59 pages • 1-hour read
Cher: The Memoir: Part One
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Preface-Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Preface Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, addiction, child abuse, child sexual abuse, physical abuse, pregnancy termination, mental illness, and suicidal ideation.
Cher recalls falling in love with music at a young age. As a girl, she felt completely enraptured by TV performances by greats like Ray Charles and Elvis. Cher fondly remembers begging her mother, Georgia, to take her to an Elvis concert in Los Angeles. Her mother was equally enthused to see the controversial singer, who was revolutionizing music with his sound and style. Cher remembers being swept up in the hysterical excitement of the concert and standing on chairs with her mother and the rest of the audience. This concert experience solidified her infatuation with Elvis and her own desire to be a singer one day.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Georgia on My Mind”
Cher recounts some of her family history in the American South. Her mother’s side of the family survived generations of poverty. Cher’s ancestors worked at many jobs, from subsistence farming to baking and clearing land.
Cher’s grandmother Lynda gave birth to her mother, named Jackie Jean, at the age of 13. Lynda endured the Great Depression by working menial jobs with her partner, Roy, Jackie Jean’s father, and relying on government-provided food staples. Roy was abusive to Lynda when he was drunk, and after he assaulted a sheriff, the two had to go on the run together, living like “outlaws.” However, Jackie Jean bonded with her father, who was fun-loving and caring when he was sober. Jackie Jean also became a gifted singer with a surprisingly powerful voice. Roy noticed this and soon made Jackie Jean the family breadwinner, earning tips from saloon audiences for her live performances. Unfortunately, things still worsened for Jackie Jean, as her mother abandoned her, and her uncle sexually abused her. By age eight, Jackie Jean’s parents had gotten back together and had another child, Mickey. Poorer than ever and nearly becoming unhoused, Roy decided that Jackie Jean could be another Hollywood success story like Shirley Temple, and the two hitchhiked to California.
Once there, Roy took a job as a baker while Jackie Jean entered singing contests and even sang on the radio. Roy asked Lynda and Mickey to join them, but he struggled to provide for the family. After learning of Roy’s infidelity, Lynda left him and the children and secretly married a Sicilian man. After Roy lost custody of the kids, he tried to kill the family by breaking into the house and turning on the gas. Jackie Jean was relieved to live with her mother and new stepfather, who was a kind man, but Lynda grew jealous of their closeness and sent Jackie Jean away at the age of 13. Jackie Jean avoided moving in with her father in Oklahoma City by working as a live-in maid and attending high school at the same time. Lonely and depressed, Jackie Jean sometimes considered suicide but forged ahead with her plans. At age 15, Roy reached out from a hospital in Oklahoma, where he was in a full-body cast after an accident, and she agreed to visit him and take care of him. However, after a time, she realized that she needed to return to California.
Chapter 2 Summary: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
At 19, Jackie Jean began dating Johnnie Sarkisian, the youngest son of an Armenian family. Johnnie was “spoiled” and had nice clothes and jewelry, and his charming personality and big promises won over Jackie Jean. One night, Johnnie and his friends pressured Jackie Jean into a road trip to Reno, during which they had a quick wedding. Feeling unsure of the commitment, Jackie Jean went back to California and considered an annulment. Cher observes that her mother was “gullible and trapped” and agreed to try out married life. After a few months, a pregnant Jackie Jean left her marriage and sought help from her mother, who pressured her to have an abortion, a procedure that was illegal in California at the time. Ultimately, Jackie Jean changed her mind and reunited with Johnnie.
After moving with Johnnie from Los Angeles to El Centro—a town in the Mojave Desert just north of the US-Mexico border—Jackie Jean gave birth to Cher a month early. During Cher’s infancy, her father, Johnnie, plunged the family into constant chaos and poverty. He bet his father’s trucking business in a card game and lost, briefly moved the family into a mobile home in the desert, and then brought them on a bus to New York to stay with his sister. The family then relocated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Johnnie convinced Jackie Jean to leave Cher in an orphanage for a few weeks. A wanted criminal for stealing a car, Johnnie was paranoid about being caught by police, and he convinced Jackie Jean to stay in Scranton and work as a waitress while he went back to California.
