Liberace
Encyclopedia
Wladziu Valentino Liberace (lɪbərˈɑːtʃi ; May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987), best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American
pianist
and vocalist.
In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned. During the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world and embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off the stage.
, a Milwaukee suburb, to Frances Zuchowska (August 31, 1892 – November 1, 1980), who was of Polish descent, and Salvatore ("Sam") Liberace (December 9, 1885 – April 1, 1977), an emigrant from Formia
, Italy
. He had a twin who died at birth and he was born with a caul
, which in his family, as in many societies, was taken as a sign of genius and an exceptional future. Liberace's father was a musician who played the French horn in bands and movie theaters but sometimes had to work as a factory worker or laborer. While his father encouraged music in the family, his mother was not musical and thought music lessons and a record player to be luxuries they couldn't afford, causing angry family disputes. Liberace later stated, "My dad's love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art".
Liberace began playing the piano at four and while his father took his children to concerts to further expose them to music, he was also a taskmaster demanding high standards from the children in practice and performance. Liberace's prodigious talent was in evidence early. He memorized difficult pieces by age seven. He studied the technique of the famous Polish pianist and later family friend Ignacy Paderewski
and at eight met him backstage at the Pabst Theater
in Milwaukee. "I was intoxicated by the joy I got from the great virtuoso's playing. My dreams were filled with fantasies of following his footsteps…Inspired and fired with ambition, I began to practice with a fervor that made my previous interest in the piano look like neglect."
The Great Depression
was hard on the family financially. The early-teenage Liberace also suffered from a speech problem and from the taunts of neighborhood children who mocked his avoidance of sports and his fondness for the piano and for cooking. Liberace focused fiercely on his piano playing and blossomed under the instruction of music teacher Florence Kelly who guided his musical development for ten years. He gained experience playing popular music in theaters, on local radio, for dancing classes, for clubs, and for weddings. He played jazz with a school group called the "Mixers" in 1934, then other groups later. Liberace also performed in cabarets and strip clubs, and even though his parents did not approve, he was earning a tidy living during hard times. For a while he adopted the stage name "Walter Busterkeys". He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and he became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. By then, he was already showing the knack of turning his eccentricities into attention-getting virtues and he grew more popular at school, though mostly as an object of comic relief.
In a formal classical music competition in 1937, Liberace was praised for his "flair and showmanship". At the end of a traditional classical concert in La Crosse, Wisconsin
in 1939, Liberace played his first requested encore, "Three Little Fishes", which he played in the style of several different classical composers. The 20-year-old played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 15, 1940, at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, performing Liszt's Second Piano Concerto under the baton of Hans Lange
, for which he received strong reviews. He also toured in the Midwest.
Between 1942 and 1944, Liberace moved away from straight classical performance and reinvented his act to one featuring "pop with a bit of classics" or as he also called it "classical music with the boring parts left out." In the early 1940s, he struggled in New York City but by the mid- and late 1940s, he was performing in night clubs in major cities around the United States, largely abandoning the classical concertgoer. He changed from classical pianist to showman, unpredictably and whimsically mixing serious with light fare, e.g., Chopin
with "Home on the Range." For a while, he played piano along with a phonograph
record player on stage. The gimmick helped gain him attention. He also added interaction with the audience—taking requests, talking with the patrons, cracking jokes, giving lessons to chosen audience members—and began to pay greater attention to such details as staging, lighting, and presentation. The transformation to entertainer was driven by Liberace's desire to connect directly with his audiences, and secondarily from the reality of the difficult competition in the classical piano world.
In 1943, he appeared in a couple of Soundies
(the 1940s precursor to music videos). He re-created two flashy numbers from his nightclub act, "Tiger Rag
" and "Twelfth Street Rag
". In these films he was billed as Walter Liberace. Both "Soundies" were later released to the home-movie market by Castle Films
. In 1944, he made his first appearances in Las Vegas, which later became his principal performance venue. He was playing at the best clubs, finally appearing at the celebrated Persian Room in 1945, with Variety
proclaiming, "Liberace looks like a cross between Cary Grant
and Robert Alda
. He has an effective manner, attractive hands which he spotlights properly and, withal, rings the bell in the dramatically lighted, well-presented, showmanly routine. He should snowball into box office." The Chicago Times was similarly impressed: He "made like Chopin one minute and then turns on a Chico Marx
bit the next."
During this time, Liberace worked tirelessly to refine his act. He added the candelabrum as a signature prop and adopted "Liberace" as his stage name
, making a big point in his press releases that it was pronounced "Liber-Ah-chee". He dressed in white tie and tails to be better seen in large halls. Besides clubs and occasional work as an accompanist and rehearsal pianist, Liberace also played for private parties, including those at the Park Avenue home of millionaire oilman J. Paul Getty
. By 1947, he was billing himself as "Liberace—the most amazing piano virtuoso of the present day." He had to have a piano to match his growing presence, so he bought a rare, over-sized, gold-leafed Blüthner
Grand, which he hyped up in his press kit as a "priceless piano". (Later, he would perform with an array of extravagant, custom-decorated pianos, some encrusted with sequins and mirrors.) He moved to North Hollywood, California in 1947 and was performing at local clubs, such as Ciro's and Mocambo's, for Hollywood stars such as Rosalind Russell
, Clark Gable
, Gloria Swanson
, and Shirley Temple
. He didn't always play to packed rooms, and early on he learned to perform with extra energy to sparser crowds, in order to keep up his own enthusiasm.
Liberace created a very successful publicity machine which helped rocket him to stardom. In 1950, he performed for music-loving President Harry S. Truman
in the East room of the White House
. Despite his success in the supper-club circuit, where he was often an intermission act, his ambition was to reach larger audiences as a headliner and a television, movie, and recording star. Liberace began to expand his act and made it more extravagant, with more costumes and a larger supporting cast. His large-scale Las Vegas act became his hallmark, expanding his fan base dramatically, and making him wealthy in short order.
His New York City performance at Madison Square Garden in 1954, which earned him a record $138,000 for one performance, was more successful than the great triumph his idol Paderewski had made twenty years earlier. By 1955, he was making $50,000 per week at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas
and had over 200 official fan clubs with a quarter of a million member fans. He was making over $1,000,000 per year from public appearances, and millions from television. Liberace was frequently covered by the major magazines and he became a pop culture superstar, but he also became the butt of jokes by comedians and the public.
Music critics were generally harsh in their assessment of his piano playing. Critic Lewis Funke wrote after the Carnegie Hall concert, Liberace's music "must be served with all the available tricks, as loud as possible, as soft as possible, and as sentimental as possible. It's almost all showmanship topped by whipped cream and cherries." Even worse was his lack of reverence and fealty to the great composers. "Liberace recreates—if that is the word—each composition in his own image. When it is too difficult, he simplifies it. When it is too simple, he complicates it". His sloppy technique included "slackness of rhythms, wrong tempos, distorted phrasing, an excess of prettification and sentimentality, a failure to stick to what the composer has written".
Liberace once stated, "I don't give concerts, I put on a show." Unlike the concerts of classical pianists which normally ended with applause and a retreat off-stage, Liberace's shows ended with the public invited on-stage to touch his clothes, piano, jewelry, and hands. Kisses, handshakes, hugs, and caresses usually followed. A critic summed up his appeal near the end of Liberace's life: "Mr. Showmanship has another more potent, drawing power to his show: the warm and wonderful way he works his audience. Surprisingly enough, behind all the glitz glitter, the corny false modesty and the shy smile, Liberace exudes a love that is returned to him a thousand-fold."
