Liberace

Born Wladziu Valentino Liberace, the pianist emerged as the era’s most extravagantly popular easy-listening keyboardist of the 1960s and 1970s. His theatrical, deliberately campy stage persona and visual presentation frequently concealed extraordinary technical ability.

A musical household shaped his early years; his father, Salvatore, performed French horn with both John Philip Sousa’s Concert Band and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Rather than pursue the same instrument, young Wladziu turned to the piano and quickly displayed prodigious skill. Ignace Paderewski’s enthusiastic endorsement secured him a scholarship to the Wisconsin College of Music at age seven, a grant he held for seventeen years—the longest tenure on record at the institution. By eleven he had appeared as a concert soloist, and during his teens he performed regularly with symphony orchestras.

Eschewing the conventional route of formal classical recitals and academic study, Liberace cultivated a showman’s career instead. At the conclusion of concerts he introduced novelty numbers such as “Mairzy Doats,” and he undertook elocution training to soften his Polish accent and broaden his appeal.

Throughout World War II he entertained troops in overseas service units. After returning stateside he worked clubs and dance-band engagements, billing himself simply as Liberace. In 1940 he relocated to New York City and became a steady presence on the local club circuit until the Musicians Union suspended him for improvising counterpoints to records played through the house sound system. He then moved to California, where a hotel performance attracted Decca executives who offered a recording contract. Their attempt to position him as a big-band leader proved unsuccessful. In the late 1940s Columbia Records signed him; under producer Mitch Miller he cut an exaggerated version of “September Song,” and a simultaneous live-concert album introduced him to a national audience.

During the 1950s Liberace reached stardom through recordings, television, and film. His visual style grew ever more flamboyant—rhinestones, gold lamé, furs, and sequins—while his repertoire ranged from Gershwin and Broadway melodies to lounge jazz and light classical works, always performed with a candelabra atop the piano. Early in the decade he hosted his own program, The Liberace Show. His popularity crested mid-decade: the 1955 film Sincerely Yours cast him as a deaf concert pianist, the Chordettes referenced him in “Mr. Sandman,” and he published a cookbook. In 1956 he marked twenty-five years in entertainment with a lavish Hollywood Bowl concert and gave three Royal Command Performances in the United Kingdom.

That same year brought complications when Daily Mirror columnist Cassandra suggested he was homosexual. Liberace successfully sued the paper yet attempted to moderate his presentation; audiences, however, preferred the familiar kitsch, prompting a return to full theatricality by the early 1960s.

Although no further pop hits followed in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s, Liberace continued to fill concert halls worldwide and move substantial quantities of records despite lukewarm critical regard. In 1982 a former chauffeur and bodyguard filed a palimony suit that was ultimately settled out of court. He remained a widely recognized entertainer until his death in 1987.