The more famous a person, the more media hype they are likely to attract. Therefore, any decent celebrity biography needs to delve behind the public image—the sensationalism that attracts all the tabloid headlines. It has to present all sorts of details, both trivial and significant, to reveal more of the ordinary and unexpected aspects of life in the public eye.
With a career spanning six decades, Cher is one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry. Given her career longevity, plus her unconventional image and lifestyle, any biography is likely to be at least entertaining as well as informative.
The length of her career and the extent of her fame ensure there are bound to be many celebrities making an appearance. It often reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of popular performers over the past few decades: Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Beach Boys—all sorts of performers and creative artists—even eccentric surrealist Salvador Dalí makes an appearance. Cher’s popularity extends beyond the realm of music and movie performers. For example, we learn that former First Lady Jackie Kennedy was a fan. (Unfortunately, there is no index at the end of the book to easily look up these encounters; however, there are plenty of illustrations).
Cher: The Memoir Part I. Harper Collins Publishers, Australia, Pty Limited. Australia, 2024.
Apart from interactions with the rich and famous, there are also significant personal revelations. One interesting revelation is Cher’s struggle with dyslexia, something she did not realise she had until her daughter was diagnosed with it decades later. Cher’s dyslexia extended not only to words and letters but also to numbers, making even basic maths difficult. This explains why her first husband held the purse strings rather tightly. It also explains why she would sign a business contract on her first husband’s say-so without even reading it.
The personal revelations continue with her family of origin, her marriages, and all sorts of facts associated with her career. Unsurprisingly, her marriages are described in detail, revealing the complexity of these relationships with men who had both strengths and weaknesses. Her first husband, Sonny Bono, was a control freak and serial philanderer; her second, Gregg Allman, was a recurring drug addict. Although she has reasons to dislike them, her account is not laced with hate and vitriol. (In fact, there is hardly any of this in the entire 411 pages). As both are now deceased, she could easily have done a hatchet job on them. Instead, she looks at her marriages more dispassionately in the broader context of her long life. The fact that she remained on reasonable terms with both former husbands after her divorces is a sign that she could be more objective, at least in hindsight.
As an autobiography, we clearly get the sense that Cher is speaking directly to the reader. There are detailed descriptions of the outfits she wore on stage and the décor of her various homes, including the one she designed herself—all part of the public image Cher created. We can easily imagine Cher going gaga over an unusual item of clothing in some shop window and buying it on impulse. However, this public persona is countered by a more serious personal history, hitherto largely unknown to the general public.
Cher and Bono.
Her childhood was difficult, to say the least. She states she lost count of the number of times her mother was married and divorced. In addition, her biological father was a gambler and drug addict who served a lengthy prison sentence. As a child, Cher was often left alone to look after herself and her younger half-sister. Nevertheless, in adulthood, she ended up supporting her mother financially.
With a chaotic childhood and little formal education, the extent of her success is impressive. While talent and hard work were clearly part of her phenomenal success, she acknowledges a third essential element: luck. Since few talented performers ever reach the heights she did, she stresses that she was incredibly lucky with her career. Nevertheless, it is still impressive that someone with such limited career options should end up as a megastar who has won nearly every major award—from the Grammy to the Golden Globe to an Academy Award.
Above all, Cher is a survivor, thanks to some of her lifestyle choices. Unlike many professional singers, she did not meet an untimely end. One clear reason is that she and Sonny were not into illicit drugs, and she rarely indulged in alcohol. It seems her only drug of choice was tobacco.
Among all the anecdotes and revelations, there are also some significant insights about her career in the entertainment industry. We tend to think that fame and fortune involve a gradual rise to the top, but this is not always the case. For Cher, there were a few setbacks in her career. After the success of I Got You Babe, she and Sonny ended up having to play small dives. It is hard to understand how a duo who knocked The Beatles off the top spot with their first hit could ever end up in such dire financial straits—but it did happen. Clearly, hers was not a smooth rise to the top.
In this memoir, the glitz and glamour of showbiz are balanced with some of the harsh realities of life: a difficult childhood, failed marriages, and various obstacles—usually financial—that disrupted the course of her life. Overall, we are reminded that the many ‘ups’ are often accompanied by a few ‘downs’, even for the rich and very famous.
As this 411-page volume is only Part I, covering roughly half of her long life, there is clearly more to come. It ends just as Cher is deciding to pursue another long-held career dream: proving herself as an actress on the big screen—clearly something to be covered in Part II.
Stay tuned for the next instalment.