Posted on 10/15/2010 8:39:25 PM PDT by Borges
Before Lady Gaga, before Elton John, there was Liberace. People of a certain age will remember the candelabra on his piano, the flamboyant costumes, even the self-deprecating humor in his distinctive voice.
"My clothes may look funny but they're making me the money," he once said.
At one point, thanks to Las Vegas, Liberace was the highest-paid entertainer in the world. That's where he created the museum that bears his name. It was one of the most-visited attractions in Vegas, but so few people come nowadays that the Liberace Museum is closing Sunday.
Maybe this is just one more story about how Vegas is constantly changing, but maybe not. After all, Sinatra is still Sinatra. Elvis still has impersonators performing here. So what happened to Liberace?
Marion Blank saw him decades ago and still remembers his charisma, personality and showmanship.
"It was really a spectacular show," she recalled. "He came on in a car and all glitzed up as he usually is. It was just a wonderful experience."
She came from Indiana for one last visit to the Liberace Museum to see the outrageous costumes — like a black mink cape lined with 40,000 Swarovski crystals; the over-the-top cars, including a Rolls Royce covered in little mirrors; and the piano collection featuring a mirror-encrusted Baldwin grand.
Liberace was a classically trained pianist, but he wanted to please the masses. He said he played classical without the boring parts.
Museum archivist Jerry Goldberg calls it classi-pop. It made Liberace famous.
"The biggest problem was you didn't leave humming or singing his music because he played other people's music," Goldberg said. "His name more or less has died out because there's nothing to associate him with except the bling and showmanship."
Liberace's biggest fans were middle-aged women in the 1950s through the 1970s — a shrinking demographic. He might have become a gay icon.
Goldberg says many people, including his own mother, knew Liberace was gay.
"But back then it would have been a catastrophe for his career, so he never admitted it up to the day he died, never came out of the closet," he said.
The biggest problem for the Liberace Museum may be its location. It's more than 2 miles off the Vegas Strip, and visitors just don't want to make the trip.
But now that it's closing, locals like Katie Driscoll are coming.
"My mother watched Liberace all the time when I was growing up, played the piano, so did I," she said. "I moved here, became a showgirl and heard that it was closing and I didn't want to miss it."
Then there's Philip Balian. When he heard the Liberace Museum was closing, he got on a plane to Vegas from London.
"I watched him as a child on television and saw him play, and I said to my parents, 'I want to learn to play the piano. I want to be like that guy with the sparkly jacket.' "
Balian learned to play the piano, but he doesn't wear a sparkly jacket. He's on his first trip to the U.S., and was thrilled that the museum staff let him play Liberace's mirror-encrusted grand piano for some of the final visitors.
After Sunday, the piano and the other artifacts at the museum will go into storage, and Liberace's fame will fade a little further.
He’s buried in Forest Lawn. Hollywood Hills and the shubbery surrounding him are cut into the shape of the candalbra.
Tchaikovsky was gay and a gay pederast to boot. Is anyone who goes to see The Nutcracker supporting the Homosexual agenda too?
I remember watching him on the TV variety shows with my Grandma, who really liked him. His fans have now largely passed on. You never see clips of him on TV infomercials selling his old performances like you do with other entertainers of that era.
Copelands political ignorance and mental illness does not prevent from enjoying his classical music.
Essentially yes. Those who take part in most media entertainment are supporting the homosexual agenda these days.
What a flaming dong chugger. Were people NOT aware that (s)he was as gay as allowable in this solar system? I can't believe "Liber-assey" passed as remotely normal in the 50's and 60's.
Makes Elton John almost look butch.
God Bless you.
They sure look like brothers.
Well, we still go to the Pinball museum each time!
My Mom, rest her soul, loved him. I remember as a kid watching his TV show, with the candelabra, and, of course, his brother George on violin.
Could it be because while he was alive, he stayed in the closet and didn't rub rainbow politics in our faces as the current crowd of degenerate entertainers does!?!
In that sense, he was not one of the most homosexual of men. In his heyday the word homosexual was not even said in polite company. I admire Liberace for that.
“In other words, its location on Tropicana near UNLV is in the “real” Las Vegas, where the locals go about their business. Few tourists are seen in these parts, unless they are looking for a good Italian sandwich at Cugino’s on Maryland Parkway.”
Or fantastic, inexpensive sushi at Sushi Boy Desu across from UNLV. Gotta keep the prices low for the college students. The area where the museum is has turned into a bad neighborhood. I had friends with a beautiful, expensive home in the 80s- putting green, pool, guest house, a few blocks away. I can’t believe what’s happened to the area. It’s pretty sad when the neighborhood is so bad the grocery store closes. I regularly drove past the museum and was always surprised it hadn’t closed yet due to location, neighborhood, lack of customers and the memory of him fading.
Well, that’s too bad. I had wanted to see his musuem and now it’s gone.
Maybe a hotel will pick it up and incorporate it into some empty space they have.
Oh, and Cugino’s on Maryland Parkway...I’m salivating. Soooo good.
I’m glad you admire Liberace - it’s weird, but its a free country. You can admire who you want.
Pipe down and learn a thing or two from your elders, sonny.
I've noticed that many of the homes on Dorothy Ave., where I usually park when visiting UNLV now have burglar bars--and these homes are not very old.
Another residential neighborhood consisting of houses built in the 1960's must have been upscale until only a few years ago, but now every house features burglar bars. This neighborhood is located near Rincon Criollo, my favorite Cuban restaurant, on Las Vegas Blvd. South.
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