilled to be the first author of the new millennium to chronicle her roller-coaster–like story with all of the frankness and excitement that her life and career have encompassed.

I had a great deal of fun writing this book about the ever-colorful Cher, and I hope you enjoy it too.

AUTHOR’S EDITING NOTE

One of the biggest issues in this particular book concerned the very important look of the term “Sonny & Cher.” Beginning in the 1960s all of the duo’s albums and singles featured the use of the “ampersand” or “&” in the middle of their names. Whenever the “act” calling themselves “Sonny & Cher” are mentioned in this book, you will find that spelling. When action is taking place in a paragraph where both Sonny AND Cher are doing something as offstage individuals, we use the spelled-out “and” in the sentence.

Parenthetical numbers following quoted material refer to the numbered list of sources found in the back matter of the book.

—M
ARK
B
EGO
Los Angeles
August 2001

1

IF YOU BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER LIFE

It is 6:00 p.m., Wednesday, June 16, 1999, and it is 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix, Arizona. In underground parking lots automobiles are so hot that stickers and decorative chrome pieces are melting loose. Above ground, as the sun begins its descent into the western sky, one can literally see waves of heat radiating up from the pavement in the downtown area. In spite of the excruciating heat, thousands of people are walking with determination, heading down the sidewalks toward one particular block, oblivious to the temperature. No matter how hot it feels outdoors, the inside of the air-conditioned America West Arena that they are heading toward is truly the hottest place on the planet tonight. Because tonight is the night Cher opens her sold-out “Believe” world tour.

This evening, America West Arena is in a virtual Cher time warp. Audience members are dressed in outfits representing every era of Cher’s career. Several women are wearing bell-bottomed pants and sandals like the ones Cher made famous in the 1960s. One girl sports a bright purple shag wig, like the one Cher wore to Madonna’s wedding in 1985. Another woman parades around with a headpiece of long strands of plastic tubing, like the one Cher wore in her “Believe” video. Men, women, and children of all ages have purchased and are wearing Cher “Believe” T-shirts. It is a gathering of Cher believers of all ages. Some are older, some are middle-aged, and some are decades too young to have even been born when the song “I Got You Babe” topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tonight there is an air of excitement and sheer anticipation. After the two opening acts are finished with their musical sets, the members of the standing room–only crowd are at the edges of their seats. Tickets disappeared almost instantly at $60 and $75 apiece, and local scalpers were charging up to $600 per seat. “What is she going to wear?” “How will she sound?” “Which of her hits is she going to sing?” These were questions that were repeated throughout the crowd.

In true Cher fashion, the stage set is very gothic-looking. Rising about twenty feet above the huge stage, two nonsymmetrical staircases lead downward toward the stage floor. The stairways are encircled by fence posts topped with fleurs-de-lis linked with a guardrail of chain. The cyclorama backdrop is painted to look like it is made of stone. It’s as though tonight’s crowd is gathered in the secret cave of a mountain goddess, awaiting an audience with this deity.

On stage, musicians and technicians are scurrying about, checking lights, amps, and instruments. Finally, at 9:43 p.m. the house lights are dimmed. As the opening notes of a synthesizer-dominated song begin, it sounds more like
The X-Files
TV show theme than any recognizable Cher hit. It is hard to tell what song it is, especially through the resounding din of cheers, screams, clapping, and whistling that the audience is emitting. While huge video projection screens flash images of Cher’s past, present, and future, there—from the central and highest point of the stage—where the two staircases join, something is rising up from the floor of the balcony walkway that is formed there. Hark, it is the pop goddess herself—Cher in all of her outrageous opening night glory.