In contrast to his flamboyant stage presence, Liberace was a conservative
in his politics and faith, eschewing dissidents and rebels. He believed fervently in capitalism
but was also fascinated with royalty, ceremony, and luxury. He loved to hobnob with the "rich and famous", acting as star-struck with presidents and kings as his fans behaved with him. Yet to his fans, he was still one of them, a Midwesterner who had earned his success through hard work—and who invited them to enjoy it with him.
In the next phase of his life, having earned sudden wealth, Liberace spent lavishly—incorporating materialism into his life and his act. He designed and built his first celebrity house in 1953, with a piano theme appearing throughout, including a piano top shaped swimming pool. His dream home with its lavish furnishings, elaborate bath, and antiques all throughout, added to his appeal. He leveraged his fame through hundreds of promotional tie-ins with banks, insurance companies, automobile companies, food companies—even morticians. Liberace was considered a perfect pitchman, given his folksy connection with his vast audience of housewives. The sponsors would obligingly send him complimentary products, including his white Cadillac
limousine. He reciprocated enthusiastically, "If I am selling tuna fish, I believe in tuna fish." The critics would have a field day with his gimmicky act, his showy but careful piano playing, his non-stop promotions, and his gaudy display of success but he always had the last laugh, as preserved by the famous quotation, first recorded in a letter to a critic, "Thank you for your very amusing review. After reading it, in fact, my brother George and I laughed all the way to the bank." In an appearance on The Tonight Show
some years later, Liberace re-ran the anecdote to Johnny Carson
, and finished it by saying "I don't cry all the way to the bank any more – I bought the bank".
In 1956, Liberace had his first international engagement, playing successfully in Havana, Cuba. He followed up with a European tour later that year. Always a devout Catholic, Liberace considered his meeting with Pope Pius XII a highlight of his life. In 1960, Liberace performed at the London Palladium
with Nat King Cole
and Sammy Davis Jr. (this was the first televised "command performance
", now known as "The Royal Variety Show" for Queen Elizabeth II
).
On July 19, 1957, hours after Liberace gave a deposition in his $25 million libel suit against Confidential
magazine, two masked intruders attacked his mother in the garage of Liberace's home in Sherman Oaks. She was beaten and kicked, but her heavy corset may have protected her from being badly injured. Liberace was not informed about the assault until he finished his midnight show at the Moulin Rouge. Guards were hired to watch over Liberace's house and the houses of his two brothers.
Despite successful European tours, his career had in fact been slumping since 1957. But Liberace built it back up by appealing directly to his fan base. Through live appearances in small town supper clubs, and with television and promotional appearances, he began to regain popularity. On November 23, 1963, he suffered renal failure
from accidentally inhaling excessive amounts of cleaning fluid and nearly died. Told by doctors that his condition was fatal, he began to give away his possessions but then recovered after a month.
Re-energized, Liberace returned to Las Vegas, and, upping the glamor and glitz, he took on the sobriquet "Mr. Showmanship". As his act swelled with spectacle, he famously stated, "I'm a one-man Disneyland." The costumes became more exotic (ostrich feathers, mink, capes and huge rings), entrances and exits more elaborate (chauffeured onstage in a Rolls-Royce or dropped in on a wire like Peter Pan
), choreography more complex (involving chorus girls, cars, and animals), and the novelty acts especially talented juvenile acts including Australian singer Jamie Redfern
and Canadian banjo player Scotty Plummer
. Barbra Streisand
was his most notable new adult act, early in her career.
Liberace's energy and commercial ambitions took him in many directions. He owned an antiques store in Beverly Hills, California
and a restaurant in Las Vegas for many years and even published cookbooks, the most famous of these being Liberace Cooks, with co-author cookbook guru Carol Truax
, which included "Liberace Lasagna" and "Liberace Sticky Buns". The book features recipes "from his seven dining rooms" (of his Hollywood home). In addition, he had a line of men's clothing, a motel chain (Liberace Chateau Inns), a shopping mall, and other enterprises.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Liberace's live shows were major box office attractions in Las Vegas
at the Las Vegas Hilton and Lake Tahoe
where he would earn $300,000 a week. He maintained homes in both places.
Always kind to animals and children, Liberace incorporated them into his shows and helped talented youth through his Liberace Foundation, whose works still continue.
Unlike Jack Benny
, Liberace mostly bypassed radio before trying a television career, thinking radio unsuitable given his act's dependency on the visual. Despite his enthusiasm about the possibilities of television, Liberace was disappointed after his early guest appearances on CBS
's The Kate Smith Show
, starring Kate Smith
, and Cavalcade of Stars
, with Jackie Gleason
. Liberace was particularly displeased with the frenetic camera work and his short appearance time. He soon wanted his own show where he could control his presentation as he did with his club shows. His first show on local television in Los Angeles was a smash hit, earning the highest ratings of any local show, which he parlayed into a sold out appearance at the Hollywood Bowl
. That led to a summer replacement program for Dinah Shore
.
The fifteen-minute network television
program, The Liberace Show, began on July 1, 1952, but did not lead to a regular network series. Instead producer Duke Goldstone mounted a filmed version of Liberace's local show performed before a live audience for syndication
in 1953, and sold it to scores of local stations. The widespread exposure of the syndicated Liberace series made the pianist more popular and prosperous than ever. His first two years earnings from television netted him $7,000,000 and on future re-runs he earned up to 80% of the profits.
Liberace learned early on to add "schmaltz" to his television show and to cater to the tastes of the mass audience by joking and chatting to the camera, as if performing in the viewer's own living room. He also used dramatic lighting, split images, costume changes, and exaggerated hand movements to create visual interest. His television performances featured enthusiasm and humor.
Liberace also employed "ritualistic domesticity", used by such early TV greats as Jack Benny and Lucille Ball
. His brother George often appeared as guest violinist and orchestra director, and his mother was usually in the front row of the audience, with brother Rudy and sister Angelina often mentioned to lend an air of "family". Liberace began each show in the same way, then mixed production numbers with chat, and signed off each broadcast softly singing "I'll Be Seeing You
". His musical selections were broad, including classics, show tunes, film melodies, Latin rhythms, ethnic songs, and boogie-woogie.
The show was so popular with his mostly female television audience that he drew over thirty million viewers at any one time and received ten thousand fan letters per week. His show was also one of the first to be shown on British commercial television in the 1950s, where it was broadcast on Sunday afternoons by Lew Grade
's Associated TeleVision
. This exposure gave Liberace a dedicated following in the United Kingdom. Homosexual men also found him appealing. According to author Darden Asbury Pyron, "Liberace was the first gay person Elton John
had ever seen on television; he became his hero."
Liberace also made significant appearances on other shows like The Ed Sullivan Show
, The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
, Edward R. Murrow
's Person to Person
and on the shows of Jack Benny and Red Skelton
, on which he often parodied his own persona. A new Liberace Show premiered on ABC
's daytime schedule in 1958, featuring a less flamboyant, less glamorous persona, but it failed in six months, as his popularity began slumping. Liberace received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
in 1960 for his contributions to the television industry. Liberace continued on television as a frequent and welcomed guest on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar
in the 1960s, with memorable exchanges with Zsa Zsa Gabor
and Muhammad Ali
, and later with Johnny Carson
. He was also Red Skelton's 1969 CBS
summer replacement with his own variety hour, taped in London (co-produced by Skelton and Lew Grade's production companies). In 1966, he appeared in two highly rated episodes of the US television series Batman
. In a cameo on The Monkees
he appeared at an avant-garde art gallery as himself, gleefully smashing a grand piano with a sledgehammer as Mike Nesmith looked on and cringed in mock agony. During the 1970s, his appearances included guest roles on episodes of Here's Lucy
and Kojak
.
