Liberace

Liberace was a conservative, capitalist, and dedicated Catholic. He adored royalty and grandeur, and loved to socialize with the rich people.

He was homosexual and was quite secretive about it in order to maintain his large female fan base.

On 22 November 1963, he suffered a near fatal renal failure by accidentally breathing in dry cleaning fumes.

Liberace was born on 16 May 1919, in West Allis, Wisconsin. His father, Salvatore Liberace, had emigrated from Italy while his mother, Frances Zuchowska, was from Poland. Salvatore was a French horn playing musician cum factory labourer.

Liberace was a child prodigy and began playing the piano at age four. His father took him and his siblings to various concerts, encouraging them to perform better in classical music. By the age of seven, he could play complicated notes.

Although he was a musical genius, he suffered from speech problems as a child. He was also effeminate, enjoyed cooking instead of sports, and was thus often ridiculed by other children.

At the age of 14, he began training under the guidance of pianist Florence Bettray Kelly. In his teen years, he was able to earn some income by playing popular music in theatres, clubs, weddings, and night clubs.

He attended the Wisconsin College of Music on scholarship. In 1939, he performed the popular tune ‘Three Little Fishes’ in a semi-classical style which was very well received by his audience. It soon became his trademark style. Later in 1940, he played with the Chicago Symphony.

By 1940, Liberace became a popular showman. He reinvented the classics with a touch of popular music, performed with a candelabrum placed on his piano, wore exotic costumes for his shows and even interacted with his audience. By the end of the decade, he was performing in night clubs all over U.S.

Soundies’ – the three-minute American musical videos were starting to get popular and he encashed on it in 1943. The following year, he performed in Las Vegas for the first time.

In 1947, having garnered enough fame, he began performing at local clubs of Los Angeles for celebrities like Rosalind Russell, Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, et al.

Liberace was also keen on establishing a television and movie career. Through his larger than life performances, he got introduced to the Hollywood fraternity. His film debut happened in 1950 when he appeared in Universal’s film, ‘South Sea Sinner’. He also guest starred in ‘Footlight Varieties’ (1951) and ‘Merry Mirthquakes’ (1953).

Skipping the radio medium for lack of visual appeal, he tried his luck next in television. His first breakthrough show happened in 1952 when ‘The Liberace Show’ premiered in Los Angeles and was subsequently aired nationally. The show was a huge success and became immensely popular with female television audience.

In 1952, the television program ‘The Liberace Show’ launched him into musical stardom. Within a couple of years, the show became immensely popular and was broadcasted globally in 20 foreign countries.

The huge success of ‘The Liberace Show’ heightened his record sales. By 1954, he had sold over 400,000 albums. His biggest hit single, ‘Ave Maria’ sold over 300,000 copies. The albums featured his trademark music of classical piano tastefully mixed with popular music.