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<b>Published Caption: </b>NEVADA TRAVELER
Rich Moreno
<b>Photographer's Caption: </b>SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA
<b>Photographer's Caption: </b>SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERA
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ENLARGE
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There is nothing understated about the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Housed in a building with an entrance that resembles a giant piano, the museum is a celebration of the life of the performer who didn’t seem to understand the meaning of over-the-top.
Wladziu Valentino Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin in 1919. He was a musical prodigy, memorizing difficult piano pieces by the age of seven and performing publicly in clubs while still a teenager.
In 1941, at the age of 21, he played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and toured the Midwest. Shortly after, however, he shifted from traditional classical music and began performing what he described as “classical music with the boring parts left out.”
His first Nevada connection came shortly after when he was booked at the Last Frontier in 1944 and soon became a regular headliner in Las Vegas showrooms.
During the 50s and 60s, the entertainer, who also had a TV show in the 1950s, began juicing up his act with more and more outrageous costumes, extravagant, custom-decorated pianos, candelabrum (which became his signature) and other visual gimmicks. By the late 1950s, Liberace was the highest paid performer in Las Vegas.
In 1976, Liberace founded the non-profit Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts, which still provides music scholarships to colleges throughout the country. The Liberace Museum opened in 1979 and continues to serve as a key funding arm for the foundation.
Liberace has been dead since 1987, but crowds still flock to his Las Vegas museum and shrine. There, they find three exhibit areas spread across two buildings in a shopping center that was owned by Liberace.
The main museum space contains the entertainer’s collections of cars and pianos while the smaller annex houses his extravagant outfits and jewelry as well as a re-creation of his Palm Springs bedroom and office. The latter includes a massive inlaid and ormolued Louis XV desk, which once belonged to Czar Nicholas II of Russia.
Adjacent is the Library, which has Liberace’s collection of miniature piano, family photos, letter from friends and sheet music collection.
During his life, Liberace acquired more than vintage 40 pianos, many once owned by other famous pianists. Eighteen are on display, including Chopin’s French Pleyel, built in the early 1800s, an 1860 Giraffe upright piano with an unusual metal harp-shaped frame, George Gershwin’s Chickory Piano and an 1788 Broadwood Grand Piano.
The entertainer also collected cars—he once owned more than 50—and several are featured including a Rolls Royce covered with thousands of shiny mirrors, a 1934 Mercedes Excalibur encrusted with rhinestones and a pink “Volks-Royce”—a custom Volkswagen that resembles a classic Roll Royce car.
The Annex Costume Gallery in the Annex highlights the clothing most associated with Liberace can be seen such as a 125-pound, black mink cape covered with rhinestones (valued at $750,000) and red, white, and blue rhinestone hotpants, which the flamboyant entertainer wore when he performed in New York for the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty.
You can also see Liberace’s outlandish stage jewelry, including a candelabra ring with platinum candlesticks and diamond flames and a unique piano-shaped ring that contains 260 diamonds set in white and yellow gold.
Not surprisingly, the museum has the world’s largest Austrian rhinestone, a gift to Liberace. The stone has 115,000 carats and weighs more than 50 pounds.
Museum walls display framed awards and commendations as well as family photographs, newspaper clippings, personalized photos from other celebrities, performance handbills and a life-size oil painting of Liberace.
A large gift shop offers a wide variety of souvenirs ranging from Liberace tapes, DVDs and videos to piano-themed jewelry.
The Liberace Museum is located at 1775 E. Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas. Donations to the museum are $12.50 for adults, $8.50 for seniors and students with ID and children under 10 are free. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon. To 4 p.m.
Wladziu Valentino Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin in 1919. He was a musical prodigy, memorizing difficult piano pieces by the age of seven and performing publicly in clubs while still a teenager.
In 1941, at the age of 21, he played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and toured the Midwest. Shortly after, however, he shifted from traditional classical music and began performing what he described as “classical music with the boring parts left out.”
His first Nevada connection came shortly after when he was booked at the Last Frontier in 1944 and soon became a regular headliner in Las Vegas showrooms.
During the 50s and 60s, the entertainer, who also had a TV show in the 1950s, began juicing up his act with more and more outrageous costumes, extravagant, custom-decorated pianos, candelabrum (which became his signature) and other visual gimmicks. By the late 1950s, Liberace was the highest paid performer in Las Vegas.
In 1976, Liberace founded the non-profit Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts, which still provides music scholarships to colleges throughout the country. The Liberace Museum opened in 1979 and continues to serve as a key funding arm for the foundation.
Liberace has been dead since 1987, but crowds still flock to his Las Vegas museum and shrine. There, they find three exhibit areas spread across two buildings in a shopping center that was owned by Liberace.
The main museum space contains the entertainer’s collections of cars and pianos while the smaller annex houses his extravagant outfits and jewelry as well as a re-creation of his Palm Springs bedroom and office. The latter includes a massive inlaid and ormolued Louis XV desk, which once belonged to Czar Nicholas II of Russia.
Adjacent is the Library, which has Liberace’s collection of miniature piano, family photos, letter from friends and sheet music collection.
During his life, Liberace acquired more than vintage 40 pianos, many once owned by other famous pianists. Eighteen are on display, including Chopin’s French Pleyel, built in the early 1800s, an 1860 Giraffe upright piano with an unusual metal harp-shaped frame, George Gershwin’s Chickory Piano and an 1788 Broadwood Grand Piano.
The entertainer also collected cars—he once owned more than 50—and several are featured including a Rolls Royce covered with thousands of shiny mirrors, a 1934 Mercedes Excalibur encrusted with rhinestones and a pink “Volks-Royce”—a custom Volkswagen that resembles a classic Roll Royce car.
The Annex Costume Gallery in the Annex highlights the clothing most associated with Liberace can be seen such as a 125-pound, black mink cape covered with rhinestones (valued at $750,000) and red, white, and blue rhinestone hotpants, which the flamboyant entertainer wore when he performed in New York for the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty.
You can also see Liberace’s outlandish stage jewelry, including a candelabra ring with platinum candlesticks and diamond flames and a unique piano-shaped ring that contains 260 diamonds set in white and yellow gold.
Not surprisingly, the museum has the world’s largest Austrian rhinestone, a gift to Liberace. The stone has 115,000 carats and weighs more than 50 pounds.
Museum walls display framed awards and commendations as well as family photographs, newspaper clippings, personalized photos from other celebrities, performance handbills and a life-size oil painting of Liberace.
A large gift shop offers a wide variety of souvenirs ranging from Liberace tapes, DVDs and videos to piano-themed jewelry.
The Liberace Museum is located at 1775 E. Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas. Donations to the museum are $12.50 for adults, $8.50 for seniors and students with ID and children under 10 are free. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from noon. To 4 p.m.