Liberace was also the guest star in an episode of The Muppet Show
. His performances included a "Concerto for the Birds", "Misty", "Five Foot Two" and an amusing rendition of "Chopsticks
". In the 1980s, he guest starred on television shows such as Saturday Night Live
(on a 10th-season episode hosted by Hulk Hogan
and Mr. T
), and the 1984 film Special People.
His albums included standards of the time, such as Hello Dolly
, but also included his own versions of works from Chopin and other classical greats. In his life he received 6 gold records. As successful as his recording career was, however, it never reached the level of popularity of his live shows.
sort of character with long hair." Liberace also appeared as a guest star in two compilation features for RKO Radio Pictures. Footlight Varieties was an imitation-vaudeville hour released in 1951 and a little-known sequel, Merry Mirthquakes (1953), featured Liberace as master of ceremonies.
He was at the height of his career in 1955 when he starred in the Warner Brothers feature Sincerely Yours with Dorothy Malone
, playing 31 songs. The film (about a concert pianist who loses his hearing) was a commercial and critical failure, which was attributed in part to his having been overexposed on television. The film later became successful as a staple of movie programming on television in the late '50s and early '60s.
In 1965, he had a small part in the movie When the Boys Meet the Girls
starring Connie Francis
, essentially playing himself. He received kudos in 1966 for his brief role as a casket salesman in the film adaptation
of The Loved One
, Evelyn Waugh
's satire of the funeral business and movie industry in Southern California
. It was the only film with Liberace in the cast in which he did not play the piano.
In 1966, Liberace appeared in the highly popular 1960s TV show Batman with Adam West
and Burt Ward
, playing a dual role as evil pianist Chandell and his gangster-like twin Harry in the episodes "The Devil's Fingers" and "The Dead Ringers".
In 1970, Liberace appeared on an episode of Here's Lucy, in which Craig (Desi Arnaz Jr.) borrows a candelabra for a high school club initiation.
Television specials were made from Liberace's show at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1978 and 1979 which were broadcast on CBS. These were "Leapin' Lizards It's Liberace" and "Liberace: A Valentine Special."
by veteran columnist Cassandra (William Connor
) mentioned that Liberace was "…the summit of sex—the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she, and it can ever want… a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love," a description which did everything it could to imply he was homosexual without actually saying so. Liberace sent a telegram that read: "What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank." (This phrase was already in use by the 1940s.) He sued the newspaper for libel, testifying in a London court that he was not a homosexual and had never taken part in homosexual acts. He won the suit, partly on the basis of the term fruit-flavoured
, which was held to impute homosexuality. The £8,000 damages he received from The Daily Mirror (approximately $22,000) led Liberace to repeat the catchphrase to reporters: "I cried all the way to the bank!" Liberace's popularization of the phrase inspired the title of Crying All the Way to the Bank, a detailed report of the trial based on transcripts, court reports and interviews, by the former Daily Mirror journalist Revel Barker.
Liberace fought and settled a similar case in the United States against Confidential
. Rumors and gossip magazines frequently alleged behavior that strongly implied that he was homosexual. A typical issue of Confidential in 1957 shouted, "Why Liberace's Theme Song Should Be 'Mad About the Boy!'"
In 1982, Scott Thorson
, Liberace's 24-year-old bodyguard, limo driver, and alleged live-in boyfriend of five years, sued the pianist for $113 million in palimony
after an acrimonious split-up. Liberace continued publicly to deny that he was homosexual and insisted that Thorson was never his lover. In 1984, most of Thorson's claim was dismissed, although he received a $95,000 settlement. Thorson claimed in his book, published after Liberace died, he settled because "I did not want to fight it out with a dying man." Thorson claimed his lawsuit was legitimate and primarily based on conversion of property, and ultimately got twisted in litigation.
Confusion over Liberace's true sexuality was further muddled in the public's mind by his public friendships and romantic links with actress Joanne Rio (whom he claimed he nearly married), skater Sonja Henie
, aging Hollywood icon Mae West
, and famous transsexual Christine Jorgenson. Many publicity releases and women's magazine articles attempted to counter the homosexuality rumors by portraying Liberace as "the perfect all-around man any woman would be thrilled to be with... He's so considerate on dates... He never forgets the little things that women love… He makes you feel that when you are with him, well, you really are with him." Another article was "Mature Women Are Best: TV's Top Pianist Reveals What Kind of Woman He'd Marry."
In a 2011 interview, actress and close friend Betty White
confirmed that Liberace was gay, and that she often served as a date to counter rumors of the musician's homosexuality.
Liberace's final stage performance was at New Yorks' Radio City Music Hall
on November 2, 1986; the 18th show in 21 days, the series grossing $2.5 million. His final television appearance was on Christmas Day that same year on The Oprah Winfrey Show
TV talk show, which was recorded a month earlier.
He died at the age of 67 on February 4, 1987 at his winter home in Palm Springs, California
, from cardiac arrest
due to congestive heart failure
brought on by subacute encephalopathy
, said by Hank Greenspun
of the Las Vegas Sun
to be complications from AIDS
. Liberace's obvious weight loss in the months before his death was attributed to a "watermelon diet" by his longtime manager Seymour Heller
.
He had been in ill health since 1985 with emphysema
from his daily smoking off-stage, as well as heart and liver troubles; and author Darden Asbury Pyron wrote that Liberace had been "HIV
-positive and symptomatic" from 1985. Liberace's body is entombed in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery
in Los Angeles.
in Las Vegas closed after 31 years open to the general public. In June 2011, Liberace's Tivoli Garden's Restaurant, then operated by Carluccio's, closed its location next to the museum and relocated elsewhere. According to Liberace Foundation President Jack Rappaport, the museum had been in negotiations with money interests on the Las Vegas strip
to relocate the museum, but were unsuccessful. The Liberace Foundation, which provides college scholarships to up and coming performers, will continue to function, and pieces from the Liberace collection of items will go on a traveling tour in the future.
is to star as Liberace, with Matt Damon
playing Scott Thorson, in a story centered on a relationship the two shared and its aftermath. Filming is scheduled for Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Palm Springs during the summer of 2012. The production is to be directed by Steven Soderbergh
with screenplay by Richard LaGravenese
based on Thorson's book Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace. The score will be by Marvin Hamlisch
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and vocalist.
In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned. During the 1950s–1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world and embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off the stage.
Early life
Liberace, known as "Lee" to his friends and "Walter" to family, was born in West Allis, WisconsinWest Allis, Wisconsin
West Allis is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The population was 61,254 at the 2000 census. Its name derives from Edward P. Allis, who started the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company in the 19th century. The site of the town was...
, a Milwaukee suburb, to Frances Zuchowska (August 31, 1892 – November 1, 1980), who was of Polish descent, and Salvatore ("Sam") Liberace (December 9, 1885 – April 1, 1977), an emigrant from Formia
Formia
Formia is a city and comune in the province of Latina, on the Mediterranean coast of Lazio . It is located halfway between Rome and Naples, and lies on the Roman-era Appian Way.-History:...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He had a twin who died at birth and he was born with a caul
Caul
A caul is a thin, filmy membrane, the amnion, that can cover a newborn's head and face immediately after birth.-Obstetrics:A child "born with the caul" has a portion of the amniotic sac or membrane remaining on the head. There are two types of cauls. The most common caul is adhered to the head...
