Sonny Bono Trivia Quiz

Answer: Detroit

Sonny was the third child of Italian immigrant Santo Bono and third-generation Italian mother Jean. The couple was residing in Detroit when their first son was born. His father had emigrated from Montelabre. His mother was only 14 when she married his father as the result of a customary arranged Italian marriage.

Answer: Salvatore Phillip Bono

When young Salvatore Phillip Bono was seven years old the Bono family relocated to California. On his second trip with his father to drive a family car west Sonny was concerned that his door was unlocked but inadvertently unlocked it, sending him flying to the pavement while the car was doing 70 mph. Though seriously injured, he fully recovered after a brief stay in a hospital on the road and recuperation upon arrival in California.

Answer: Four

When Sonny was 19 he married a waitress named Donna Rankin. They had one daughter named Christy and divorced in 1962. He married Cher in the sixties and they were divorced in 1975. Sonny and Cher had one daughter, Chastity. A subsequent marriage to Susie Coelho produced no children and his fourth marriage to Mary Whitaker resulted in two children. Mary was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from the University of Southern California in 1984. Two years later she married Sonny Bono and was with him until his death.

Answer: I Got You, Babe

After hearing the Turtles' version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" Sonny was intrigued with using the word "babe" in a song. He wrote "I Got You, Babe" on a piano late at night in the basement of their home. Hal Blaine and Leon Russell were among the session players on the recording when Sonny produced the song. According to Bono in his autobiography, everyone in the studio was keenly aware that the song was going to be a big hit after the session wrapped. Sonny and Cher last performed the song together during an impromptu reunion in 1987 on "Late Night with David Letterman". "Needles and Pins" was co-written with Jack Nitzsche and was recorded by Jackie DeShannon and the Searchers.

It was the Searchers breakthrough hit and Sonny's first major success as a songwriter. Sonny had written a song early in his promo days for Frankie Lane called "Ecstasy", but it was not a hit. "Koko Joe" was a Bono song that was a regional hit for the Righteous Brothers. "Baby Don't Go" was written by Sonny when he and Cher were known as Ceaser and Cleo. Sonny was struggling when he wrote and recorded it so Phil Spector paid for half the production and owns half the publishing.

Answer: Airplane

Bono continued his acting career after the television show ended. He hosted his own variety show but it only lasted six weeks. He then began taking roles in such shows as "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat". He played the part of mad bomber Joe Seluchi in "Airplane II: The Sequel" as well as the part of Franklin Von Tussle in the John Waters movie "Hairspray".

In the film "Men In Black" Bono is one of several oddball celebrities seen on a wall of video screens that monitor ETs. In 1986 Sonny Bono appeared in the horror movie "Troll".

Answer: Good Times

"Good Times" was a box office flop when it was released in 1967. Done in a similar style to the later "Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" the film is more a series of unconnected skits than a running plot. The film follows Sonny's daydreams as he plots out story lines featuring him as a Wild West sheriff, a jungle king and a private eye.

It is generally considered a spoof of Hollywood. "Chastity" was released two years later. In "Chastity" Cher portrays a lonely girl who is hitchhiking across the country in hopes of finding someone to love and make her forget her past. Sonny financed the movie projects and they nearly ruined him.

He recouped his losses by performing with Cher in night clubs and Las Vegas. "Lady Sings the Blues" is a 1972 Diana Ross film in which she portrays Billie Holiday. "I Got You Babe" was not a movie.

Answer: Palm Springs

The first "Bono" restaurant opened in West Hollywood with a second following in Houston. After the successful operation of the two restaurants he sold them and opened one in Palm Springs, California. He became frustrated with the daunting permit process to get a sign and decided to run for mayor.

In 1988 the Republican was elected Mayor of Palm Springs by a large margin. The Palm Springs International Film Festival was one of many community events he helped launch. One year he donated his $15,000 mayor's salary to an anti-drug campaign.

He was also instrumental in eradicating the city's $2.5 million dollar deficit and he promoted tourism. Prior to running for mayor he had never even been a registered voter.

Answer: Salton Sea

Bono was a champion of the Salton Sea. The 2005 documentary film "Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea" was narrated by John Waters and features clips of Bono. The film documents the inhabitants of Bombay Beach, Niland and Salton City. The Salton Sea is actually an inland salt lake that is part of the Colorado Desert in Southern California.

The lake covers a surface area of approximately 376 square miles. The Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge is located at the southern end of the Salton Sea not far from the Mexico border.

The refuge is located 227 feet below sea level.

Answer: U. S. House of Representatives

After unsuccessfully running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 1992, Bono was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 to represent California's 44th District. The seat he lost in the 1992 Senate run was won by Dianne Feinstein. He was a co-sponsor of a House bill extending copyrights.

Although the bill was never voted on in the Senate a similar Senate bill was passed after his death and named the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in his honor. Sonny was a major part of Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution. Asked for his views on illegal immigration he responded, "What can I say? It's illegal." After his death his wife, Mary, filled the vacant seat and later won the congressional seat in a special election.

Although remarried she continues to champion many of her late husband's causes including the Salton Sea.

Answer: South Lake Tahoe

Sonny Bono died from injuries he sustained at age 62 after striking a tree while skiing on the Nevada side of the Heavenly Ski Resort near South Lake Tahoe, California. Cher gave a tearful eulogy at his funeral. His final resting place is Desert Memorial Park in nearby Cathedral City, California, the same cemetery in which Frank Sinatra was laid to rest later that same year.

The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads: "And the beat goes on." He was the godfather of the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis.

In May, 1998, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk. Shortly after he was elected to Congress Bono was asked by a "New York Times" reporter how he'd like to be remembered. He replied "As someone who is his own man, a maverick and really a person of substance like other people."