Remembering Liberace.

Allow me to wish you a happy Liberace Day. To educate those of you who might be too young to remember this person, Liberace was the highest paid entertainer in the world for more than 30 years, earning $300,000 a week in Las Vegas throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Basically, he was an over-the-top, strangely effeminate pianist from Milwaukee who seriously wanted the world to believe he wasn’t gay. (He never fooled ANYBODY. Do you know any straight men who would wear an outfit like this?)

I was lucky enough to see Liberace perform at the Las Vegas Hilton back in 1981 in a breathtaking two-and-a-half hour spectacle of music with 40-foot high dancing fountains, a diamond-covered piano, ermine coats and jeweled costumes. Believe it or not, the video clip below is the same show I saw in Vegas 29 years ago. God bless YouTube for preserving weird crap like this! The intro was broadcast on giant screens in the theater before Liberace appeared on stage:



Other important facts of interest! Liberace had a top-rated TV variety show in the 1950s, performed to sellout crowds in every major concert venue in the world for more than 25 years, collected pianos, rare antiques, luxury automobiles and cute male “chauffeurs,” published a series of cookbooks, produced a line of men’s clothing and owned a motel chain (Liberace Chateau Inns), a shopping mall and a museum. The Liberace Museum is still a popular attraction in Las Vegas.

Decades before entertainers considered coming “out of the closet,” Liberace sued three major newspapers for libel — and WON — when they hinted at his homosexuality. Still, it was no surprise to anybody when he died of AIDS on this date in 1987. (I wonder if the newspapers asked for their money back.)

You can find out more about Liberace on his website and at Wikipedia.org. And for your viewing pleasure there are lots of additional Liberace videos on YouTube. Thank you for reading this.