Liberace

Reported in the "Philadelphia Inquirer" that his museum closed in October 2010.

He was posthumously awarded a star on the Las Vegas (NV) Walk of Stars on February 1, 2005.

As reported in the June 2001 issue "A&E Biography" Magazine, he was so vain about his baldness that he would go to bed wearing one of his hairpieces, even on hot nights. According to the same article, he once almost refused to have a facelift when the doctor asked him to take his toupee off.

He was posthumously awarded a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs (CA) Walk of Stars on January 7, 1994.

Is portrayed by Victor Garber in Liberace: Behind the Music (1988), Andrew Robinson in Liberace (1988) and Michael Douglas in Behind the Candelabra (2013).

He continued performing until the fall of 1986, despite suffering from heart disease and emphysema during most of the 1980s.

His last concert performance was at Radio City Music Hall on November 2, 1986.

A closeted homosexual his entire life, Liberace was secretly diagnosed with AIDS sometime in August 1985, which he also kept secret from the public until the day he died.

The year 1978 brought the opening of "The Liberace Museum" in Las Vegas, Nevada, which serves as key funding for the Liberace Foundation. The profits from the museum provide scholarship money for financially needy college musicians.

In 1977, Liberace founded the non-profit "Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts".

In 1976, during the height of the American Bicentennial, he once performed wearing red, white and blue hot pants. It made headlines around the world.

In the 1970s he spent at least $100,000 a year on his sparkling, brocaded, diamond and jeweled costumes.

In 1969 he was named one of the five highest paid entertainers in show business.

The episodes of the television series Batman (1966) on which he guest-starred as Chandel/Harry, Batman: The Devil's Fingers (1966) and Batman: The Dead Ringers (1966), were the highest-rated in the series' history. 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 1961 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 1950s Rolls-Royce convertible painted with an American flag design.

The phrase "I cried all the way to the bank!" was said to be first coined by him after he sued and won a $22,000 settlement from the "London Daily Mirror" in 1959.

His second movie, Sincerely Yours (1955), opened in 1955, and Liberace wrote his best-selling autobiography, "Liberace", in 1972. His first book, "Liberace Cooks", went into seven printings.

When he opened Las Vegas' Riviera Casino-Hotel in 1954, he was the city's highest paid entertainer. That concert was the first one where he wore extravagant costumes--in this case, a gold lame jacket.

In 1952, Liberace Christmas Show (1952), a syndicated television program, turned Liberace into a musical symbol.

It began as a summertime replacement for The Dinah Shore Show (1951), but after two years, the show was one of the most popular on TV. It was carried by 217 American stations and could be seen in 20 foreign countries. Sold-out live appearances at Madison Square Garden enhanced the pianist's popularity even more. Soon, Liberace added flamboyant costumes and expensive ornaments to his already unique performances.

South Sea Sinner (1950), a movie with Shelley Winters, was Liberace's film debut.

He played a honky tonk pianist in the movie, which opened in 1950.

By 1940, Liberace was traveling with his custom-made piano, on top of which he would place his candelabrum. He then took Paderewski's advice and dropped Wladziu and Valentino to become simply Liberace.

In 1939, after a classical recital, Liberace's audience requested the popular tune, "Three Little Fishes". Liberace seized the opportunity and performed the tune with a semi-classical style which the audience loved. Soon, this unique style of playing the piano got Liberace bookings in large nightclubs.

Most remembered for his extravagant costumes and trademark candelabra placed on the lids of his flashy pianos, Liberace was loved by his audiences for his music talent and unique showmanship. He was born as Wladziu Valentino Liberace on May 16, 1919, into a musical family, in Wisconsin. His mother, Frances Liberace (née Zuchowski), whose parents were Polish, played the piano. His father, Salvatore Liberace, an immigrant from Formia, Italy, played the French horn for the Milwaukee Symphony. His siblings, George Liberace, Angie Liberace and Rudy Liberace, also had musical ability. Liberace's own extraordinary natural talent became evident when he learned to play the piano, by ear, at the age of four. Although Salvatore tried to discourage his son's interest in the piano, praises from Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a famous Polish pianist, helped the young musician follow his musical career. As a teenager, Liberace earned wages playing popular tunes at movie theaters and speakeasies. Despite being proud of his son's accomplishments, Salvatore strictly opposed Liberace's preference for popular music over the classics. Pianist Florence Bettray Kelly took control of Liberace's classical training when he was 14. He debuted as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony, under the direction of Dr. Frederick Stock. At age 17, Liberace joined the Works Progress Administration Symphony Orchestra. He received a scholarship to attend the Wisconsin College of Music.