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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
pink turkey-feather cape detail
design by
Michael Travis
photographer unknown
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.
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.
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:
Net links:
YouTube links:
date & photographer unknown
Shine on you crazy diamond!
Condor Club - piano raised to ceiling As we danced so close to the Condor Club, Pillow and I knew Carol and I knew Bobby from my high school days in the fifties. 