, which in his family, as in many societies, was taken as a sign of genius and an exceptional future. Liberace's father was a musician who played the French horn in bands and movie theaters but sometimes had to work as a factory worker or laborer. While his father encouraged music in the family, his mother was not musical and thought music lessons and a record player to be luxuries they couldn't afford, causing angry family disputes. Liberace later stated, "My dad's love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art".
Liberace began playing the piano at four and while his father took his children to concerts to further expose them to music, he was also a taskmaster demanding high standards from the children in practice and performance. Liberace's prodigious talent was in evidence early. He memorized difficult pieces by age seven. He studied the technique of the famous Polish pianist and later family friend Ignacy Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE was a Polish pianist, composer, diplomat, politician, and the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.-Biography:...
and at eight met him backstage at the Pabst Theater
Pabst Theater
The Pabst Theater is an indoor concert venue and landmark of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. Colloquially known as "the Pabst", the theater hosts about 100 events per year...
in Milwaukee. "I was intoxicated by the joy I got from the great virtuoso's playing. My dreams were filled with fantasies of following his footsteps…Inspired and fired with ambition, I began to practice with a fervor that made my previous interest in the piano look like neglect."
The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
was hard on the family financially. The early-teenage Liberace also suffered from a speech problem and from the taunts of neighborhood children who mocked his avoidance of sports and his fondness for the piano and for cooking. Liberace focused fiercely on his piano playing and blossomed under the instruction of music teacher Florence Kelly who guided his musical development for ten years. He gained experience playing popular music in theaters, on local radio, for dancing classes, for clubs, and for weddings. He played jazz with a school group called the "Mixers" in 1934, then other groups later. Liberace also performed in cabarets and strip clubs, and even though his parents did not approve, he was earning a tidy living during hard times. For a while he adopted the stage name "Walter Busterkeys". He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and he became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. By then, he was already showing the knack of turning his eccentricities into attention-getting virtues and he grew more popular at school, though mostly as an object of comic relief.
Early career
La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The 2011 Census Bureau estimates the city had a population of 52,485...
in 1939, Liberace played his first requested encore, "Three Little Fishes", which he played in the style of several different classical composers. The 20-year-old played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 15, 1940, at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, performing Liszt's Second Piano Concerto under the baton of Hans Lange
Hans Lange
Hans Lange was a German-American conductor and musician. He was a son of Paul Lange, who had been a lecturer for music at the American College for Girls and German High School Istanbul in the 1890s, and later was appointed the Sultan's director of music...
, for which he received strong reviews. He also toured in the Midwest.
Between 1942 and 1944, Liberace moved away from straight classical performance and reinvented his act to one featuring "pop with a bit of classics" or as he also called it "classical music with the boring parts left out." In the early 1940s, he struggled in New York City but by the mid- and late 1940s, he was performing in night clubs in major cities around the United States, largely abandoning the classical concertgoer. He changed from classical pianist to showman, unpredictably and whimsically mixing serious with light fare, e.g., Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
with "Home on the Range." For a while, he played piano along with a phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
record player on stage. The gimmick helped gain him attention. He also added interaction with the audience—taking requests, talking with the patrons, cracking jokes, giving lessons to chosen audience members—and began to pay greater attention to such details as staging, lighting, and presentation. The transformation to entertainer was driven by Liberace's desire to connect directly with his audiences, and secondarily from the reality of the difficult competition in the classical piano world.
In 1943, he appeared in a couple of Soundies
Soundies
Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was...
(the 1940s precursor to music videos). He re-created two flashy numbers from his nightclub act, "Tiger Rag
Tiger Rag
"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time.-Origins:...
" and "Twelfth Street Rag
Twelfth Street Rag
"Twelfth Street Rag" was composed by Euday L. Bowman in 1914. It is one of the most famous and best-selling rags of the ragtime era. It has been recorded by many artists, ranging from Louis Armstrong to Lester Young. Bowman worked as a pianist in some of the bordellos of Kansas City...
". In these films he was billed as Walter Liberace. Both "Soundies" were later released to the home-movie market by Castle Films
Castle Films
Castle Films was a home-movie distributor founded in California by former newsreel cameraman Eugene W. Castle in 1924. The company originally produced business and advertising films. By 1931 it had moved its principal office to New York City. In 1937, Castle branched out into 8 mm and 16 mm home...
. In 1944, he made his first appearances in Las Vegas, which later became his principal performance venue. He was playing at the best clubs, finally appearing at the celebrated Persian Room in 1945, with Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
proclaiming, "Liberace looks like a cross between Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Robert Alda
Robert Alda
Robert Alda was an American actor. He was the father of actors Alan Alda and Antony Alda.-Life and career:...
. He has an effective manner, attractive hands which he spotlights properly and, withal, rings the bell in the dramatically lighted, well-presented, showmanly routine. He should snowball into box office." The Chicago Times was similarly impressed: He "made like Chopin one minute and then turns on a Chico Marx
Chico Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
bit the next."
During this time, Liberace worked tirelessly to refine his act. He added the candelabrum as a signature prop and adopted "Liberace" as his stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
, making a big point in his press releases that it was pronounced "Liber-Ah-chee". He dressed in white tie and tails to be better seen in large halls. Besides clubs and occasional work as an accompanist and rehearsal pianist, Liberace also played for private parties, including those at the Park Avenue home of millionaire oilman J. Paul Getty
J. Paul Getty
Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. At his death, he was...
. By 1947, he was billing himself as "Liberace—the most amazing piano virtuoso of the present day." He had to have a piano to match his growing presence, so he bought a rare, over-sized, gold-leafed Blüthner
Blüthner
Blüthner, formally Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH, is a piano-manufacturing company founded by Julius Blüthner in 1853 in Leipzig Germany.- History :...
Grand, which he hyped up in his press kit as a "priceless piano". (Later, he would perform with an array of extravagant, custom-decorated pianos, some encrusted with sequins and mirrors.) He moved to North Hollywood, California in 1947 and was performing at local clubs, such as Ciro's and Mocambo's, for Hollywood stars such as Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
, Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, and Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
. He didn't always play to packed rooms, and early on he learned to perform with extra energy to sparser crowds, in order to keep up his own enthusiasm.
Liberace created a very successful publicity machine which helped rocket him to stardom. In 1950, he performed for music-loving President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
in the East room of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. Despite his success in the supper-club circuit, where he was often an intermission act, his ambition was to reach larger audiences as a headliner and a television, movie, and recording star. Liberace began to expand his act and made it more extravagant, with more costumes and a larger supporting cast. His large-scale Las Vegas act became his hallmark, expanding his fan base dramatically, and making him wealthy in short order.
His New York City performance at Madison Square Garden in 1954, which earned him a record $138,000 for one performance, was more successful than the great triumph his idol Paderewski had made twenty years earlier. By 1955, he was making $50,000 per week at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
and had over 200 official fan clubs with a quarter of a million member fans. He was making over $1,000,000 per year from public appearances, and millions from television. Liberace was frequently covered by the major magazines and he became a pop culture superstar, but he also became the butt of jokes by comedians and the public.
Music critics were generally harsh in their assessment of his piano playing. Critic Lewis Funke wrote after the Carnegie Hall concert, Liberace's music "must be served with all the available tricks, as loud as possible, as soft as possible, and as sentimental as possible. It's almost all showmanship topped by whipped cream and cherries." Even worse was his lack of reverence and fealty to the great composers. "Liberace recreates—if that is the word—each composition in his own image. When it is too difficult, he simplifies it. When it is too simple, he complicates it". His sloppy technique included "slackness of rhythms, wrong tempos, distorted phrasing, an excess of prettification and sentimentality, a failure to stick to what the composer has written".