When Jackie Jean discovered that she was pregnant again, she chose to have an abortion. The secret procedure was dangerous and painful, and it took weeks for Jackie Jean to heal. During this time, she continued to work tirelessly as a waitress and visited Cher at the Catholic orphanage, where she was often forbidden from seeing or holding her. One day, she borrowed a camera to take a picture of Cher from the window. This picture, which shows Cher crying through the bars of her crib, was both precious and painful for Jackie Jean, and she never allowed Cher to see it. With the help of a new friend who was on the city council, Jackie Jean reclaimed custody of her daughter. Cher reflects on how the Catholic Church forcibly took so many babies from their mothers, noting that her song “Sisters of Mercy” is about the pain this caused.
Chapter 3 Summary: “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”
Cher recounts how her mother left Scranton and went to Idaho, where she rescued her 12-year-old brother from his life with their father, Roy. Jackie Jean then sought help from her mother, even leaving Cher in the care of her mother’s friends, Mackie and Edith. In hindsight, Cher can see how this repeated abandonment left her with psychological scars such as insecurity and separation anxiety. Both Jackie Jean and her mother, Lynda, wanted to divorce their husbands, and the two women moved to Reno to satisfy the six-week residency requirement before they could be granted quick divorces. During this time, Lynda pressured Jackie Jean to enter beauty contests and pursue wealthy men.
Ultimately, the two successfully divorced their husbands and returned to California. Though she was engaged to a wealthy businessman, Jackie Jean fell in love with an actor named Chris Alcaide. When she saw how paternal he was with Cher, she dumped her fiancé and married Chris. Jackie Jean began attending Ben Bard, a drama school, and became a working actor. While Jackie Jean enjoyed drama school and acting in plays and commercials, the marriage did not last long, as Chris became jealous and abusive when he was drunk. After her divorce from Chris, Jackie Jean married John, a Texan, military veteran, and actor. Cher fondly recalls her relationship with John, the only man who ever acted as a father to her and the only one she ever called “Daddy.” Cher also developed a close relationship with her new grandparents, who were very welcoming and affectionate to her.
Cher recalls early childhood memories such as playing with her babysitter, Maria. She believes that she coped with stress by retreating into her imagination. For instance, she became convinced that she was an angel sent to earth to cure polio. She invented imaginary friends named Sam and Pete, whom she would talk to about all kinds of things. Music and movies were also a refuge and distraction for Cher, who loved to sing along with her mom.
Cher recalls her sense of wonder and excitement on her first trip to the movie theater to see Dumbo. She decided that she wanted to be an actor and that, somehow, she would play the role of Dumbo.
Cher loved staying up late with her mother and her friends during their cocktail parties and feels that she was positively influenced by the wonderful women in her “tribe” (36). However, Cher could not always enjoy her parents’ wonderful community in Hollywood because they moved so frequently. For a time, they relocated to Galveston, Texas, and then to a smaller town called Burleson, where they stayed with John’s sisters. Jackie Jean did not like Burleson, and after a lot of fighting with John, she took Cher back to California.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Unforgettable”
Back in California, Cher’s grandparents Mamaw and Pa often babysat Cher while her parents worked. Cher enjoyed her time with her mother, too, and particularly loved watching movies with her. Jackie Jean changed her name to Georgia Pelham, and her career in the movies soon took off as she was cast in the 1950 movie The Asphalt Jungle. Georgia and John had a baby, Georgina, or “Gee,” which made Cher feel anxious and jealous. John was reassuring and helped her accept her new sister, but his drinking problem worsened, and he became abusive to Georgia. Cher recalls trying to distract John and lighten the mood when he was drunk. She felt sickened by her parents’ fighting. Georgia left John many times but struggled without his financial support, and Cher suffered from constantly moving and changing schools. She believes that her mood swings and emotional extremes are a result of these abrupt social changes in her childhood. Even though her childhood was stressful, Cher respects her mother’s efforts to provide for them and be a better parent than she had growing up. The author explains that even though John could be frightening and violent, she still loved him and was very attached to him, so when Georgia broke up with John for good, Cher was devastated and shocked.
Chapter 5 Summary: “I’m Movin’ On”
Cher always had an independent and adventurous personality. At age four, she packed her suitcase and explained to her mother that she was ready to leave home and travel on her own. Years later, she and a school friend spotted a pony in the field adjacent to their schoolyard and spontaneously went for a ride on it. At the end of the pasture, they found a train with empty cars and climbed into one of them. The train departed, and Cher and her friend had a scary adventure until they got off at the next stop and called home. Cher admits that her adventurous streak earned her many injuries and punishments.
