Review: 'My Darling Vivian' movingly puts Johnny Cash's first wife back in the narrative

The documentary “My Darling Vivian” is a love letter, from the four oldest daughters of Johnny Cash to their mother, Vivian Liberto — the woman who the music world and the movies have largely erased from the Man in Black’s legend.

Vivian Liberto was a vivacious young woman with “dark eyes and dark hair,” raised in a strict Catholic family in San Antonio, Texas. One night in 1951, at a roller rink, she met a handsome young airman who was just finishing his training. He was Johnny Cash, and their courtship was short and fast before he shipped off to Europe — but they sustained their romance through hundreds of letters, and some audio tapes in which Johnny professed his love in words and, occasionally, in song.

Shortly after Cash returned from the military, in 1954, he and Vivian got married and moved to Memphis. That’s where, nine months after their wedding night, their eldest daughter Rosanne was born. A second daughter, Kathy, came less than 11 months later. Eventually, Vivian and Johnny had four daughters — and the four, including Cindy and Tara, are the only people that director Matt Riddlehoover interviews for this film.

The four sisters recall the ups and downs of their parents’ relationship. Vivian didn’t handle Johnny’s fame well, as it meant he was gone from home for long periods of time — and when he was home, he often brought reporters, cameras and fans. A move to Encino, Calif. (they bought Johnny Carson’s old house), took Vivian away from her circle of friends in Memphis. And as Johnny tried to break into Hollywood, he also started doing drugs, particularly amphetamines.

The four Cash girls also recall some bizarre moments from their parents’ 13-year marriage. The strangest may have been when Vivian came to Texas in 1967 to stand by Johnny when he was arrested for smuggling amphetamines in from Mexico. The photographs of her beside Johnny made her skin tone appear dark, fostering a rumor that Vivian was African American — a rumor that, in the Klan-dominated South, lost him his concert bookings and radio play. It also brought death threats to Vivian, who took to carrying a pistol around the house at night.

What the Cash daughters are most angry about — and why they agreed to make the documentary — is how Vivian was left out of the Cash legend once Johnny fell in love with country singer June Carter.

On talk-show appearances, June would talk about “our daughters,” a constant pain in Vivian’s heart. At a memorial concert after Cash died in 2003, all of Nashville gushed about the love story between Johnny and June, but when singer Rodney Crowell dedicated a song to Vivian (who was in the audience), his words were cut from the broadcast. Some of the daughters say they have never watched the 2005 biography “Walk the Line,” which depicted Vivian (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) as a shrill, desperately needy woman — and they’re never going to.

Through a wealth of old photos and the voices of the four daughters, “My Darling Vivian” succeeds in its mission of putting Vivian back in the narrative of Johnny Cash’s legend — not as a spurned first wife, but as a woman in her own right.

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‘My Darling Vivian’

★★★

Debuting Friday, June 19, as a video-on-demand rental on ‘virtual cinema,’ including SLFS@Home. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language. Running time: 90 minutes.