August 1, 1971: "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" Premieres

August 1, 1971: The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premieres on CBS. It takes the time slot, and effectively the place in American culture, that The Ed Sullivan Show had for the last 23 years.

Salvatore Philip Bono was born on February 16, 1935 in Detroit, and grew up outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. His mother called him "Sono," which became "Sonny." By the late 1950s, having done several menial jobs, he became a published songwriter. In the early 1960s, music producer Phil Spector hired him as a songwriter and percussionist, making him part of the band known as "The Wrecking Crew."

Cheryl Sarkisian -- her birth name has been incorrectly listed in various publications as "Cherilyn" or "Cheryl Ann" Sarkisian, and she has -- was born on May 20, 1946 in El Centro, California, and grew up in Los Angeles. (Baseball player Bobby Murcer was born the same day, and baseball player Reggie Jackson was born 2 days earlier.)

Her mother, Georgia Holt, was an actress, but Cher saw that all of the most popular American actresses were blonde -- Jane Russell was a notable exception, and the darker-haired ones like Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren were foreign -- and that the villainous women onscreen tended to have dark hair like hers. Even in animation: She said, "In the Walt Disney cartoons, all the witches and evil queens were really dark. There was nobody I could look at and think, 'That's who I'm like.'"

Like Sonny, Cher was a child of divorced parents. When her mother remarried, her stepfather enrolled her in an expensive private school, where she stood out. A former classmate recalled, "I'll never forget seeing Cher for the first time. She was so special... like a movie star, right then and there... She said she was going to be a movie star, and we knew she would."

She quit school and got jobs dancing in clubs on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip. That's where she met Sonny in 1962, when she was 16, and he was 27 and already divorced once. She became his housekeeper, then his girlfriend. He introduced her to Spector, and he hired her as a backup singer. On A Christmas Gift for You, a.k.a. The Phil Spector Christmas Album, released on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Sonny played percussion, and Cher sang backing vocals. Her voice is easily recognizable on the album's one original song, Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."

Sonny wanted to promote her as a singer. She wanted to be a movie star, rather than a stage actor or a singer, because she had stage fright. So she and Sonny became a singing duo, and, by singing to him, she felt she was singing to the audience. In the Summer of 1965, when Sonny's song "Needles and Pins" was made into a hit by the British rock band The Searchers, Sonny & Cher hit Number 1 with "I Got You, Babe."

They had a few more hits as a duo, and Cher had a few under her own name. In 1969, they had a daughter, born Chastity Sun Bono. (I'll have more about their child later.) In 1971, having canceled The Ed Sullivan Show due to declining ratings -- and, apparently, Ed's declining mental state -- CBS took a chance on Sonny and Cher.

Although edgy comedy had aired on TV before, and country music superstar Johnny Cash then had a variety show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour made the Bonos the first rock stars to headline their own TV variety show. The opening theme was their 1967 hit song "The Beat Goes On."

The show was taped at Studio 31 at CBS Television City, at 7800 Beverly Boulevard in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Sonny would wear hippie-ish outfits, and Cher would wear revealing gowns designed by CBS costume master Bob Mackie. They would banter in their opening monologue, about Sonny being short and funny-looking, and Cher being overly dramatic. They did sketches, and Cher would sing her solo releases, 3 of which became Number 1 hits. All of them were "story-songs," a popular genre in the early 1970s.

In 1971, she hit with "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves." Eventually, "gypsy" became considered a slur, and the people formerly called that have insisted upon being called what they call themselves, "Romani." Her 2nd Number 1 hit, in 1973, also became problematic, despite its attempt to uphold the dignity of Native Americans: "Half-Breed." It was written by Al Capps and Mary Dean, and Cher's producer, Thomas "Snuff" Garrett, told them, "That's a hit for Cher -- and nobody else." He was right.

In 1974, Johnny Durrill, the keyboard player for The Ventures, wrote "Dark Lady," intending it for Cher. The Ventures, for some reason, were much more popular in Japan than in America, and so they were on tour there when Durrill wrote it. He sent Garrett the lyrics by telegram.

Garrett, coming off producing another story-song that hit Number 1, Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia," liked the idea, but the 3rd and final verse didn't sit right with him: He thought the cheating man should face a harsher consequence than the narrator simply leaving him. He telegraphed back: "Kill him! I want him dead in the third verse!" (That's not why he was nicknamed "Snuff": It was a play on his surname, and the Levi Garrett brand of chewing tobacco.)

So Durrill re-wrote it so that the cheater and the cheat-with both got what was coming to them: "Next thing I knew, they were dead on the floor. Dark Lady would never turn her cards up anymore." Garrett was right about the ending, because the song hit Number 1.

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour might be the 1st grownup TV show I can remember seeing, other than the news. It would also lead to the first time I ever heard the word "divorce": They had stopped living as husband and wife in 1972, but kept the illusion going for the show's sake: They lived in the same house, but each dated other people.

Each of them got their own variety show on CBS, but the era of variety shows was coming to a close. Sonny and Cher, and Carol Burnett, helped CBS keep it going, but once the marriage was over, the show was doomed. (The Carol Burnett Show, also featuring Bob Mackie's costumes, ran from 1967 to 1978.)

