CHER, HER FAMILY SAGA and a mother’s love
What do you give your mother for her 87th birthday? Flowers? Chocolates? Perfume? All three? Well, if you’re Cher, you make a film about her life – the ultimate bespoke gift. Dear Mom, Love Cher chronicles her mother, Georgia Holt’s, remarkable journey from an impoverished childhood in Arkansas during the Great Depression, to the present day in Malibu, California. Two children and seven marriages later – move over Elizabeth Taylor.
In Cher’s words, ‘It’s a strange American story. It is an American story of people coming from nothing and then carving out a life. It’s not pretty and it’s not easy… it’s about how they were able to survive.’
It is also laced with laughter, irreverence, candour, heartache and a lot of love. Dear Mom, Love Cher is a family aff air that also features Georgia’s grandsons Chaz and Elijah and her youngest daughter, Cher’s sister, Georganne.
Roy had big dreams for Jackie Jean (pictured left) Royal and Lynda with baby Jackie Jean (1926)
Georganne and I became best friends in the 1980s. We were actors in Hollywood, supporting each other through endless auditions, bad TV shows and break-ups, and Georgia was always there, ready with a hug. The best advice she gave me back then was, ‘If you’re gonna dream, dream big, kid.’
Georganne and Cher’s mother, Georgia, was born Jackie Jean Crouch in 1926. Her father Roy was 21 and her mother Lynda was aged 13, just a baby herself. Georgia remembers her father as a funny, hard-drinking bad boy. Roy had big dreams for his little girl, who he believed could ‘sing better than Judy Garland’. By the time Jackie Jean was six, Roy was taking her to nightclubs where she would literally sing for their supper. Convinced Jackie Jean’s golden voice was their ticket away from life on the breadline, he packed a bag and they hitch-hiked to Los Angeles.
Stardom eluded these dreamers. They ended up in the slums of downtown LA, where Roy took a job in a cafeteria. Jackie Jean spent many hours alone in a dingy hotel room, sleeping in a lice-riddled cot. One of her most vivid memories was looking out of the window and repeating to herself, ‘I will not live this way. I will not live this way.’ From that moment on, she was determined to carve out a better life for herself, whatever direction that might take her.
Indeed, Cher said later: ‘I always feel like a bumper car, because if I hit a wall then I just back up and go in another direction. I think that my mother kind of gave me the beginning of that.’
Clockwise from bottom left: Jackie is crowned Miss Holiday On Wings, 1949; Beauty contests, of which Georgia won several, were a good way to catch the eye of a talent scout; Georgia wins the Miss Holiday competition
At 17, a dark-haired man pulled Jackie Jean on to the dance floor and she was soon on her way to Reno, Nevada, to marry Johnny Sarkisian. As Georgia tells it, ‘Johnny was a really good talker.’ But by 19, Jackie Jean was unhappy and pregnant. Not knowing where else to turn, she moved in with her mother, but on her mother’s one condition: the pregnancy had to be terminated. Jackie Jean reluctantly agreed to her mother’s terms, but on the day of the abortion, she couldn’t go through with it. Lynda insisted that if she was keeping the baby, she must go back to her husband.
Cherilyn Sarkisian was born 20 May 1946. The new parents, who were now living in Scranton, Pennsylvania, were down to their last 20 cents. A decision was made to board Cherilyn in a Catholic home. Johnny went to New York to look for work and Jackie Jean remained in Scranton, working the late shift at a diner, earning one dollar a night. After two weeks, with the money in hand to pay the boarding fee, Jackie Jean returned to the Catholic home to reclaim her child. The Mother Superior refused to release the baby, telling her that she should have Cherilyn adopted.
Devastated and desperate, Jackie Jean begged a customer (who happened to work for the city council) to help her. Bucking the Catholic Church is never easy but, eventually, mother and daughter were reunited.
But the marriage had broken down so next stop: back to Reno, for what was then known as the ‘Reno cure’ – a quickie divorce. Ironically, Jackie Jean’s mother was divorcing her father at the same time, so Jackie Jean and Cherilyn moved in with her.
Jackie Jean changed her name to Gerogia Pelham and took up another career - acting
The three of them were now together and, wanting a fresh start, Jackie Jean changed her name to Georgia Pelham and decided on another career – acting. Back then, a great way to catch the eye of a talent scout was a beauty contest. Georgia never believed she was as pretty as the other girls, but the judges did not agree. She won several, including Miss Reno Nevada, Miss Bellflower and Miss Holiday On Wings. But best of all, she won a scholarship to a prestigious drama school with the Ben Bard Players.
Enter husband number two: Chris Alcaide. He was incredibly attentive to Cherilyn, but extremely jealous. Not long after saying ‘I do’, Georgia said, ‘I don’t.’ ‘The marriage lasted maybe 20 minutes,’ is how Georgia remembers it.