Liberace once stated, "I don't give concerts, I put on a show." Unlike the concerts of classical pianists which normally ended with applause and a retreat off-stage, Liberace's shows ended with the public invited on-stage to touch his clothes, piano, jewelry, and hands. Kisses, handshakes, hugs, and caresses usually followed. A critic summed up his appeal near the end of Liberace's life: "Mr. Showmanship has another more potent, drawing power to his show: the warm and wonderful way he works his audience. Surprisingly enough, behind all the glitz glitter, the corny false modesty and the shy smile, Liberace exudes a love that is returned to him a thousand-fold."
In contrast to his flamboyant stage presence, Liberace was a conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
in his politics and faith, eschewing dissidents and rebels. He believed fervently in capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
but was also fascinated with royalty, ceremony, and luxury. He loved to hobnob with the "rich and famous", acting as star-struck with presidents and kings as his fans behaved with him. Yet to his fans, he was still one of them, a Midwesterner who had earned his success through hard work—and who invited them to enjoy it with him.
In the next phase of his life, having earned sudden wealth, Liberace spent lavishly—incorporating materialism into his life and his act. He designed and built his first celebrity house in 1953, with a piano theme appearing throughout, including a piano top shaped swimming pool. His dream home with its lavish furnishings, elaborate bath, and antiques all throughout, added to his appeal. He leveraged his fame through hundreds of promotional tie-ins with banks, insurance companies, automobile companies, food companies—even morticians. Liberace was considered a perfect pitchman, given his folksy connection with his vast audience of housewives. The sponsors would obligingly send him complimentary products, including his white Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
limousine. He reciprocated enthusiastically, "If I am selling tuna fish, I believe in tuna fish." The critics would have a field day with his gimmicky act, his showy but careful piano playing, his non-stop promotions, and his gaudy display of success but he always had the last laugh, as preserved by the famous quotation, first recorded in a letter to a critic, "Thank you for your very amusing review. After reading it, in fact, my brother George and I laughed all the way to the bank." In an appearance on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
some years later, Liberace re-ran the anecdote to Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
, and finished it by saying "I don't cry all the way to the bank any more – I bought the bank".
After the TV show
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
with Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
and Sammy Davis Jr. (this was the first televised "command performance
Royal Command Performance
For the annual Royal Variety Performance performed in Britain for the benefit of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, see Royal Variety Performance...
", now known as "The Royal Variety Show" for Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
).
On July 19, 1957, hours after Liberace gave a deposition in his $25 million libel suit against Confidential
Confidential (magazine)
Confidential was a periodical published quarterly from December 1952 to August 1953, and then bi-monthly until 1978. It was founded by Robert Harrison and is considered a pioneer in scandal, gossip, and exposé journalism. Newsweek said it featured "sin and sex with a seasoning of right wing...
magazine, two masked intruders attacked his mother in the garage of Liberace's home in Sherman Oaks. She was beaten and kicked, but her heavy corset may have protected her from being badly injured. Liberace was not informed about the assault until he finished his midnight show at the Moulin Rouge. Guards were hired to watch over Liberace's house and the houses of his two brothers.
Despite successful European tours, his career had in fact been slumping since 1957. But Liberace built it back up by appealing directly to his fan base. Through live appearances in small town supper clubs, and with television and promotional appearances, he began to regain popularity. On November 23, 1963, he suffered renal failure
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
from accidentally inhaling excessive amounts of cleaning fluid and nearly died. Told by doctors that his condition was fatal, he began to give away his possessions but then recovered after a month.
Re-energized, Liberace returned to Las Vegas, and, upping the glamor and glitz, he took on the sobriquet "Mr. Showmanship". As his act swelled with spectacle, he famously stated, "I'm a one-man Disneyland." The costumes became more exotic (ostrich feathers, mink, capes and huge rings), entrances and exits more elaborate (chauffeured onstage in a Rolls-Royce or dropped in on a wire like Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
), choreography more complex (involving chorus girls, cars, and animals), and the novelty acts especially talented juvenile acts including Australian singer Jamie Redfern
Jamie Redfern
Jamie Redfern born 9 April 1957, is an Australian television presenter and pop singer. Redfern was a founding member of the Australian show Young Talent Time and currently presents Jamie Redfern's Rascals, which can be viewed on Aurora TV. He is also the director of the Australian Showbusiness...
and Canadian banjo player Scotty Plummer
Scotty Plummer
Scotty Plummer was a highly regarded banjo player who made a name for himself as a youngster in both the United States and Canada and earned the title "Prince of Banjo"...
. Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
was his most notable new adult act, early in her career.
Liberace's energy and commercial ambitions took him in many directions. He owned an antiques store in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
and a restaurant in Las Vegas for many years and even published cookbooks, the most famous of these being Liberace Cooks, with co-author cookbook guru Carol Truax
Carol Truax
Carol Truax was an American music administrator and an author of many cookbooks. She was noted both for her time as Executive Director of Fine Arts at Colorado College , and also as consultant in Fine Arts to the State University of New York. As author, Miss Truax’s most famous publications...
, which included "Liberace Lasagna" and "Liberace Sticky Buns". The book features recipes "from his seven dining rooms" (of his Hollywood home). In addition, he had a line of men's clothing, a motel chain (Liberace Chateau Inns), a shopping mall, and other enterprises.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Liberace's live shows were major box office attractions in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
at the Las Vegas Hilton and Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...
where he would earn $300,000 a week. He maintained homes in both places.
Always kind to animals and children, Liberace incorporated them into his shows and helped talented youth through his Liberace Foundation, whose works still continue.
Television
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, Liberace mostly bypassed radio before trying a television career, thinking radio unsuitable given his act's dependency on the visual. Despite his enthusiasm about the possibilities of television, Liberace was disappointed after his early guest appearances on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's The Kate Smith Show
The Kate Smith Show
The Kate Smith Show is a half-hour, short-lived variety program which aired on CBS television from January 25 to July 18, 1960. The program features singer Kate Smith and the Harry Simeone Chorale.-Background:...
, starring Kate Smith
Kate Smith
Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith was an American Popular singer, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s.Smith was born in Greenville, Virginia...
, and Cavalcade of Stars
The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...
, with Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
. Liberace was particularly displeased with the frenetic camera work and his short appearance time. He soon wanted his own show where he could control his presentation as he did with his club shows. His first show on local television in Los Angeles was a smash hit, earning the highest ratings of any local show, which he parlayed into a sold out appearance at the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
. That led to a summer replacement program for Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
.
The fifteen-minute network television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
program, The Liberace Show, began on July 1, 1952, but did not lead to a regular network series. Instead producer Duke Goldstone mounted a filmed version of Liberace's local show performed before a live audience for syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
in 1953, and sold it to scores of local stations. The widespread exposure of the syndicated Liberace series made the pianist more popular and prosperous than ever. His first two years earnings from television netted him $7,000,000 and on future re-runs he earned up to 80% of the profits.
Liberace learned early on to add "schmaltz" to his television show and to cater to the tastes of the mass audience by joking and chatting to the camera, as if performing in the viewer's own living room. He also used dramatic lighting, split images, costume changes, and exaggerated hand movements to create visual interest. His television performances featured enthusiasm and humor.
Liberace also employed "ritualistic domesticity", used by such early TV greats as Jack Benny and Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
. His brother George often appeared as guest violinist and orchestra director, and his mother was usually in the front row of the audience, with brother Rudy and sister Angelina often mentioned to lend an air of "family". Liberace began each show in the same way, then mixed production numbers with chat, and signed off each broadcast softly singing "I'll Be Seeing You
I'll Be Seeing You (song)
"I'll Be Seeing You" is a popular song, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal. Published in 1938, the song was inserted into the Broadway musical Right This Way, which closed after fifteen performances. The song is a jazz standard, and has been covered by countless musicians.The...
