Cher (6 page)

With her mother constantly working at one odd job or another, and an ever-changing array of father figures moving in and out of her life, Cher did not have an entirely stable home life to give her security. It was also at the age of sixteen that Cher decided to drop out of high school and go out into the world to discover for herself who she was. For Cher, this was the beginning of a wondrous new life, a life that would see all of her dreams of stardom turn into reality.

3

I GOT YOU BABE

It was in early 1963 that Cher said “goodbye” to high school and left her mother’s house. While Georgia was a very well-manicured actress who was always beautifully made-up, her daughter Cher was on the decidedly unglamorous side. Charlie Greene and Brian Stone eventually became the managers of Sonny & Cher. Stone recalls of teenaged Cher, “She was a pimply-faced little kid” (29). According to Greene, she not only had a bad complexion, she had zero fashion sense, stringy hair, and was usually wearing worn-out blue jeans and a rumpled T-shirt.

Admitted Cher, “I was poor when I grew up, and I couldn’t bear that—because I looked a certain way; before getting a chance to tell people what I had to say, they would know I was poor. I was ashamed that I was poor. I felt that somehow it was my fault. I didn’t understand it, but I figured it was something I was doing wrong” (30).

Charlie Greene’s wife, Marci, recalls,

At the time, Cher didn’t know the first thing about being a girl, which was strange because her mother’s one of the most glamorous creatures I’ve ever seen. But Cher knew from nothing. I can’t blame her. Her background had been very, very poor. She had very long hair and she used to iron it. That was what she did. She had none of the basics. No clothes sense; no clothes. She never wore anything. She’d take the same jeans off the floor she’d worn the day before and put them on—day after day (29).

According to Cher, “I was living by my wits. Belligerent. Sarcastic. People kept away from me. I was Sadie Thompson on the outside. But still a secret, heavenly star on the inside” (31).

She was staying with one of her girlfriends when she met the man who was going to change her life. His name was Sonny Bono, and he was working for the famous hit-making record producer Phil Spector. Sonny’s claim to fame at that point was the fact that he and Jack Nitzsche wrote a hit song that was recorded by Jackie DeShannon—and later by the Searchers—called “Needles and Pins.” It was the success of that song that helped land him the job as Spector’s assistant.

Sonny Bono was born Salvatore Phillip Bono on February 16, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. He moved with his parents to Los Angeles, and before he discovered that he had a knack for writing hit songs, he held several odd jobs as a waiter, a truck driver, a construction worker, and a butcher’s assistant. When he was thirteen years old, Sonny was working in a grocery store, and while unloading boxes of Coco Joe’s cookies, he jotted down a song idea he entitled “Koko Joe.” It was first recorded by Don & Dewey, and a few years later, the Righteous Brothers recorded it.

Another one of his songs, “She Said ‘Yeah,’ ” was recorded by Larry Williams in 1958. The Rolling Stones were later to revive it in 1965 on their
December’s Children
(
and Everybody’s
) album. At the time that he wrote these songs though, his track record for success was spotty at best.

However, he was totally hooked on music. According to Sonny, “As long as I can remember, I said, ‘I’m gonna get into music.’ I’ve always wanted to be involved in music—I never really had any other thought growing up. So it wasn’t ‘Do I wanna be a doctor? Do I wanna be a lawyer?’ I just wanted to be in music. So I just kept doing it until I figured out how to get there” (32).

By 1958, Salvatore found himself married to Donna Rankin, and the couple had a daughter named Christy. Taking both of their first names, he called himself Don Christy, and began making the rounds of the record companies in a attempt to sell a song he had recorded called “High School Dance.” Another song he penned and recorded, “Wearing Black,” never went anywhere either. Instead of focusing on him as a singer, a company hired him as a record producer, and soon he was in the music business. By the time he hooked up with Phil Spector, his marriage had dissolved, and he was floating around from apartment to apartment.

In 1963, when Cher left home, she moved in with her girlfriend Melissa Melcher, and she landed a job at a See’s candy shop. “A girlfriend
of mine said she wanted to introduce me to this nice guy who was supposed to be kinda famous,” Cher remembers of her first encounter with Sonny Bono (33).

I was in a huge restaurant, and I didn’t know him, but everyone else did. They said, “There’s Sonny,” and I swear to God, I saw him walk through the door, everyone else faded away. I just saw him—this thin guy with long black hair, Beatle boots, and a gold chain around his hand. I was knocked out. I didn’t think he was handsome, but I’d never seen anyone with long hair and boots and stuff like that. All my girlfriends said, “He’s kind of ugly, he has a big nose, and he’s strange-looking. You could do a lot better.” But there was something about him. He was good, stable, older—sweet. He was a record promoter. He had just left his wife and he liked my girlfriend, the one I was staying with, but she didn’t like him at all (18).

Telling his side of the story, Sonny Bono recalled their first meeting slightly differently. According to him, “When I met Cher, I was a [record] promotion man. I went to a radio station, and then I went to Aldo’s, where we all went for coffee. There’s Cher with her boyfriend. The only other girl that was available was her girlfriend, who was a good looker too. Then we all went out—me and the other girl. That didn’t pan out at all” (32).

According to Sonny in his 1991 autobiography
And the Beat Goes On
, the next night the foursome met again at Aldo’s. Cher was with Sonny’s fellow promotion man, Red,
¹
and Sonny was paired with Melissa. After dinner and a lot of red wine, Melissa and Cher announced that they wanted to go dancing at a place that neither Red nor Sonny had heard of—it was called Club 86. However, they were game for a little dancing. After the foursome arrived at Club 86, and were escorted to a table, Sonny and Red realized that they were the only men in the whole place. The girls had taken them to a lesbian bar! Sonny was even more confused when Cher and Melissa got up and went to dance—with each other. Following a few uncomfortable minutes, the men announced to their dates that they wanted to leave. Cher obliged, but Melissa decided to stay. Sonny recalls that Cher, who was seated in the front seat of the car, kept talking to him in the backseat, while Red drove the car. Sonny simply assumed that he and Red had just had a joke played on them by the girls, and figured that he would probably never see them again anyway.

