During his career, he earned two Emmy Awards and five of his albums sold more than a million copies, earning him a gold record for each. Funds from the admissions to the non-profit museum go to The Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts, which awards music scholarships.
While born "Wladziu Valentino Liberace", he later changed his first name to "Walter", but his friends and relatives knew him as "Lee". At the insistence of Polish piano virtuoso Ignacy Jan Paderewski , he dropped his first names and performed under his last name only.
According to the same article, he once almost refused to have a facelift when the doctor asked him to take his toupee off. In , during the height of the American Bicentennial, he once performed wearing red, white and blue hot pants. It made headlines around the world. That concert was the first one where he wore extravagant costumes--in this case, a gold lame jacket. According to his cook, his last meal was Cream of Wheat hot cereal, made with half and half, and seasoned with brown sugar.
By all accounts he got along well with the cast and crew and would play impromptu recitals at the end of each day's filming. He owned a Rolls-Royce Phantom V. This car resides in the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas NV , and of only seven built by coachbuilder James Young that year, it is the only one with left-hand drive the steering wheel on the American side , making it even more rare. The entire car is covered with small mirrored tiles, and with classic horses etched into them along the running boards.
When he first got the car, it had a black and gray paint job. He also had a s Rolls-Royce convertible painted with an American flag design. The phrase "I cried all the way to the bank! When filming a television special in England, he made a point of learning the names of all the production crew. Years later when he returned to make another show, he was able to greet every crew member by name. He is mentioned in the song "Mr. Sandman", written by Pat Ballard and famously recorded by The Chordettes , which featured the lyric "And [give him] lots of wavy hair like Liberace".
Uncle of Rudy Liberace Jr. Despite his popular acclaim, music critics savaged Liberace. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Liberace's life was his lifelong denial of his sexuality. As a gay man in the public eye in the midth century, Liberace had little choice but to hide his private life or lose his career and fanbase to the intolerance of the times. Liberace's conflicted feelings came with childhood.
In an era when being gay was considered a mental illness, young Liberace obsessed over his sexuality to he point of fearing he was insane. Wracked with guilt and terrified at the consequences of his family discovering his sexual orientation, a confused Liberace turned to his Catholic faith in hopes of quelling what he felt were unnatural urges.
Briefly, the musician considered entering the priesthood. Politically and religiously conservative, Liberace publicly condemned the gay lifestyle throughout much of his career while keeping his private life under a shield of secrecy. He vehemently and repeatedly denied being gay in the press and publicly "dated" women to add plausibility to his deception. Liberace's success in the s was tainted with scandal, lawsuits, and tragedy. The entertainer had vowed to bring the tabloid down after it had printed a salacious story intimating that the famous pianist was gay.
Just hours after his appearance in a Los Angeles courtroom, Liberace's mother Frances, a guest at the star's lavish Sherman Oaks Home, ventured out with a bag of garbage to burn in a garage incinerator.
Seemingly out of nowhere, two masked men jumped the year-old woman, knocking her to ground and viciously kicking her in the back. The Los Angeles Times quoted her statement to the police — "They had black hoods with slits for their eyes. They also had some kind of covering, probably stockings, over their shoes," Frances Liberace said. There, one of them grabbed me, hit me or threw me down on the floor. One of them kicked me in the back. I heard one of them say, 'This will give him something to laugh about.
As documented in Liberace: The True Story , Liberace returned to find his house swarming with police. Investigators, suspecting the attack was an act of revenge, inquired if the entertainer had any enemies.
Although no suspects were ever apprehended, Liberace and his family conjectured that the crime was related to the Confidential suit. Liberace was known for his elaborate stage costumes. Multiple wardrobe changes were a hallmark of his shows beginning early in his career. Ironically, Liberace's clothing nearly cost him his life on Nov.
While preparing for a show at The Holiday House in Pittsburgh , the pianist noticed that some of his stage clothes had become soiled.
With a blizzard brewing outside his hotel room, the performer fretted over his wardrobe. His costumer, Bob Fischer, was busy on an errand, and hotel staff wouldn't have the clothing cleaned by showtime. With the clock ticking, Liberace made a decision which he called "idiotic" in his autobiography. After purchasing a gallon of dry cleaning fluid, the star attempted to do the job himself in the unventilated confines of his hotel room.
As detailed in Liberace: An American Boy , the entertainer, suddenly feeling ill, laid down for a nap. Soon, Liberace was rousted from his sleep by Fischer who, smelling the overwhelming fumes, chided him for cleaning his costumes himself. Liberace wouldn't make it through his performance. Rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors diagnosed him with renal failure brought on by carbon tetrachloride poisoning, When his kidneys failed to resume normal function, Liberace was told to "put his house in order.
After his variety television show called The Liberace Show aired, he appeared in two episodes of Batman in Liberace portrayed a concert pianist and his evil twin, making for some delightfully campy viewing. In , Liberace invited a year-old Barbra Streisand to be his opening act for a month of shows in Las Vegas. He was a big fan of hers, but when his audience didn't respond to her after her first two nights, Liberace took matters into his own hands.
In a move that was mostly unheard-of for marquee acts, he went on stage each night before her set to introduce her.
He warmed the audience to her, and when they realized the young songstress had been personally chosen by Liberace, they paid more attention.
Soon, Streisand was winning rave reviews. During a Pittsburgh show in late , Liberace was rushed to the emergency room after collapsing. His costume, which he had cleaned himself with carbon tetrachloride prior to the show, leached the chemical into his skin, and he had been breathing it all day in an unventilated room.
I rushed offstage. He even drove to his piano on stage in one of his many luxury automobiles. In the mids, Liberace decided to give the public a peek into his lavish lifestyle. He transformed his Hollywood home into a museum. He later displayed his collection of costumes, cars and other treasures at his own museum in Las Vegas. Once again, Liberace found himself in a legal struggle. He was sued by his former bodyguard and chauffeur Scott Thorson in Thorson claimed that he had been in a relationship with Liberace and that Liberace had promised to take care of him and support him.
The case was later settled out of court. He and his staff, however, vehemently denied that the entertainer had the disease. Liberace passed away on February 4, , at his home in Palm Springs, California.
Initially, his doctor reported that the showman died of cardiac arrest. While some critics have dismissed him for being overly sentimental, Liberace has left a lasting impact on the world of entertainment. His elaborate and sometimes garish style has influenced the likes of Presley, Elton John and David Bowie to name a few. A film celebrating Liberace's was released in , with Michael Douglas playing the legendary showman.
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