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Liberace Museum
Liberace Museum
Tantamount with Las Vegas, Liberace was glittery and garish, his style and glamour constantly at war with vulgarity and excess. So it is fitting that a museum that honours the life and career of Mr. Showmanship be housed in an unassuming strip mall just outside the famed Las Vegas strip.
Adopted Home
Las Vegas was one of the adopted homes of the late Liberace (he had other houses in Palm Springs, Hollywood, and Lake Tahoe) and the city where so much of his long and storied career developed, beginning with an engagement at the Last Frontier in 1944.
The Grand Opening
The non-profit museum opened in 1979 while Liberace was still alive (he died of AIDS complications in 1987) and its self-indulgence and egocentricity won't surprise any of his fans, Liberace, after all, was known to say through his gleaming smile to fans in the front row as they ogled at his jewels, "Like 'em? You paid for them!" The museum, one of Las Vegas' most popular attractions, is the key funding arm of the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts which has over the past two decades awarded more than $3.5 million dollars in scholarship grants to 96 of the nation's premier arts institutions.
Liberace-The Eccentric
Over-the-top costumes and jewellery, fine antiques and odd collectibles, multimillion-dollar assortment of pianos and cars shows the full, blaring evidence of Liberace's lifetime of gayness and eccentricity. The museum offers other shrines to Mr. Showmanship's excess, dozens of pianos, rhinestone pianos, a Chickering once owned by George Gershwin, a hand-painted Chopin piano from 1880s Paris, greet visitors upon entering the low-ceilinged building that looks more suited to selling discount furniture. In an adjacent area is his collection of cars, among them, a 1971 hot pink Volkswagen used in an "Easter Extravaganza" show, and a 1954 custom red-white-and-blue Rolls Royce used for the same Statute of Liberty Anniversary show in which the pianist wore his hotpants outfit.
The Artifacts
Even visitors who are not particularly fans of Liberace will enjoy the artifacts that chronicle Liberace's career. There are Emmys for his popular 1950s television series, film stills, sheet music, hundreds of record albums, concert programs and photographs of Liberace with a virtual who's-who from the worlds of music, movies, Broadway, politics, and philanthropy. There's also a display that traces Liberace's family tree and pays homage to his immigrant parents who encouraged all four of their children to play music from a young age. Born Wladziu (Walter) Valentino Liberace in Wisconsin in 1919, young Liberace began studying the piano at age four, and by the time he was seven he won a prestigious music scholarship.
The Second Building
A short sprint across a parking lot is the second building, where visitors will find the collection of Liberace's fabled jewellery and costumes, such as the gold dinner jacket that he boldly wore at the opening of Las Vegas' Riviera Hotel in 1955. This area also contains a room that replicates Liberace's bedroom at his Palm Springs estate. There is the Czar Nicholas desk, Liberace's most prized antique, and his twin beds. When asked why he had twin beds, Liberace is said to have replied, "One for me and one for the dogs." It seemed fitting that while viewing the bedroom, the piped-in Liberace music that fills the museum began his version of Gershwin's "The Man I Love."
Location
The Liberace Museum at 1775 E. Tropicana Avenue, Las Vegas, NV is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Call 702-798-5595 for more information.
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