Today is the birthday of Władziu Valentino Liberace, otherwise known as just plain, Liberace.
However, there was absolutely NOTHING plain about him!
I remember
evenings when I was a kid in the early 50's and my mother watched Liberace
on TV playing a piano that had a candelabra on it; every show had a
candelabra but I can't remember if it was always the same one. In any
event, she adored
him!
Liberace was an American pianist, singer and actor. He was a child prodigy who was born on May 16, 1919, in West Allis, Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin. He was inspired by the Polish pianist Ignacy Paderewski. He enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to the 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas, and an international touring schedule. He embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage, acquiring the nickname "Mr. Showmanship".
Liberace began playing the piano at age four. In 1943, he began to appear in Soundies (the 1940s precursor to music videos). He recreated two flashy numbers from his nightclub act, the standards Tiger Rag and Twelfth Street Rag. In these films, he was billed as Walter Liberace.
In 1944, he made his first appearances in Las Vegas, which later became his principal venue. During this time, he worked to refine his act. He added the candelabrum as his trademark, inspired by a similar prop in the Chopin biopic A Song to Remember (1945). He adopted "Liberace" as his stage name, making a point in press releases that it was pronounced "Liber-Ah-chee." He wore white tie and tails for better visibility in large halls.
He was mentioned as a sex symbol in The Chordettes 1954 #1 hit Mr. Sandman (link below). He 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; in reply he wrote 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 reran 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!"
The first, The Liberace Show, began on July 1, 1952. He 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, music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal, which he made his theme song.
In 1955, when Liberace was at the height of his career, he was chosen by Warner Bros. to star in the motion picture, Sincerely Yours (1955), a remake of The Man Who Played God (1932), as a concert pianist who turns his efforts toward helping others when his career is cut short by deafness. Modern Screen magazine claimed Doris Day had been most often mentioned as his leading lady, "but it is doubtful that Doris will play the role." The film was a critical and commercial failure since Liberace proved unable to translate his eccentric on-stage persona to that of a movie leading man.
The experience left Liberace so shaken that he largely abandoned his movie aspirations. He made two more big-screen appearances, but only in cameo roles. These were When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965), starring Connie Francis, where Liberace essentially played himself. He received kudos for his brief appearance as a casket salesman in The Loved One (1965), based on the Evelyn Waugh satire of the funeral business and movie industry in Southern California.
The massive success of the Liberace syndicated television show was the
main impetus behind his record sales. From 1947–51, he recorded 10
discs. By 1954, it jumped to nearly 70. He released several recordings through Columbia Records. His most popular single was Ave Maria, by Franz Schubert, selling
over 300,000 copies.
His albums included pop standards of the time, such as Hello, Dolly!, and also included his interpretations of the classical piano repertoire such as Chopin and Liszt, although many fans of classical music widely criticized them (as well as Liberace's skills as a pianist in general) for being "pure fluff with minimal musicianship". He received six gold records, however.
The Liberace Foundation for Creative and Performing Arts was founded in 1976; Liberace endowed the Foundation with its collection along with $4 million in cash. Liberace himself opened the Liberace Museum on April 15, 1979 in Paradise, Nevada. The museum houses the dozens of automobiles he collected as well as many of his costumes including the Christmas costume, worn at the Las Vegas Hilton and Radio City Music Hall: Designed by Michael Travis, with fur design by Anna Nateece.
Michael Travis also designed "The Flame Cape" and Jumpsuit in 1979. Travis noted in his book that the cape was one of his most challenging costumes to create. It featured small mirrors all over the cape and a complicated ombré metallic fabric and also 600 electric lights. Crystals were no longer enough bling for Liberace.
The museum also houses the incredible ring collection that Liberace owned. Most were given to him by celebrities such as Queen Elizabeth. The amazing thing to me is that he played the piano as well as he did while wearing these huge rings!
In 1956, an article in the Daily Mirror by columnist Cassandra (William Connor) described Liberace as "…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 strongly implied that he was homosexual. Liberace sued the newspaper for libel, testifying in a London court that he was not homosexual and that he had never taken part in homosexual acts. He won the suit, partly on the basis of Connor's use of the derogatory expression "fruit-flavoured". The case partly hinged on whether Connor knew that 'fruit' was American slang implying that an individual is a homosexual.
The final Liberace stage performance was at Radio City Music Hall in New York on November 2, 1986; he gave 18 shows in 21 days, and the series grossed $2.5 million. During the performance, he made his entrance from a 12 foot Faberge Easter egg. The costume he wore was a pink turkey-feathered cape designed by Michael Travis and weighed over 100 pounds.
The Liberace Museum
1775 East Tropicana Avenue (at Spencer),
Las Vegas,
Phone + 1 702 798 5595, see liberace.org.
open seven days, 10am-5pm (Sundays, noon-4pm).
Guided tours Monday to Friday, 11am and 2pm.
Entry fee $US15 ($16) or $US10 for seniors .
A shuttle bus collects from major hotels for a $US2 tip.