It was about this time when a big-time Hollywood agent spotted her. Soon she was doing small television roles.
From left: Jackie Jean married her first husband, Johnny Sarkisian in Reno, Nevada; Georgia married John Southall and had Georganne when Cher was five; Georgia marries her fourth husband, Joe Collins
Then, the big break happened. Her agent called with an audition for a film. Before hanging up, he suggested that she ‘pad her bra’. Georgia and her newly enhanced bustline charmed their way through the audition and she got the part. Elated, she waited by the phone for the official call. That call never came. The part went to another ‘Jean’. Norma Jean Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe. The film was The Asphalt Jungle.
No time to dwell, she had a growing child to care for, nothing to do but keep on keeping on. This meant more night shifts along with a smattering of bit parts and modelling jobs.
Enter husband number three: John Southall. Georgia fell in love with him at first sight. Not long after they met, they married and Georganne was born. John took the time to make Cherilyn feel special. But he had a dark side. The girls remember him as being a lovely man, except when he had been drinking. Living her mantra, ‘I will not live like this’, Georgia was soon single again with two young girls to raise. She packed away her dreams of an acting career and took any work available. In the 1950s, there were no safety nets. Survival trumps dreams.
Georgia and Craig have reunited after three decades apart
Enter husband number four, Joe Collins, but if you blinked you missed him. As Cher said later, ‘There were always just the three of us. There were never really any men in the house. It was like a tribe of women.’
The three girls were living hand to mouth, but it didn’t matter as long as they were together. Georganne laughs about not knowing how poor they were. ‘We never felt poor. Mom made birthdays fun, with balloons and lollypops hanging from the trees outside. No money to properly decorate the Christmas tree? No problem. Mom would drape our presents of new clothes (new clothes were a big deal) on the branches.’
But more than anything, Georgia wanted security for them. She decided to accept a marriage proposal from a wealthy Wall Street banker. Gilbert La- Piere became husband number five. Gilbert adopted both girls and was very good to them. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last ‘He was very “father knows best”, but he was not a good fit for our family,’ explained Cher.
It was now the 1960s and the times (along with Georgia’s growing girls) were a-changing. Cherilyn was 17 and beginning to rebel. That’s when she met Salvatore Bono. Defiantly, she ran away and moved in with this older, rather unconventional man. Georgia threatened to have him arrested. Eventually she relented.
Georgia with comedian and actress Lucille Ball and Georgia displays some of her family photographs
The rest, as they say, is history. Sonny and Cher became one of the most successful pop duos of all time. Cher, on her own, went on to superstardom, living the kind of big dreams that even Jackie Jean could never have imagined. As the years passed, with her children grown, Georgia married and divorced again. ‘For a wild woman my mom was really straight,’ said Cher.
Georgia adds: ‘Thank you for that. Only because I got married so many times. That’s the only wild thing.’
Cher’s star continued to rise. In the 1970s, she topped the disco charts with Take Me Home. In 1988 she took the film industry by storm, winning the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Loretta Castorini in Moonstruck. At 50, Georgia was content, her kids were doing well and she loved being a grandmother. Just as she was settling into a quiet life, along came Craig Spencer, 20 years her junior. Georgia thought he’d be a good fit for Georganne. Craig had other ideas and set out to woo Georganne’s gorgeous mom. He was persistent and soon the age difference simply disappeared and she and Craig moved in together.
Craig encouraged Georgia to dust off her dreams and sing professionally again. She began performing in nightclubs, while Craig arranged for her to record an album with Elvis Presley’s band. Sadly, the album was never released. When that dream died (again), something inside Georgia died with it.
Clockwise from bottom left: Cherilyn with her little sister Georganne; Cherilyn as a toddler; Georgia with Cher; The girls get new clothes, draped on the Christmas tree
‘It was just too heartbreaking,’ she remembers, ‘to come so close to a dream for the second time and to lose it.’ Georgia stopped singing, Craig and she went their separate ways and the master tapes of her first and only album were never to be heard again… until now.
Thirty years later the tapes were unearthed and Cher had them remastered. With her superstar daughter by her side, Georgia went back into the recording studio and the result is Honky Tonk Woman. In the album, mother and daughter sing a poignant duet called I’m Just Your Yesterday. At times, their voices are indistinguishable.
‘Sometimes people feel as if there is a cut-off time. Like at a certain age you have to stop having a wish or you have to stop dreaming or you have to act a certain way. It’s like you have to grow up but, you don’t,’ said Cher.
Georgia is ‘back on cloud nine again’. And she and Craig have reconnected. Seeing them together, it’s as if the three decades they were apart have melted away.
‘It used to be older woman and younger man,’ Craig says with a glint in his eye, holding Georgia’s hand. ‘Now it’s just older man and older woman.’
Could this be marriage number eight? Buckle up and hold on.