". His musical selections were broad, including classics, show tunes, film melodies, Latin rhythms, ethnic songs, and boogie-woogie.
The show was so popular with his mostly female television audience that he drew over thirty million viewers at any one time and received ten thousand fan letters per week. His show was also one of the first to be shown on British commercial television in the 1950s, where it was broadcast on Sunday afternoons by Lew Grade
Lew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Russian-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
's Associated TeleVision
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
. This exposure gave Liberace a dedicated following in the United Kingdom. Homosexual men also found him appealing. According to author Darden Asbury Pyron, "Liberace was the first gay person Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
had ever seen on television; he became his hero."
Liberace also made significant appearances on other shows like The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
, The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Ford Show
The Ford Show is a half-hour comedy/variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired in color on NBC television on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 29, 1961....
, Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow
Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...
's Person to Person
Person to Person
Person to Person was a popular television program in the United States that ran from 1953 to 1961. Well-respected news reporter Edward R. Murrow hosted it until 1959, interviewing celebrities in their homes from a comfortable chair in his New York studio Person to Person was a popular television...
and on the shows of Jack Benny and Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
, on which he often parodied his own persona. A new Liberace Show premiered on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's daytime schedule in 1958, featuring a less flamboyant, less glamorous persona, but it failed in six months, as his popularity began slumping. Liberace received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
in 1960 for his contributions to the television industry. Liberace continued on television as a frequent and welcomed guest on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962...
in the 1960s, with memorable exchanges with Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
and Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, and later with Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
. He was also Red Skelton's 1969 CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
summer replacement with his own variety hour, taped in London (co-produced by Skelton and Lew Grade's production companies). In 1966, he appeared in two highly rated episodes of the US television series Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
. In a cameo on The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...
he appeared at an avant-garde art gallery as himself, gleefully smashing a grand piano with a sledgehammer as Mike Nesmith looked on and cringed in mock agony. During the 1970s, his appearances included guest roles on episodes of Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...
and Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
.
Liberace was also the guest star in an episode of The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show
The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...
. His performances included a "Concerto for the Birds", "Misty", "Five Foot Two" and an amusing rendition of "Chopsticks
Chopsticks (music)
"Chopsticks" is a simple, extremely well known waltz for the piano. It was written in 1877 by the British composer Euphemia Allen under the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli...
". In the 1980s, he guest starred on television shows such as Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(on a 10th-season episode hosted by Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan
Terrance Gene "Terry" Bollea , better known by his ring name Hulk Hogan, is an American Semi-retired professional wrestler, actor, television personality, and musician currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling ....
and Mr. T
Mr. T
Mr. T is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry,...
), and the 1984 film Special People.
Recordings
The huge success of Liberace's syndicated television show was the main impetus behind his record sales. From 1947 to 1951, he produced about 10 disks. By 1954, it jumped to nearly 70. He released several recordings through Columbia Records including Liberace by Candlelight (later on Dot and through direct television advertising) and sold over 400,000 albums by mid-1954. His most popular single was "Ave Maria", selling over 300,000 copies. From 1955 on, his recordings and sales declined steadily.His albums included standards of the time, such as Hello Dolly
Hello, Dolly! (song)
"Hello, Dolly!" is the title song of the popular 1964 musical of the same name. Louis Armstrong's version was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001....
, but also included his own versions of works from Chopin and other classical greats. In his life he received 6 gold records. As successful as his recording career was, however, it never reached the level of popularity of his live shows.
Films and TV
Even before his arrival in Hollywood in 1947, Liberace wanted to add acting to his list of accomplishments. His exposure to the Hollywood crowd through his club performances led to his first movie appearance in 1950 in South Sea Sinners, a South Pacific potboiler, in which he played "a Hoagy CarmichaelHoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
sort of character with long hair." Liberace also appeared as a guest star in two compilation features for RKO Radio Pictures. Footlight Varieties was an imitation-vaudeville hour released in 1951 and a little-known sequel, Merry Mirthquakes (1953), featured Liberace as master of ceremonies.
He was at the height of his career in 1955 when he starred in the Warner Brothers feature Sincerely Yours with Dorothy Malone
Dorothy Malone
Dorothy Malone is an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years she played small roles, mainly in B-movies. After a decade in films, she began to acquire a more glamorous image, particularly after her performance in Written on the Wind , for which she won the Academy...
, playing 31 songs. The film (about a concert pianist who loses his hearing) was a commercial and critical failure, which was attributed in part to his having been overexposed on television. The film later became successful as a staple of movie programming on television in the late '50s and early '60s.
In 1965, he had a small part in the movie When the Boys Meet the Girls
When the Boys Meet the Girls
When the Boys Meet the Girls is a 1965 American musical film, directed by Alvin Ganzer and starring Connie Francis and Harve Presnell. Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan were both uncredited in their roles as the writers for the play the film is based on.-Cast:...
starring Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...
, essentially playing himself. He received kudos in 1966 for his brief role as a casket salesman in the film adaptation
The Loved One (film)
The Loved One is a 1965 black comedy film about the funeral business in Los Angeles, which is based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy , a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh...
of The Loved One
The Loved One (film)
The Loved One is a 1965 black comedy film about the funeral business in Los Angeles, which is based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy , a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh...
, Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
's satire of the funeral business and movie industry in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. It was the only film with Liberace in the cast in which he did not play the piano.
In 1966, Liberace appeared in the highly popular 1960s TV show Batman with Adam West
Adam West
William West Anderson , better known by the stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series and the film of the same name...
and Burt Ward
Burt Ward
Burt Ward is an American television actor and activist. He is best known for his portrayal of Robin in the television series Batman and its theatrical film spin-off.-Early life:...
, playing a dual role as evil pianist Chandell and his gangster-like twin Harry in the episodes "The Devil's Fingers" and "The Dead Ringers".
In 1970, Liberace appeared on an episode of Here's Lucy, in which Craig (Desi Arnaz Jr.) borrows a candelabra for a high school club initiation.
Television specials were made from Liberace's show at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1978 and 1979 which were broadcast on CBS. These were "Leapin' Lizards It's Liberace" and "Liberace: A Valentine Special."
Lawsuits and allegations of homosexuality
Liberace's fame in the United States was matched for a time in the United Kingdom. In 1956, an article in The Daily MirrorThe Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
by veteran columnist Cassandra (William Connor
William Connor
Sir William Neil Connor , was a left-wing journalist for The Daily Mirror who wrote under the pseudonym of Cassandra....
) mentioned that Liberace was "…the summit of sex—the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she, and it can ever want… a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love," a description which did everything it could to imply he was homosexual without actually saying so. Liberace sent a telegram that read: "What you said hurt me very much. I cried all the way to the bank." (This phrase was already in use by the 1940s.) He sued the newspaper for libel, testifying in a London court that he was not a homosexual and had never taken part in homosexual acts. He won the suit, partly on the basis of the term fruit-flavoured
Fruit (slang)
Fruit and fruitcake are sexual slang terms which have various origins but modern usages tend to primarily refer to gay men and sometimes other LGBT people. Usually used as pejoratives, the terms have also been re-appropriated as insider terms of endearment within LGBT communities...
, which was held to impute homosexuality. The £8,000 damages he received from The Daily Mirror (approximately $22,000) led Liberace to repeat the catchphrase to reporters: "I cried all the way to the bank!" Liberace's popularization of the phrase inspired the title of Crying All the Way to the Bank, a detailed report of the trial based on transcripts, court reports and interviews, by the former Daily Mirror journalist Revel Barker.