Johnny Carson
Doris Day
Connie Francis
The Chordettes
Liberace
Liberace & Paul Weston ~ Concertos for You
Franz Liszt
Korla Pandit
Queen Elizabeth II
Debbie Reynolds
Anna Nateece
AP News ~ Liberace Knew Radio City Was His Final Concerts
Bowery Boys History ~ Liberace’s final performance with the Rockettes
Corner Turn ~ The Liberace Collection
Fashionista ~ Liberace and His Costume Legacy
Geek Elite Media ~ Frock & Roll: Mr. Showmanship
HBO ~ Behind the Candelabra
Traveller ~ Revenge of the pink prancer
Michael Travis obit
The music:
12th Street Rag
Audience Requests (14:54)
Ave Maria
Brazil
Can Can
Chop Sticks
I Don't Need Anything But You (with Debbie Reynolds)
I'll Be Seeing You (original version)
I'll Be Seeing You (live) (1978)
I'll Be Seeing You (live) (1983)
Mack the Knife
Malaguena (with Sammy Davis, Jr.)
Mexican Medley (8:29)
Send in the Clowns (with Toto the Clown) (1978)
Strangers in the Night, Hello Dolly, Beer Barrel Polka Medley
Strauss Medley
Tiger Rag (live) (1969)
The Chordettes ~ Mr. Sandman
Liberace - 1952
Mom thought he was second only to another TV personality, Korla Pandit. She had fallen in love with Pandit in the late 40's; he played
the organ, wore a turban and had dreamy, hypnotic eyes. More on him at
a later time.
Liberace & Paul Weston ~ Concerts for You
10" vinyl LP front cover detail
front cover design by
Monogram (Robert Rauschenberg)
Monogram (Robert Rauschenberg)
detail photo by Styrous®
Liberace was an American pianist, singer and actor. He was a child prodigy who was born on May 16, 1919, in West Allis, Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin. He was inspired by the Polish pianist Ignacy Paderewski. He enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to the 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas, and an international touring schedule. He embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off stage, acquiring the nickname "Mr. Showmanship".
date & photographer unknown
Liberace began playing the piano at age four. In 1943, he began to appear in Soundies (the 1940s precursor to music videos). He recreated two flashy numbers from his nightclub act, the standards Tiger Rag and Twelfth Street Rag. In these films, he was billed as Walter Liberace.
In 1944, he made his first appearances in Las Vegas, which later became his principal venue. During this time, he worked to refine his act. He added the candelabrum as his trademark, inspired by a similar prop in the Chopin biopic A Song to Remember (1945). He adopted "Liberace" as his stage name, making a point in press releases that it was pronounced "Liber-Ah-chee." He wore white tie and tails for better visibility in large halls.
Liberace red cape
date & photographer unknown
He was mentioned as a sex symbol in The Chordettes 1954 #1 hit Mr. Sandman (link below). He 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; in reply he wrote 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 reran 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!"
date & photographer unknown
The first, The Liberace Show, began on July 1, 1952. He 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, music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal, which he made his theme song.
date & photographer unknown
In 1955, when Liberace was at the height of his career, he was chosen by Warner Bros. to star in the motion picture, Sincerely Yours (1955), a remake of The Man Who Played God (1932), as a concert pianist who turns his efforts toward helping others when his career is cut short by deafness. Modern Screen magazine claimed Doris Day had been most often mentioned as his leading lady, "but it is doubtful that Doris will play the role." The film was a critical and commercial failure since Liberace proved unable to translate his eccentric on-stage persona to that of a movie leading man.
Sincerely Yours movie poster
The experience left Liberace so shaken that he largely abandoned his movie aspirations. He made two more big-screen appearances, but only in cameo roles. These were When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965), starring Connie Francis, where Liberace essentially played himself. He received kudos for his brief appearance as a casket salesman in The Loved One (1965), based on the Evelyn Waugh satire of the funeral business and movie industry in Southern California.
The Loved One movie poster
His albums included pop standards of the time, such as Hello, Dolly!, and also included his interpretations of the classical piano repertoire such as Chopin and Liszt, although many fans of classical music widely criticized them (as well as Liberace's skills as a pianist in general) for being "pure fluff with minimal musicianship". He received six gold records, however.
date & photographer unknown
The Liberace Foundation for Creative and Performing Arts was founded in 1976; Liberace endowed the Foundation with its collection along with $4 million in cash. Liberace himself opened the Liberace Museum on April 15, 1979 in Paradise, Nevada. The museum houses the dozens of automobiles he collected as well as many of his costumes including the Christmas costume, worn at the Las Vegas Hilton and Radio City Music Hall: Designed by Michael Travis, with fur design by Anna Nateece.
Michael Travis also designed "The Flame Cape" and Jumpsuit in 1979. Travis noted in his book that the cape was one of his most challenging costumes to create. It featured small mirrors all over the cape and a complicated ombré metallic fabric and also 600 electric lights. Crystals were no longer enough bling for Liberace.
photographer unknown
The museum also houses the incredible ring collection that Liberace owned. Most were given to him by celebrities such as Queen Elizabeth. The amazing thing to me is that he played the piano as well as he did while wearing these huge rings!