Honky Tonk Woman is available on iTunes. Dear Mum, Love Cher is available on DearMomLoveCher.com also on Amazon Instant Video and iTunes. Cher’s latest album, Closer To The Truth, is out now.
In Cher’s words, ‘It’s a strange American story. It is an American story of people coming from nothing and then carving out a life. It’s not pretty and it’s not easy… it’s about how they were able to survive.’
It is also laced with laughter, irreverence, candour, heartache and a lot of love. Dear Mom, Love Cher is a family aff air that also features Georgia’s grandsons Chaz and Elijah and her youngest daughter, Cher’s sister, Georganne.
Roy had big dreams for Jackie Jean (pictured left) Royal and Lynda with baby Jackie Jean (1926)Georganne and I became best friends in the 1980s. We were actors in Hollywood, supporting each other through endless auditions, bad TV shows and break-ups, and Georgia was always there, ready with a hug. The best advice she gave me back then was, ‘If you’re gonna dream, dream big, kid.’
Georganne and Cher’s mother, Georgia, was born Jackie Jean Crouch in 1926. Her father Roy was 21 and her mother Lynda was aged 13, just a baby herself. Georgia remembers her father as a funny, hard-drinking bad boy. Roy had big dreams for his little girl, who he believed could ‘sing better than Judy Garland’. By the time Jackie Jean was six, Roy was taking her to nightclubs where she would literally sing for their supper. Convinced Jackie Jean’s golden voice was their ticket away from life on the breadline, he packed a bag and they hitch-hiked to Los Angeles.
Stardom eluded these dreamers. They ended up in the slums of downtown LA, where Roy took a job in a cafeteria. Jackie Jean spent many hours alone in a dingy hotel room, sleeping in a lice-riddled cot. One of her most vivid memories was looking out of the window and repeating to herself, ‘I will not live this way. I will not live this way.’ From that moment on, she was determined to carve out a better life for herself, whatever direction that might take her.
Indeed, Cher said later: ‘I always feel like a bumper car, because if I hit a wall then I just back up and go in another direction. I think that my mother kind of gave me the beginning of that.’
Clockwise from bottom left: Jackie is crowned Miss Holiday On Wings, 1949; Beauty contests, of which Georgia won several, were a good way to catch the eye of a talent scout; Georgia wins the Miss Holiday competitionAt 17, a dark-haired man pulled Jackie Jean on to the dance floor and she was soon on her way to Reno, Nevada, to marry Johnny Sarkisian. As Georgia tells it, ‘Johnny was a really good talker.’ But by 19, Jackie Jean was unhappy and pregnant. Not knowing where else to turn, she moved in with her mother, but on her mother’s one condition: the pregnancy had to be terminated. Jackie Jean reluctantly agreed to her mother’s terms, but on the day of the abortion, she couldn’t go through with it. Lynda insisted that if she was keeping the baby, she must go back to her husband.
Cherilyn Sarkisian was born 20 May 1946. The new parents, who were now living in Scranton, Pennsylvania, were down to their last 20 cents. A decision was made to board Cherilyn in a Catholic home. Johnny went to New York to look for work and Jackie Jean remained in Scranton, working the late shift at a diner, earning one dollar a night. After two weeks, with the money in hand to pay the boarding fee, Jackie Jean returned to the Catholic home to reclaim her child. The Mother Superior refused to release the baby, telling her that she should have Cherilyn adopted.
Devastated and desperate, Jackie Jean begged a customer (who happened to work for the city council) to help her. Bucking the Catholic Church is never easy but, eventually, mother and daughter were reunited.
But the marriage had broken down so next stop: back to Reno, for what was then known as the ‘Reno cure’ – a quickie divorce. Ironically, Jackie Jean’s mother was divorcing her father at the same time, so Jackie Jean and Cherilyn moved in with her.
Jackie Jean changed her name to Gerogia Pelham and took up another career - actingThe three of them were now together and, wanting a fresh start, Jackie Jean changed her name to Georgia Pelham and decided on another career – acting. Back then, a great way to catch the eye of a talent scout was a beauty contest. Georgia never believed she was as pretty as the other girls, but the judges did not agree. She won several, including Miss Reno Nevada, Miss Bellflower and Miss Holiday On Wings. But best of all, she won a scholarship to a prestigious drama school with the Ben Bard Players.
Enter husband number two: Chris Alcaide. He was incredibly attentive to Cherilyn, but extremely jealous. Not long after saying ‘I do’, Georgia said, ‘I don’t.’ ‘The marriage lasted maybe 20 minutes,’ is how Georgia remembers it.
It was about this time when a big-time Hollywood agent spotted her. Soon she was doing small television roles.