Liberace fought and settled a similar case in the United States against Confidential
Confidential (magazine)
Confidential was a periodical published quarterly from December 1952 to August 1953, and then bi-monthly until 1978. It was founded by Robert Harrison and is considered a pioneer in scandal, gossip, and exposé journalism. Newsweek said it featured "sin and sex with a seasoning of right wing...
. Rumors and gossip magazines frequently alleged behavior that strongly implied that he was homosexual. A typical issue of Confidential in 1957 shouted, "Why Liberace's Theme Song Should Be 'Mad About the Boy!'"
In 1982, Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson
Scott Thorson became famous for his relationship with and lawsuit against entertainer Liberace and his testimony against gangster Eddie Nash.-Relationship with Liberace:...
, Liberace's 24-year-old bodyguard, limo driver, and alleged live-in boyfriend of five years, sued the pianist for $113 million in palimony
Palimony
Palimony is a popular term used to describe the division of financial assets and real property on the termination of a personal live-in relationship wherein the parties are not legally married. The term is a portmanteau of the words pal and alimony...
after an acrimonious split-up. Liberace continued publicly to deny that he was homosexual and insisted that Thorson was never his lover. In 1984, most of Thorson's claim was dismissed, although he received a $95,000 settlement. Thorson claimed in his book, published after Liberace died, he settled because "I did not want to fight it out with a dying man." Thorson claimed his lawsuit was legitimate and primarily based on conversion of property, and ultimately got twisted in litigation.
Confusion over Liberace's true sexuality was further muddled in the public's mind by his public friendships and romantic links with actress Joanne Rio (whom he claimed he nearly married), skater Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion . Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater...
, aging Hollywood icon Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, and famous transsexual Christine Jorgenson. Many publicity releases and women's magazine articles attempted to counter the homosexuality rumors by portraying Liberace as "the perfect all-around man any woman would be thrilled to be with... He's so considerate on dates... He never forgets the little things that women love… He makes you feel that when you are with him, well, you really are with him." Another article was "Mature Women Are Best: TV's Top Pianist Reveals What Kind of Woman He'd Marry."
In a 2011 interview, actress and close friend Betty White
Betty White
Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
confirmed that Liberace was gay, and that she often served as a date to counter rumors of the musician's homosexuality.
Final appearances and death
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
on November 2, 1986; the 18th show in 21 days, the series grossing $2.5 million. His final television appearance was on Christmas Day that same year on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
TV talk show, which was recorded a month earlier.
He died at the age of 67 on February 4, 1987 at his winter home in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, from cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest, is the cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively...
due to congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure
Heart failure often called congestive heart failure is generally defined as the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body. Heart failure can cause a number of symptoms including shortness of breath, leg swelling, and exercise intolerance. The condition...
brought on by subacute encephalopathy
Encephalopathy
Encephalopathy means disorder or disease of the brain. In modern usage, encephalopathy does not refer to a single disease, but rather to a syndrome of global brain dysfunction; this syndrome can be caused by many different illnesses.-Terminology:...
, said by Hank Greenspun
Hank Greenspun
Herman "Hank" Milton Greenspun was the longtime, and often controversial, publisher of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. He purchased the Sun in 1949, and served as its editor and publisher until his death...
of the Las Vegas Sun
Las Vegas Sun
The Las Vegas Sun is a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper. It is one of Las Vegas, Nevada's two daily newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group....
to be complications from AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. Liberace's obvious weight loss in the months before his death was attributed to a "watermelon diet" by his longtime manager Seymour Heller
Seymour Heller
Seymour Heller was an American talent agent and artist's manager for over 60 years. He specialized in musical variety entertainers...
.
He had been in ill health since 1985 with emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
from his daily smoking off-stage, as well as heart and liver troubles; and author Darden Asbury Pyron wrote that Liberace had been "HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
-positive and symptomatic" from 1985. Liberace's body is entombed in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
in Los Angeles.
Closure of Liberace Museum and Tivoli Gardens Restaurant
In October 2010, the Liberace MuseumLiberace Museum
The Liberace Museum is located in Paradise, Nevada, a census-designated place in Las Vegas Valley. It houses many stage costumes, cars, jewelry, lavishly decorated pianos and numerous citations for philanthropic acts that belonged to the American entertainer and pianist Wladziu Valentino Liberace,...
in Las Vegas closed after 31 years open to the general public. In June 2011, Liberace's Tivoli Garden's Restaurant, then operated by Carluccio's, closed its location next to the museum and relocated elsewhere. According to Liberace Foundation President Jack Rappaport, the museum had been in negotiations with money interests on the Las Vegas strip
Las Vegas Strip
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
to relocate the museum, but were unsuccessful. The Liberace Foundation, which provides college scholarships to up and coming performers, will continue to function, and pieces from the Liberace collection of items will go on a traveling tour in the future.
Tributes and notable references
- In 1988 a television movie entitled Liberace aired on ABC, starring Andrew Robinson, John RubinsteinJohn RubinsteinJohn Arthur Rubinstein is an American film, Broadway, and television actor, a composer of film and theatre music, and a director in theatre and television.-Early life:...
, Maris ValainisMaris ValainisMaris Valainis is an American construction consultant and a former actor, best known for his role in the 1986 film Hoosiers, in which he played the character of Jimmy Chitwood, a basketball player who makes a last-second shot to win the Indiana state high school championship...
, Deborah Goodrich, Louis GiambalvoLouis GiambalvoLouis Giambalvo is an American actor, frequently seen on television in guest roles.His television credits include: Barney Miller, Hart to Hart, St...
, and Kario SalemKario SalemKario Salem is an American television, film, and stage actor and screenwriter.-Career:In 1997, Salem earned an Emmy Award as a writer for the television special Don King: Only in America, which also earned him a PEN nomination. The film also won the Broadcast Film Critics Award and Peabody Award...
. This film asserted that Liberace was heterosexual and only briefly mentioned that he died of AIDS via a screen note at the end. - In 1988, a Canada-US made-for-TV movie biography, Liberace: Behind the MusicLiberace: Behind the MusicLiberace: Behind the Music is a 1988 Kushner-Locke Company television production. It is an "unofficial" biopic drama on the life and death of Wladziu Valentino Liberace, who went from a humble working-class background to become a famous American pianist and vocalist...
was aired. Victor GarberVictor GarberVictor Joseph Garber is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.-Early life:Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is...
played Liberace, while Saul RubinekSaul RubinekSaul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
played Seymour Heller. Maureen StapletonMaureen StapletonMaureen Stapleton was an American actress in film, theater and television.-Early life:Stapleton was born Lois Maureen Stapleton in Troy, New York, the daughter of Irene and John P. Stapleton, and grew up in a strict Irish American Catholic family...
played his mother Frances and Michael DolanMichael DolanMichael Dolan, born June 21, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is an American theatre and film actor, director and educator.-Acting career:...
as Scott Thorson. Reviewer Hal Erickson stated, "Liberace: Behind the Music could have descended into tabloidism...but emerges as a work of conspicuous dignity and (reasonably) good taste." - The Liberace MuseumLiberace MuseumThe Liberace Museum is located in Paradise, Nevada, a census-designated place in Las Vegas Valley. It houses many stage costumes, cars, jewelry, lavishly decorated pianos and numerous citations for philanthropic acts that belonged to the American entertainer and pianist Wladziu Valentino Liberace,...
in Las VegasLas Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, opened in 1979 by the entertainer, contains many of his stage costumes, carsCARSCars, or automobiles, motor cars, are wheeled motor vehicles used for transporting passengers.Cars or CARS may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Cars , a Disney/Pixar film series...