During her preteen years, Cher enjoyed the cabin-like bungalow home in the Valley where she lived on and off for several years. She discovered that she loved musical theater and convinced other students and her music teacher to help her stage musicals such as Oklahoma! The author remembers her 10th birthday party, where she was so thrilled to receive a new bike that she pedaled away from the party for three hours.
When Georgia didn’t have the money to pay for rent, she left Gee and Cher with their grandparents Mamaw and Pa at their new house in La Puente and rented a tiny studio for herself. Cher struggled with her new school, where kids were often rough and mean, and grieved her mother’s absence in her daily life.
Preface-Chapter 5 Analysis
In the opening chapters of her memoir, Cher provides a thorough family history for the reader, detailing her maternal grandparents’ survival as poor laborers in the Great Depression. These anecdotes establish her theme of Resilience in the Face of Adversity, as Cher’s female forebears endured poverty and misogyny while doing their best to provide a better life for the next generation.
Like Cher, her mother, Georgia (Jackie Jean), and grandfather Roy loved music and had beautiful singing voices. When discussing her mother’s childhood of singing in saloons for change, Cher connects her mother’s experience of music with her own: “When they sang ‘Danny Boy’ together, she felt safe. ‘I could fly away from the trouble and the pain when I sang,’ she said. Having found my own escape in music my whole life, I knew exactly what she meant” (5). By reminiscing about her fond memories of enjoying music with her mom, Cher shows that this trait was not only inherited through genes but also taught through shared experiences. She explains, “Singing and the movies was what she loved and became what I loved” (43). One of Cher’s most impactful childhood memories showcases this shared passion. She recalls her and her mother in hysterics together at an Elvis concert: “‘Mom, can we stand on our seats and scream too?’ ‘Yes,’ she replied, grinning like a teenager and taking off her high heels. ‘Come on, let’s do it!’ So we did, straining on our tiptoes to see him” (xv). Music and performance served as an escape from hardship and a means of bonding between mother and daughter. This early experience shaped Cher’s understanding of music throughout her life.
While she acknowledges her mother’s flaws, Cher encourages the reader to see from her mother’s perspective. For instance, when discussing her time in the Catholic institution for children, Cher presents her mother in a sympathetic light, even paraphrasing her mother to capture her story in her own words. Cher writes, “She wasn’t even allowed to hold me. All they’d let her do was view me through a small window in a door. ‘As I looked in, you were standing in your crib holding onto the sides and crying. I was crying too. I felt so helpless’” (20). This incident highlights the lack of empathy that Cher’s mother faced as she tried to regain custody of her child.
While she does so with tact and compassion, Cher acknowledges that her family’s troubles bore a pattern of dysfunction that played out over the generations. She laments, “I mean, jeez. My family. You couldn’t make it up” (9). By beginning her memoir with a thorough explanation of her grandparents’ and mother’s experiences, Cher gives the reader the necessary context to understand her own life story. Through her explanations of her family’s intergenerational trauma of poverty, abuse, and abandonment, Cher encourages the reader to interpret her story from a place of compassion rather than judgment. By detailing her mother’s difficulties as a child and young woman—and her refusal to give up—Cher characterizes her mother as a tenacious person. By describing how her mother survived her unstable childhood, in which she was often the family breadwinner, Cher also emphasizes her mom’s grit and personal strength. She writes, “No matter how tired or hungry she was, and barefoot on the counter because she didn’t have shoes, she kept going until they’d collected enough food and liquor” (5). Cher views her mother’s tenacity as a model for her own career.
Despite The Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma, Jackie Jean found the strength to live independently as a teen, supporting herself and attending high school. Cher explains, “Mom became well-read, got good grades, and improved her ‘Okie’ accent by reading aloud to herself” (10). Jackie Jean also refused to give up Cher as an infant, even when she was under pressure to do so: “[T]he mother superior declared that Jackie Jean Sarkisian was an unfit mother, and it would be better if she gave me up for adoption. Mom refused” (20). Jackie Jean’s ability to push through adversity was indicative of strength that she inherited from her own mother, and she passed that strength on to Cher, too. Cher explains of her mother, “[T]here were times when she even considered killing herself. Something stopped her, a determination to survive passed on through the female line” (10). Cher believes that her family’s continued hardships made her tougher person who can withstand challenges. She writes, “Every day was a fight for survival for most of my family going back generations. Resilience is in my DNA” (2). Even though Cher endured childhood traumas of her own, the resilience she learned from her mother enabled her to overcome those traumas.
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