Cher finally filed for divorce not just because of Sonny's infidelity, or his control-freak status (which he shared with Spector and Ike Turner, although, unlike them, he never got abusive), but because she found out that Cher Enterprises was owned 95 percent by Sonny and 5 percent by his lawyer. She had to sue to get what any other performer would have gotten for her singing and acting.

It was record company executive David Geffen who helped Cher get what was hers. They had begun dating in 1973, but Geffen was bisexual, and the relationship couldn't survive this. In 1975, 4 days after her divorce from Sonny became final, she married Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band. Just 9 days after that, she filed for divorce due to Gregg's substance abuse problems, but they reconciled, became the parents of a son named Elijah Blue Allman in 1976, and split up in 1978.

Cher struggled with her music career, but in 1983, she appeared in the film Silkwood, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She became a star all over again, appearing in films like Mask. In 1987, she had her biggest hit film, Moonstruck, and her 1st major solo hit in 13 years, "I Found Someone." In 1989, she had an even bigger hit with "If I Could Turn Back Time." She had "formed her own brand," and the LGBT community embraced her as a "gay icon" due to her wild costumes and her sense of independence.

Sonny eventually went out of his way to apologize to Cher for how he treated her, and they remained friends for the rest of his life. In 1981, Sonny married actress-model Susie Coelho, but they divorced in 1984. In 1986, running a restaurant in the resort city of Palm Springs, California, he married one of his waitresses, Mary Whitaker, and they had a son, Chesare, and a daughter, Chianna. On November 13, 1987, late-night talk-show host David Letterman got Sonny and Cher to appear together on his NBC show, and, together, they sang their 1st hit together, "I Got You, Babe."

Up the California coast in Carmel-by-the-Sea, actor Clint Eastwood dealt with frustrations over regulations on a restaurant he owned. So did Sonny, with his restaurant in Palm Springs. Both men ran for Mayor to do something about it, and both won. Sonny served one term, rom 1988 to 1992. Rather than run for re-election, he ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1992, but lost the Primary. In 1993, he played the Mayor of Metropolis on an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. (The Mayor's name, Frank Berkowitz, was taken from the comics.) In 1994, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, and, won, and was re-elected in 1996.

He became a rare thing in Congress: A Republican who was also an environmentalist, writing legislation to preserve the Salton Sea, a saltwater lake in his District. He was also in support of gay rights, and for parents trying to understand their children, no matter what the issue between them might be: He said, "If your kid isn't you, don't blame the kid." More on that shortly.

On January 5, 1998, Sonny was killed in a skiing accident -- at the ironically-named Heavenly Ski Resort in Stateline, Nevada, off Lake Tahoe. He was 62. Cher delivered a tearful and beautiful eulogy.

The one and only child of Sonny & Cher sometimes appeared on the show, held in Cher's arms. In 1995, while then presenting as a woman, and using the birth name Chastity Bono, "Chaz" publicly self-identified as a lesbian in a cover story in a leading American gay monthly magazine, The Advocate.

Between 2008 and 2010, Chaz underwent the process of gender reassignment surgery. Afterward, he legally changed his name to Chaz Bono. He has written books and made documentary films about his experience, and the similar experiences of others. The fact that Cher was a gay icon appeared to have little to do with it, but Cher still stands with him, and Sonny did so until the end of his own life.

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August 1, 1971 was a Sunday. This was also the day the Concert for Bangladesh was played at Madison Square Garden. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 10-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Yankees got home runs from Bobby Murcer and Thurman Munson, and 2 of them from Ron Blomberg, but it wasn't enough, as Mel Stottlemyre didn't get out of the 1st inning, allowing 6 runs. Tony Oliva hit one for the Twins, while Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, and Rod Carew went 1-for-5.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Juan Pizarro outpitched Tom Seaver. Ernie Banks, soon to retire, did not play.

* The Houston Astros beat the Montreal Expos, 8-1 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The Oakland Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Indians, 7-3 and 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-9.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The game went 16 innings before Jim Northrup ended it with a home run. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Boston Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 and 6-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5 with a walk.

* The Milwaukee Brewers swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators, 4-3 and 3-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Clay Kirby pitched a 5-hit shutout. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. This had a weird ending: The Dodgers loaded the bases in the bottom of the 11th inning, and Willie Crawford reached base on catcher's interference -- by Johnny Bench, of all catchers -- forcing home the winning run. This is the only time a MLB game has ever ended with a catcher's interference. (UPDATE: It would happen again on July 21, 2025, for the Phillies against the Red Sox in an Interleague game.) Bench also went hitless in the game, going 0-for-4 with a walk. Pete Rose went 1-for-5.

* The San Francisco Giants swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-7 and 8-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. In the 1st game, Willie Mays went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs; Willie McCovey went 1-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs; and Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs. None of them played in the 2nd game. Willie Stargell played in both, going 3-for-9 with 2 home runs and 2 RBIs.

This turned out to be a preview of the National League Championship Series, but the Pirates won that, and the World Series.

* A wild one was played at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The St. Louis Cardinals led the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 in the top of the 12th, but it was the Cards who launched a protest, and it was upheld. It was agreed to suspend the game, and it was resumed on a later day off for both teams: September 7. The Phils tied the game in the bottom of the 12th, but the Cards scored 3 times in the top of the 13th, and won, 9-6.

* And the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals were rained out at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Since the O's ended up winning the American League Eastern Division by 12 games, and the Royals were 16 games back in the AL West (albeit in 2nd place), the game was never made up.