, jewelry, and lavishly decorated pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
s, along with numerous citations for philanthropic actsPhilanthropyPhilanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
and a sizable gift shop. The museum closed indefinitely as of October 17, 2010, due to declining attendance and the bad economy, although the directors stated that they did not intend to be closed permanently. - In August 2007, Kashi KicksKashi KicksKashi Kicks is an American footwear company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that produces unique sneaker designs . Kashi Kicks was developed as a more fashion-oriented line compared to other brands at the time, in both aesthetic and function...
announced the release of the Liberace shoe, to honor “the King of Bling”. This was done in collaboration with the Liberace Foundation of Las Vegas. - Bobby CrushBobby CrushBobby Crush is an English pianist, songwriter and television presenter.-Career:Crush first came to public attention after making six winning appearances on Hughie Green's British ITV talent show, Opportunity Knocks, in the early 1970s...
played Liberace in a show called 'Liberace: Live From Heaven', which began on stage in early 2010. It is based on what happened when Liberace died. His task was to impress the angels (the audience) who would vote if he should go to heaven or hell with their show itinerary booklet which displays heaven and hell on either side of it. The show featured the voices of Stephen FryStephen FryStephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
as Saint PeterSaint PeterSaint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
and Victoria WoodVictoria WoodVictoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
as God. The performance reflects upon the events Liberace faced in court, lying on the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and defends his homosexuality, claiming that lying was the only way of keeping his career safe.
Behind the Candelabra
HBO has agreed to film Behind the Candelabra to air on its network. Michael DouglasMichael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
is to star as Liberace, with Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
playing Scott Thorson, in a story centered on a relationship the two shared and its aftermath. Filming is scheduled for Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Palm Springs during the summer of 2012. The production is to be directed by Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
with screenplay by Richard LaGravenese
Richard LaGravenese
Richard LaGravenese is an American screenwriter and occasional film director. He is best known as the writer of The Fisher King.-Personal life:...
based on Thorson's book Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace. The score will be by Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...
.
Autobiographies
- Liberace: An Autobiography, by Liberace. Putnam and Co. Ltd, New York, 1973 (hardcover)
- The Things I Love, by Liberace with Tony Palmer (editor). Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1976 (hardcover)
- The Wonderful Private World of Liberace, by Liberace and Michael Segell. Harper and Row, New York, 1986 (hardcover)
Biographies
- Crying All The Way To The Bank, by Revel Barker (Famous Trials) 2009
- The Liberace Story, by Chester Whitehorn (editor). Screen Publications Inc, New York, 1955 (softcover – #4 in the Candid Profile series)
- Liberace: On Stage and Off, by Anthony Monahan. GRT Music Productions, Sunnyvale California, 1976 (hardcover)
- Liberace: The True Story, by Bob Thomas. St. Martins Press, New York, 1987 (hardcover)
- Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace, by Scott Thorson with Alex Thorleifson. E.P. Dutton, New York, 1988 (hardcover)
- Liberace: A Bio-Bibliography, by Jocelyn Faris. Greenwood Press, Westport CT, 1995
- Liberace: An American Boy, by Darden Asbury Pyron. University of Chicago Press, 2000, (hardcover)
- Liberace (Lives of Notable Gay Men and Lesbians), by Ray MungoRay MungoRaymond Mungo is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books. He writes about business, economics, and financial matters as well as cultural issues...
and Martin B. Duberman. Chelsea House Publications
Cooking
- Liberace Cooks, by Carol Truax. Doubleday, New York, 1970 (hardcover)
- Cookbook of the Stars, Motion Picture Mothers, Hollywood, 1970. (A collection of recipes by Hollywood stars including Liberace, Bing CrosbyBing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Lana TurnerLana TurnerLana Turner was an American actress.Discovered and signed to a film contract by MGM at the age of sixteen, Turner first attracted attention in They Won't Forget . She played featured roles, often as the ingenue, in such films as Love Finds Andy Hardy...
, Katharine RossKatharine RossKatharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her role...
, Mary Tyler MooreMary Tyler MooreMary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...
, Don KnottsDon KnottsJesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
, and more) - Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America's Kitchiest Kitchen, by Michael Feder and Karan Feder. Angel City Press, 2007 (hardcover)
- Delicious Recipes from Liberace's #1 Cook, by Gladys Luckie
Poetry
- The Ghost of Liberace – New Writing Scotland 11 (an anthology), A.L Kennedy (editor) and Hamish Whyte (editor), Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 1993 (paperback)
- Why My Mother Likes Liberace: a Musical Selection, by Diane Wakoski. (Comparing poetry to music: 13 poems by Wakoski, with line drawings of pianos by Rebecca Gaver). Sun / Gemini Press, Tucson, Arizona, 1985
Compilations
- The First Time: 28 Celebrities Tell About Their First Sexual Experiences, by Karl Fleming and Anne Taylor Fleming. Descriptions by Liberace, Debbie ReynoldsDebbie ReynoldsDebbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...
, Art BuchwaldArt BuchwaldArthur Buchwald was an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary...
, Erica JongErica JongErica Jong is an American author and teacher best known for her fiction and poetry.-Career:A 1963 graduate of Barnard College, and with an M.A...
, Jack LemmonJack LemmonJohn Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, Loretta LynnLoretta LynnLoretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
, Dyan CannonDyan CannonDyan Cannon is an American film and television actress, director, screenwriter, editor, and producer.-Early life:...
, Joan RiversJoan RiversJoan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
, Dr. SpockBenjamin SpockBenjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time. Its message to mothers is that "you know more than you think you do."Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand...
, Irving WallaceIrving WallaceIrving Wallace was an American best-selling author and screenwriter. Wallace was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme. One critic described him "as the most successful of all the many exponents of junk fiction perhaps because he took it all so seriously, not so say...
, Mae West, and 17 others. Berkley Medallion, 1976 (paperback) - Liberace Christmas Music: A Guide to Cassettes, Compact Discs, Music Scores, Piano Rolls, and Sound Recordings, by Karl B Johnson, John Carlson Press
- The Liberace Collection, 263 page Auction Catalogue jointly produced by Butterfield & ButterfieldButterfield & ButterfieldButterfield and Butterfield was a large American auction house, founded in 1865 by William Butterfield in San Francisco.It was purchased in 1999 from Bernard Osher by online auctioneer eBay for $260 million....
and Christie'sChristie'sChristie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
, Los Angeles Convention Centre, 1988
Music books
- Liberace Deluxe Big Note Song Book, Shattinger International Music, New York, 1977 (Spirax paperback)
- Liberace by Candlelight – Piano Music of Liberace, Edwin H. Morris & Co. (paperback)
- Liberace Popular Standards, New York: Charles Hansen Music & Books
Miscellaneous
- Liberace: Your Personal Fashion Consultant, by Michael Feder and Karan Feder. Abrams Image, 2007 (paperback)
External links
- The Liberace Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada
- The Liberace Foundation
- Liberace video footage after winning the case against the Daily Mirror
- Excerpts from Cassandra's column
- Transcript of CNN interview with Scott Thorson about his time with Liberace
- Yesterday's News: June 18, 1959: Liberace wins libel suit
- Liberace's Greatest Songs DVD review and history of Liberace's syndicated television series.
- Liberace Museum To Close
- Liberace 1981 video/entrance at Las Vegas Hilton engagement (with Scott Thorson)
- Director Steven Soderbergh on new Liberace film