Who is liberace

Liberace was bestowed with many awards during his lifetime including: Instrumentalist of the Year, Best Dressed Entertainer, Entertainer of the Year, two Emmy Awards, six gold albums, and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In The Guinness Book of World Records, he has been listed as the world's highest paid musician and pianist. Liberace was an extremely talented and versatile man. He not only played the piano, but sang, danced and joked during his performances. In fact, one of Liberace's biggest accomplishments was his ability to turn a recital into a show full of music, glitter and personality.

Sign In. Edit Liberace. Showing all 66 items. While wildly successful and good-natured outwardly, Liberace was a complicated man whose political, social and religious conservatism existed side-by-side with a lifetime of secretive homosexuality. His mother, Frances Liberace , played piano as did his sister, Angie Liberace.

His older brother, George Liberace played the violin. Classical debut was at age 14 as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony. In high school, Liberace had a musical combo called "The Mixers". As a young man he worked the nightclub circuit as a pianist under the name: "Walter Busterkeys". In he was named one of the five highest paid entertainers in show business.

His favorite song was "The Impossible Dream", because he truly mastered the art of believing--he made his dream come true. 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. Although Liberace was gay and promiscuous in his private life, he publicly denied being a friend of Dorothy. When a newspaper and tabloid published articles implying he was gay in the late s, he sued them for libel and won.

Even after his former lover Scott Thorson sued him for palimony, Liberace denied that he was gay. In , Betty White revealed to CNN that when they were starting their careers, sometimes the television producer whom they were both working with would have Liberace escort her to events which many have interpreted as White acting as a beard for the closeted Liberace.

White recalled an incident when he accompanied her to a movie premiere one windy night, and instead of reaching his hand out to help her get out of the car, Liberace was focused on keeping his hair in place.

Liberace owned Tivoli Gardens, a restaurant in Las Vegas, and he turned his love of food into a successful cookbook. Sincerely Yours was a film starring Liberace as a successful concert pianist who goes deaf. But the movie, distributed by Warner Brothers, was a huge flop. Liberace designed a retracting toilet that folded into the wall of a bathroom. BY Suzanne Raga. Liberace was a child prodigy. Walter Busterkeys was Liberace's teenage stage name.

Despite Liberace's success, critics disparaged his piano playing abilities. With his trademark candelabra resting atop his piano, Liberace played with great ease and glee. His largely female audience also admired Liberace's great devotion to his mother Frances.

His brother George played the violin on the program and acted as his orchestral arranger. In addition to his television show, Liberace sold out many of his live concerts and sold millions of records. He even starred in the film Sincerely Yours , which served as a showcase for his talents. In Las Vegas, Liberace became one of the city's most popular performers and one of its top-paid stars. He became equally famous for the glitz and glamour of his shows and costumes as he was for his music.

In , Liberace was joined on stage by Elvis Presley. Around this time, however, Liberace's personal life was turned into a legal drama.

He had long been derided for his effeminate ways, and he ended up suing a British publication for libel after the magazine implied that he was gay. Liberace later won another court battle against a British columnist over his comments. While he was later revealed to be gay, Liberace worked hard to conceal this fact to maintain his dominantly female following.

While interest in his television show eventually faded, Liberace remained popular with concert-goers. His shows and costumes seemed to get more elaborate and ostentatious with the years. His hands showcased a number of ornate, piano-shaped rings, and he draped himself in long, heavy fur capes. 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.