By Paul Henderson
May 2020
The automotive equivalent of a
1960s acid flashback, Sonny and Cher's custom cars were hideous then… and they
still are
When it comes to the event that
killed the 1960s, there are a few notable contenders. The war in Vietnam was
one. The Manson Family murders were another. Could it have been the Zodiac
Killer in California? Or Bobby Kennedy's assassination in 1968? According to
Hunter S Thompson, it was The Rolling Stones and their infamous Altamont
Speedway concert when “the sharks finally came home to roost”. Or maybe, just
maybe, it was the automotive abomination that was Sonny and Cher's matching
Ford Mustangs that marked the beginning of the end.
When 16-year-old high-school
dropout Cherilyn Sarkisian was sitting in a coffee shop in Los Angeles in 1963,
she wasn't waiting for the man of her dreams… she was dreaming of stardom.
Salvatore “Sonny” Bono, on the other hand, was 28 and had been around the
block. Having worked as a waiter, on construction sites and as a truck driver,
Sonny finally got his break as a songwriter when Sam Cooke recorded one of his
tracks and that led to him getting a job as a gofer for Phil Spector. On the
day they met, Cher recalled: "Everyone else just disappeared. He was the
most unusual person I’d ever seen."
Despite the age difference, Cher
moved in with Sonny and they married in 1964. At first they performed as Caesar
& Cleo, but a year later they released their first single “Baby Don't Go”
as Sonny & Cher. An album followed – Look At Us – and in 1965 they released
“I Got You Babe” and Cher had her dream. They became fully fledged superstars.
She was the feisty, sexy songstress; he was her funny and funky foil. And they
would go on to have a successful TV career with The Sonny And Cher Comedy Hour.
But in 1965, they were the
hottest folk/pop lovebirds of the decade (Simon & Garfunkel were up there,
but Art never looked that good in hot pants) and the Ford motor company
noticed. Having launched the Mustang in 1964, by the time “I Got You Babe”
reached the top of the charts Ford had sold a million of their Pony cars. And
that gave someone in the marketing department a great idea. Ford would gift
Sonny and Cher matching 1966 Mustang convertibles and the company could watch
the sales go, err, through the roof.
However, like all the best ideas,
they had to go and ruin it. Instead of just giving the duo a car, Ford insisted
on letting George Barris, the “King Of Kar Kustomization”, give them a
makeover. And, boy, did George do his thing.
For those that don't know, back
in the day Barris was Hollywood's go-to car guy. He built the Batmobile for
Adam West's Caped Crusader, the Munster Koach from The Munsters and also the
Monkeemobile for hey, hey, it's The Monkees. He also customised a gold
Rolls-Royce for Zsa Zsa Gabor, bespoke golf carts for Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
and a fleet of Mini Mokes for the Beach Boys. So George was never going to go
for subtle.
Cher's was coloured Hot Candy
Pink and Sonny's was finished in Murano Gold (both cars featured 40 layers of
paint). Barris also gave the Mustangs fresh front ends, with rectangular
headlights, "fake" metal grilles on the bonnet (that looked
suspiciously like extractor hoods from an oven) and both came with classic OTT
1960s hippy shag-pad interiors. In other words, Cher's had ermine fur seat
covers paired with black leather, while Sonny's was kitted out with shaggy
bobcat fur and suede. Yeah, baby! High-tech eight-track stereos were added and
the drivers' seats were both “swivel chairs”. Of course they were. (Oh, and
Barris removed the door handles, presumably because he didn't like the look of
them.)
Whether Sonny or Cher ever
actually drove their Mustangs is unclear, but in better news the cars are still
together (unlike Sonny and Cher, who divorced in 1974; custody of the cars was
not an issue). The Mustangs are currently owned by car collector Ward Morgan
and on display at the Midwest Dream Car Collection in Kansas City.
Depending on your point of view,
these cars are either unique automotive artefacts that should be celebrated, or
counterculture casualties of the 1960s every bit as tragic as Billy The Kid and
Captain America in Easy Rider.
One thing is certain,
though: when it comes to good taste in cars, they blew it, man.