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In “Cher: The Memoirs – Part One” (forthcoming November 19 from HarperCollins), the singer-actress discusses her early years in the music business, including her partnership and marriage to Sonny Bono. The duo had eight Top 20 hits in the 1960s and 1970s, and their television series, “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” was a ratings bonanza.
Read below an extract in which she describes attending, at the age of 11, an event that would change the course of her life: an Elvis Presley concert.
And Don’t miss Anthony Mason’s interview with Cher on “CBS Sunday Morning” on November 17!
“Cher: The Memoirs – Part One”
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PREFACE
Los Angeles, summer 1956
Gawking at the television, I let my peanut butter and jelly sandwich fall onto the plate in my lap as shivers ran through my body.
Home alone after school, I sat cross-legged (my favorite position, ever) on the floor in front of the TV, enjoying the peace and quiet and watching my favorite show, American bandstand. “And now, ladies and gentlemen, Ray Charles,” Dick Clark announced as the camera panned to a handsome man in sunglasses sitting at a piano.
“Georgia, Georgia. . ” he began, and I burst into tears. I couldn’t believe he was singing a song about my mother. As the tears flowed onto my sandwich, I never felt more connected to anything in my life. Ray Charles’ voice and the melody seemed to express exactly what I was feeling.
It took me weeks to get over seeing him sing, and in some ways I never did, but then someone whose songs I first heard at the radio blew a hole in my understanding of the world and I was never the same again. While I was watching TV with my mother watching The Ed Sullivan Showa popular young singer named Elvis Presley filled the screen. Mom and I were two of sixty million Americans who witnessed this historic performance in September 1956.
Even though Elvis was dressed quite traditionally that Sunday night, he looked and moved differently than any performer I had ever seen. He started by singing “Don’t Be Cruel”, and by the time he sang “Love Me Tender”, I had the impression that he was singing only to me. I wanted to go straight to the TV and be Elvis.
When I learned a year later that he was giving a concert at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, I went home with stars in an eleven-year-old’s eyes. “Mom, mom! Elvis is going to be at the Pan-Pacific! Can we go? . . . Please?” I was convinced I had to be there. Secretly, I thought he would spot me in the crowd and pick me out, although I’m sure that’s what all the girls thought.
Luckily for me, my thirty-one-year-old mother was as crazy about Elvis as I was, which impressed my friends because their mothers did not approve of his raw sexuality. To this day I don’t know where she found the money, but Georgia found it. Mom and I got dressed and went into town, more like sisters than mother and daughter. Feeling the tension building as we got closer to the Fairfax district, we soon found ourselves caught in a thrilling crowd of nine thousand noisy girls.
We were carried inside the auditorium by a wave of pure adrenaline. Our fold-down seats were about halfway into the audience, but I was okay with that. Looking at all the girls eagerly watching the dark scene, I could feel my heart pounding in my flat little chest – a feeling I would become all too familiar with later in life.
The stage was dark, but when the spotlight hit, Elvis was there and he was magical. There was a roar from the crowd that was unlike anything I had ever heard. An explosion of flashes occurred. I only wish I had brought our little Kodak Brownie. Elvis stood there, in his famous gold suit, which shimmered and changed color in the spotlight.
He was so handsome with this amazing smile and his shiny black hair, the exact same color as mine. Everyone around us jumped up and started screaming so hysterically that we could barely hear a word of “Heartbreak Hotel.” But, boy, we could see his movements – the way he gyrated his hips and shook his legs so they quivered. Not content with making as much noise as they could, the girls started jumping up in their chairs to get a better view, which meant that from then on we could only see the head and Elvis’ shoulders.
Being in the middle of that screaming crowd was like being caught in a huge, hip-swiveling tidal wave, carried by hysteria towards the stage. I didn’t know why everyone was acting so crazy. Truth be told, I was too young to understand that part (but if I had been three years older and my mother three years younger, we would have faded). It was the most exciting experience I’ve ever had because I knew I also wanted to be on that stage, in the spotlight, one day.
When I looked at my mother, she was on the ground. We were both fascinated. She looked so beautiful in an amazing outfit that out of all the girls there, including me, I was sure Elvis would have chosen her.
Pressing my mouth to her ear so she could hear, I put my hand on it and shouted, “Mom, can we get up in our seats and scream too?”
“Yes,” she replied, smiling like a teenager and taking off her high heels. “Come on, let’s do it!” So we did, standing on tiptoe to see him.
Beaming with happiness, I tried to figure out if Elvis would be too old to marry me when I grew up, so he could sing to me every day. Dreaming of being Mrs. Presley, I couldn’t stop talking to Mom about Elvis for weeks while I floated on a cloud in gold lamé.
Excerpt from “Cher: The Memoir (Part One)” by Cher. Copyright © 2024 by Cher. Reprinted with permission from HarperCollins.
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