Photo by Avedon
May 20, 1946– Cherilyn Sarkisian Bono Allman. Today is a High Holy Day in Gaydom: The birthday of Cher.
“Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.
Cher & I have something in common & I don’t mean sleeping with David Geffen. We have both been on our Living Proof: The Farewell Tour for the past 2 1/2 decades. Cher’s tour is the most successful tour by a female solo artist of all time. I felt lucky to book my own backyard.
Cher dropped out of high school at age 16 & moved to LA. She had her initial taste of Hollywood stardust when she was involved in a minor car accident with Warren Beatty. He then seduced her. Cher remembers the encounter as “a disappointment”.
Cher has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, & 3 Golden Globe Awards for her work in film, music & TV. Cher is the only female solo artist to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in each of the previous 5 decades. I think she showed serious acting chops as early as the sketches on the Sonny & Cher Show. Cher was absolutely terrific & Oscar nominated as a lesbian in Mike Nichol’s Silkwood (1983) opposite Meryl Streep. Moonstruck (1987) is on my list of Top 10 movies Of All Time (& one of my favorite soundtrack albums as well).
Cher’s career had some ups & downs, but all the downs were always followed by another hit record or a first rate acting achievement like Robert Altman’s Come Back To The 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). The longevity of her musical career has brought Cher some amazing stats: the oldest female performer to chart a #1 hit, with Believe in 1999, when she was 53 years old. Her first hit record was I Got You Babe in 1965, & she had a hit with Song For The Lonely in 2002, that’s a span of 37 years! Cher also holds the record for the longest gap between #1 songs, from Dark Lady in 1974 to Believe in 1999. With a recording career lasting nearly 50+ years, Cher has sold over 150 million records. Cher returned to Las Vegas in 2008 where she performed her show Cher for 5 years at the Coliseum at Caesar’s Palace. Cher & Las Vegas are a perfect match. No one in the history of show biz has had a career of the magnitude & scope of Cher’s. She has been a teenage pop star, a TV star, a fashion icon, a rock star, a pop singer, a Broadway actress, an Academy Award-winning film star, a disco sensation, & the subject of just a little bit of press coverage.
Cher is an active member Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), & has admitted to having had affairs with women in the 1970s (but who of us has not?). Never one to hold back her opinions, Cher has a very active Twitter account. I follow her & Cher never lets me down on the social media. It is my understanding that Gay People love Cher.
“In showbiz it takes time to be really good & by that time, you’re obsolete.”
The post #BornThisDay: Cher appeared first on World of Wonder.