Liberace rings
photographer unknown
In 1956, an article in the Daily Mirror by columnist Cassandra (William Connor) described Liberace as "…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 strongly implied that he was homosexual. Liberace sued the newspaper for libel, testifying in a London court that he was not homosexual and that he had never taken part in homosexual acts. He won the suit, partly on the basis of Connor's use of the derogatory expression "fruit-flavoured". The case partly hinged on whether Connor knew that 'fruit' was American slang implying that an individual is a homosexual.
Liberace - 1968
photo by Allan Warren
The final Liberace stage performance was at Radio City Music Hall in New York on November 2, 1986; he gave 18 shows in 21 days, and the series grossed $2.5 million. During the performance, he made his entrance from a 12 foot Faberge Easter egg. The costume he wore was a pink turkey-feathered cape designed by Michael Travis and weighed over 100 pounds.
Liberace - 1986
A
vertical bugle bead pattern on the jacket and pants make up the primary
design, with silk satin floral appliques, large AB rhinestones, white
pearls and paillettes intermixed with additional shades of pink, orange,
and red cover the jacket and shoes. The cape was a masterpiece of its
own, made from an ombré of pink turkey feathers. To support the weight,
it was mounted on heavy duck cotton, and lined with pink lamé. Its
collar was lined in rows of various shades of pink coque feathers. The
finished hem of the cape measures 26 feet wide and 9 feet long.
Liberace was diagnosed HIV positive
in August 1985 by his private physician in Las Vegas. Aside from his long-term
manager, Seymour Heller,
and a few family members and associates, Liberace kept his terminal
illness a secret and did not seek any medical
treatment. He died of pneumonia as a result of AIDS on the morning of February 4, 1987, at his home in Palm Springs, California; he was 67 years old.
In 2013 Steven Soderbergh directed the film, Behind the Candelabra, which dramatizes the last ten years in the life of Liberace and the relationship he had with Scott Thorson. It is based on Thorson's memoir, Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace (1988). Michael Douglas portrays Liberace and Matt Damon has the role of Thorson. Actually, Damon was MUCH prettier than the real-life Thorson. Debbie Reynolds has the part of the mother of Liberace.
The film, shown for the first time on American television on May 26,
2013, was watched by 2.4 million US viewers. A further 1.1 million tuned
in to watch the repeat immediately after, bringing viewership to 3.5
million in total. When the film debuted on HBO, it achieved the highest ratings for a television film since 2004.
Behind the Candelabra won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Movie or Miniseries and TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries, and Specials. It won two Golden Globe Awards and eleven Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Miniseries or Movie and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Douglas.
The Liberace Museum
1775 East Tropicana Avenue (at Spencer),
Las Vegas,
Phone + 1 702 798 5595, see liberace.org.
open seven days, 10am-5pm (Sundays, noon-4pm).
Guided tours Monday to Friday, 11am and 2pm.
Entry fee $US15 ($16) or $US10 for seniors .
A shuttle bus collects from major hotels for a $US2 tip.
Viewfinder links:
Johnny Carson
Doris Day
Connie Francis
The Chordettes
Liberace
Liberace & Paul Weston ~ Concertos for You
Franz Liszt
Korla Pandit
Queen Elizabeth II
Debbie Reynolds
Net links:
Anna Nateece
AP News ~ Liberace Knew Radio City Was His Final Concerts
Bowery Boys History ~ Liberace’s final performance with the Rockettes
Corner Turn ~ The Liberace Collection
Fashionista ~ Liberace and His Costume Legacy
Geek Elite Media ~ Frock & Roll: Mr. Showmanship
HBO ~ Behind the Candelabra
Traveller ~ Revenge of the pink prancer
Michael Travis obit
Vulture ~ Behind the Candelabra: A Liberace Primer
YouTube links:
The music:
12th Street Rag
Audience Requests (14:54)
Ave Maria
Brazil
Can Can
Chop Sticks
I Don't Need Anything But You (with Debbie Reynolds)
I'll Be Seeing You (original version)
I'll Be Seeing You (live) (1978)
I'll Be Seeing You (live) (1983)
Mack the Knife
Malaguena (with Sammy Davis, Jr.)
Mexican Medley (8:29)
Send in the Clowns (with Toto the Clown) (1978)
Strangers in the Night, Hello Dolly, Beer Barrel Polka Medley
Strauss Medley
Tiger Rag (live) (1969)
The Chordettes ~ Mr. Sandman
A&E ~ Liberace Biography (45:43 )
Behind the Candelabra (movie trailer)
Behind the Candelabra (ending)
Behind the Candelabra (making of the movie) (14 mins.)
Liberace Show Opening (13:11)
The Loved One movie scene
The Loved One making of the movie (15 min.)
Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful (documentary) (48:37)
Behind the Candelabra (movie trailer)
Behind the Candelabra (ending)
Behind the Candelabra (making of the movie) (14 mins.)
Liberace Show Opening (13:11)
The Loved One movie scene
The Loved One making of the movie (15 min.)
Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful (documentary) (48:37)
Oprah Winfrey ~ Liberace's last interview (30:36)
date & photographer unknown
Shine on you crazy diamond!
Styrous® ~ Saturday, May 16, 2020