From left: Jackie Jean married her first husband, Johnny Sarkisian in Reno, Nevada; Georgia married John Southall and had Georganne when Cher was five; Georgia marries her fourth husband, Joe CollinsThen, the big break happened. Her agent called with an audition for a film. Before hanging up, he suggested that she ‘pad her bra’. Georgia and her newly enhanced bustline charmed their way through the audition and she got the part. Elated, she waited by the phone for the official call. That call never came. The part went to another ‘Jean’. Norma Jean Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe. The film was The Asphalt Jungle.
No time to dwell, she had a growing child to care for, nothing to do but keep on keeping on. This meant more night shifts along with a smattering of bit parts and modelling jobs.
Enter husband number three: John Southall. Georgia fell in love with him at first sight. Not long after they met, they married and Georganne was born. John took the time to make Cherilyn feel special. But he had a dark side. The girls remember him as being a lovely man, except when he had been drinking. Living her mantra, ‘I will not live like this’, Georgia was soon single again with two young girls to raise. She packed away her dreams of an acting career and took any work available. In the 1950s, there were no safety nets. Survival trumps dreams.
Georgia and Craig have reunited after three decades apart Enter husband number four, Joe Collins, but if you blinked you missed him. As Cher said later, ‘There were always just the three of us. There were never really any men in the house. It was like a tribe of women.’
The three girls were living hand to mouth, but it didn’t matter as long as they were together. Georganne laughs about not knowing how poor they were. ‘We never felt poor. Mom made birthdays fun, with balloons and lollypops hanging from the trees outside. No money to properly decorate the Christmas tree? No problem. Mom would drape our presents of new clothes (new clothes were a big deal) on the branches.’
But more than anything, Georgia wanted security for them. She decided to accept a marriage proposal from a wealthy Wall Street banker. Gilbert La- Piere became husband number five. Gilbert adopted both girls and was very good to them. Unfortunately, the marriage didn’t last ‘He was very “father knows best”, but he was not a good fit for our family,’ explained Cher.
It was now the 1960s and the times (along with Georgia’s growing girls) were a-changing. Cherilyn was 17 and beginning to rebel. That’s when she met Salvatore Bono. Defiantly, she ran away and moved in with this older, rather unconventional man. Georgia threatened to have him arrested. Eventually she relented.
Georgia with comedian and actress Lucille Ball and Georgia displays some of her family photographsThe rest, as they say, is history. Sonny and Cher became one of the most successful pop duos of all time. Cher, on her own, went on to superstardom, living the kind of big dreams that even Jackie Jean could never have imagined. As the years passed, with her children grown, Georgia married and divorced again. ‘For a wild woman my mom was really straight,’ said Cher.
Georgia adds: ‘Thank you for that. Only because I got married so many times. That’s the only wild thing.’
Cher’s star continued to rise. In the 1970s, she topped the disco charts with Take Me Home. In 1988 she took the film industry by storm, winning the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Loretta Castorini in Moonstruck. At 50, Georgia was content, her kids were doing well and she loved being a grandmother. Just as she was settling into a quiet life, along came Craig Spencer, 20 years her junior. Georgia thought he’d be a good fit for Georganne. Craig had other ideas and set out to woo Georganne’s gorgeous mom. He was persistent and soon the age difference simply disappeared and she and Craig moved in together.
Craig encouraged Georgia to dust off her dreams and sing professionally again. She began performing in nightclubs, while Craig arranged for her to record an album with Elvis Presley’s band. Sadly, the album was never released. When that dream died (again), something inside Georgia died with it.
Clockwise from bottom left: Cherilyn with her little sister Georganne; Cherilyn as a toddler; Georgia with Cher; The girls get new clothes, draped on the Christmas tree‘It was just too heartbreaking,’ she remembers, ‘to come so close to a dream for the second time and to lose it.’ Georgia stopped singing, Craig and she went their separate ways and the master tapes of her first and only album were never to be heard again… until now.
Thirty years later the tapes were unearthed and Cher had them remastered. With her superstar daughter by her side, Georgia went back into the recording studio and the result is Honky Tonk Woman. In the album, mother and daughter sing a poignant duet called I’m Just Your Yesterday. At times, their voices are indistinguishable.
‘Sometimes people feel as if there is a cut-off time. Like at a certain age you have to stop having a wish or you have to stop dreaming or you have to act a certain way. It’s like you have to grow up but, you don’t,’ said Cher.
Georgia is ‘back on cloud nine again’. And she and Craig have reconnected. Seeing them together, it’s as if the three decades they were apart have melted away.
‘It used to be older woman and younger man,’ Craig says with a glint in his eye, holding Georgia’s hand. ‘Now it’s just older man and older woman.’
Could this be marriage number eight? Buckle up and hold on.
Honky Tonk Woman is available on iTunes. Dear Mum, Love Cher is available on DearMomLoveCher.com also on Amazon Instant Video and iTunes. Cher’s latest album, Closer To The Truth, is out now.