Regardless of whose memory of their first meeting is clearer, or more accurate, it wasn’t long before their paths did indeed cross again. Oddly enough, Sonny ended up renting the apartment next door to the one that Cher and Melissa were sharing. As Cher explains it, “This was when me and my girlfriend lived on Fountain Avenue, and well, Sonny moved in next door. He didn’t know we were next door. So, I thought that was kind of neat. I went over to see him and we water-colored all day. He was really terrible too. So, that night, he asked me to go to Safeway [grocery store] with him. Yeah, real romantic” (33).

Sonny was to recall, “I was very attracted to her” (32). Due to the Club 86 adventure, Sonny also wondered about Cher’s sexual preferences, although she denied that she was gay. He was also amazed by her use of foul language, which dotted her conversation as though she had learned English from a truck driver. Sonny chalked it up to her wanting to act more adult.

From the very start, Cher’s affair with Sonny was unconventional at best. Yet there was a growing bond between them. Cher recalls, “I had a date with another guy that night, but I didn’t want to get involved in that so I kind of cooled it. I got home around three o’clock that night and went over to see if Sonny was up. Well . . . he was in bed with some other girl and wouldn’t even answer the door. That really pissed me off!” she remembers.

Then my girlfriend split and left me with all these bills, and I lost my job, and my mother was going to make me come home. So Sonny said, “Well, I’ll tell you something. I don’t find you particularly attractive, but you can stay in my house.” He said, “Can you cook?” I said, “No,” and he said, “All right, I’ll pay everything and you keep the house clean and we’ll do it.” So I told my mother I was living with a stewardess, and it seemed like a good thing at the time. We stayed in the same room. I remember waking up one time, I’d had a really bad dream, and I said, “Sonny can I get in bed with you?” And he said, “Yes, but don’t bother me.” And I said, “O.K.” And we just lived there together for ages. It took a long time for the relationship and if he can’t he doesn’t mess with you. It wasn’t a fiery, sexy thing with us, but rather paternal, like we were bound together, two people who needed each other, almost for protection (18).

According to her, “It was platonic for a long while. I was more an annoyance to him, a silly kid, but I had a crush on him” (16).

Somehow, whenever Georgia was going to visit Cher at the apartment that she supposedly shared with a stewardess, she would call ahead. Says Cher of such hastily announced visitations, “I’d rush around, collect all
of Sonny’s clothes and dump them through the window into Melissa’s place right across the way. One day Melissa was sitting at the table with some guests when a shower of Sonny’s belongings descended on everyone. She just said, ‘Oh, Cher’s mother must be on the way’ ” (17).

Sonny Bono claimed that he was attracted to her simultaneous combination of maturity and immaturity. “When I met her she was sixteen and a waif,” he explained.

On one hand, she was a very mature kid. She had dealt with life and men on an adult level—she skipped the teenage stage. But on the other, she was a very naive little girl. She would walk around our house and sing her ass off. It drove me crazy. But in the first two weeks I knew her, I told her I felt that she would be a great star. That’s what she wanted (17).

Although Cher had a bit of a rough exterior at the time, Sonny claimed that he spotted something special about her. “When I met Cher I knew she was going to be something great,” he remembered. “I told her then that I thought she was a flower that hadn’t blossomed yet but she would, and the whole world would know it. I knew then that if I didn’t have something, it wouldn’t work between us. I knew I had to do something, too, so I wouldn’t just be a nebbish” (34).

Cher was the first to admit that she used to mask her insecurities with foul language and aggressive behavior; she developed a caustic attitude for protection.

When I was younger, I was chicken and poor, which isn’t hip, because you haven’t got clothes and all that stuff. So I developed S.M.B. “Smart Mouth Bitch.” Which meant, “Don’t screw with me, because I may not have clothes or what everyone else has, but I can cut you to ribbons.” When I met Sonny, I had that reputation; gave him the finger and all that. But after I’d been with him for about six months, I was so different. I wasn’t allowed to say “fuck” or “hell” or “damn.” With Sonny, that part of my personality was just tucked away (18).

In other words, Sonny and Cher inspired each other to refine themselves and get their acts together.

Cher’s mother finally caught wind of her living arrangements with Sonny and decided to put an immediate end to their relationship. According to Georgia Holt, “Cher really had matured. Sonny just hung around the house. We didn’t know he was married at first. At least I
didn’t. He and his wife were separated. When I found out Sonny was eleven years older than Cher and had a wife and a daughter, I didn’t want him around my baby girl” (11).

Then, when Cher was suddenly absent, Sonny realized that he was really in love with her. According to Cher,

Sonny and I kept going out and one day he’s thinking, “Well, maybe I ought to ask you to marry me, huh?” I said, “I dunno.” Then he bought this little diamond on a chain, just the cutest little thing, and he came home and got me out of the bath, and so he said, “Maybe I ought to propose to you, huh?” I said, “I still dunno.” So that was kind of our engagement. Mother didn’t like him and decided to take me to Arkansas to forget about him. Arkansas was a terrible place. It only made me think about him even more (33).

Recalls her mother of their Arkansas trip,

We were gone for three weeks, but Cher didn’t simmer down. It’s strange, but at that time Sonny was the spitting image of her father, Johnny Sarkisian. I think the father image had a great deal to do with Cher’s feelings, but I didn’t think it would have helped it I’d told that to Cher. When a girl is as much in love with a man as she was, not much can be done about it (11).