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Apr. 12, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Liberace museum strives to keep its sparkle after 30 years

Facility supports scholarship program

By SONYA PADGETT
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Video

ANNIVERSARY PARTY

In honor of the Liberace Museum's 30th anniversary, admission will cost 30 cents on Wednesday.

The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with free performances from Liberace scholars and winners of Liberace piano playing competitions offered throughout the day.

The museum will debut an anniversary exhibit scheduled to run through May 31. Composer and "Jersey Boys" pianist Philip Fortenberry will perform his "Liberace and Me" cabaret show at 1 p.m.

Starting at 5 p.m., the public can view red carpet arrivals for a fundraising concert, "Liberace Through the Years -- The Friends and the Music." Lorraine Hunt-Bono, Dennis Bono, "Jersey Boys" cast members Keith Thompson and Fortenberry, along with others from the local entertainment community, will be on hand.

Tickets for the show, which will run from 7 to 9 p.m., are available for $50. Call 798-5595, ext. 14. All proceeds benefit the Liberace Foundation.


Fans of Liberace examine some of his pianos on display in the Liberace Museum. The museum is preparing to celebrate its 30th anniversary on Wednesday.
Photos by Jason Bean/Review-Journal



Several of Liberace's stage costumes are on display at the Liberace Museum.



Liberace Museum visitors are seen reflected in a mirrored piano that the performer favored.

It might be the cheesiest overnight bag in existence, a PVC and satin duffel splashed with a photo of Liberace taking a bubble bath.

It certainly gets some looks when Darin Hollingsworth uses it, which he does, often. So often, in fact, that he needs to replace it. But if carrying this loud man-purse into airports and hotels gives him the opening he needs to spread the word about Liberace, then it's well worth any hit his cool factor may take.

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    • "I do it to be the ambassador for the organization," says Hollingsworth, president of the Liberace Foundation since 2006.

    It's tough to keep the image of the entertainer, showman, philanthropist and musician alive, especially when the man himself is dead, but the foundation has a strong marketing tool in the form of the Liberace Museum. The big trick is getting people into the museum, which celebrates its 30th anniversary Wednesday.

    About 50,000 people tour the museum annually, says museum director Tanya Combs. The people who come through watched Liberace on television, saw him in concert, or heard the museum is a fun attraction, she adds.

    Then there are those people who know Liberace, with his bejeweled costumes, larger-than-life jewelry and penchant for flashy shows, as the king of Las Vegas kitsch.

    Liberace performed in Las Vegas for the first time in 1944, playing the piano at the Last Frontier Hotel. He dubbed himself Mr. Showmanship in 1956 during an engagement at the Riviera, and made Las Vegas his official residence.

    He represented a style of entertainment that became associated with Las Vegas, says Jeff Koep, dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Koep served five years as chairman of the board for the Liberace Foundation before becoming a regular board member recently.

    Liberace was so good at being a showman that people forgot he was an accomplished pianist, Koep notes.

    "One of our problems the foundation has faced has been to try and educate people about Liberace's contributions" to entertainment, Koep says. "The question has been, as a board, how do we sort of rebrand and refreshen his image? That's a difficult thing to do, to try and get attention over someone who is no longer alive."

    The museum is the obvious answer, as Liberace's life represents several decades of entertainment history.

    Liberace opened the museum in 1979, three years after establishing his foundation for helping students of the arts. It gave fans the opportunity to see the clothes, cars, jewels and other trappings that Liberace used during his shows, while helping to fund the scholarships awarded by the foundation, Hollingsworth says. All proceeds from the museum still support the foundation's mission. So far, 2,500 scholars have received $5.2 million in awards.

    Liberace was famous for his elaborate costumes covered in beads, jewels, sequins and fur. He wore capes that were sometimes taken offstage in Rolls-Royces, and flashed huge rings and jewels to his audiences, asking: "Do you want to see them? You paid for them."

    Over the years, the museum hasn't changed much, Combs says. It expanded in 2002 to include the museum's original small building on the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Spencer Street and part of the strip mall behind it. His cars, pianos, clothes and jewels remain on display.

    It's the people who have changed. His fans are aging -- Liberace's heyday was during the 1950s, '60s and '70s -- and there's not much beyond some YouTube videos and the museum to expand his fan base.

    The board is trying to define the museum's future, Hollingsworth says. The important thing is to get people to come through the doors. In an effort to attract more locals, the museum started Second Sunday, a promotional day in which locals can tour the museum for free, the second Sunday of every month.

    As for reaching an audience beyond Las Vegas? Hollingsworth wouldn't offer specifics, but hinted at a touring collection.

    "Wouldn't it be great if Liberace went on tour again?" he asks.

    Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.

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    suzette wrote on April 24, 2009 12:50 PM: I spoke to the Assistant of Playwright Larry Myers who told me people were trying to get ahold of his script. Naughty naughty big guns. Don t pick on the nice folks! Shame on you


    suzanne wrote on April 24, 2009 12:48 PM: Playwright Larry Myers has written a G rated yet compelling entertainment about the world's greatest piano tickler!

    I caught sight of Myers in a reading of his play "Liberace's Hospitalization" & then heard not only some Broadway show but hollywood was trying to get hold of his script! I ve seen people take notes at his plays & steal his one liners. Myers is not only a first arte playwright but a first rate actor!

    I understand that the guy who got the

    big chunk of change from the POPEL /US magazine fortune$$ of Cranston Jones via his son Baird is hotsing abook signing party for Myers.


    suzanne wrote on April 24, 2009 12:46 PM: Playwright Larry Myers has written a G rated yet compelling entertainment about the world's greatest piano tickler!
    I caught sight of Myers in a reading of his play "Liberace's Hospitalization" & then heard not only some Broadway show but hollywood was trying to get hold of his script! I ve seen people take notes at his plays & steal his one liners. Myers is not only a first arte playwright but a first rate actor!
    I understand that the guy who got the
    big chunk of change from the POPEL /US magazine fortune$$ of Cranston Jones via his son Baird is hotsing abook signing party for Myers.


    carmella wrote on April 24, 2009 07:37 AM: Playwright Larry Myers
    "Liberace's Hospitalization" previews May 16 in NYC at a book signing party for MYERS. He has published his accalimed "twitter Theater" & "Mary Anderson's Encore."
    Rumor has it MYERS will play Liberace on a tour of not for profit theaters


    Brigid wrote on April 15, 2009 11:23 AM: What a wonderful legacy for students of the arts! Thank you to Liberace and all those who keep the museum and foundation running!


    Tom Cutler wrote on April 12, 2009 12:46 PM: Good for you Lib! Congrats on 30 wunderful years!


    sin den? wrote on April 12, 2009 11:10 AM: couldn't pay me: the blue-haired old women who run the Liberace Museum are "sinners"? What do they do, cheat at Bingo?


    wouldn't pay you wrote on April 12, 2009 11:05 AM: Couldn't pay me: If you don't like Liberace, don't visit the Liberace Museum. It's just a hunch, but I'm guessing his endowed Foundation will ensure the doors are open, even without your business.

    Let me guess, you're Barbara Cegavske's senate campaign manager and after you've closed the Liberace Museum, you're gonna get HGTV and Will and Grace off the air? Good luck with that.


    couldn't pay me wrote on April 12, 2009 10:41 AM: You couldn't pay me to go to the Liberace sin den. Oh but he is still a role model for so many, what a shame. Liberace is dead but the sickness lives on!


    Nevada Sen. Barbara Cegavske Hates All Things "Gay" wrote on April 12, 2009 09:33 AM: I doubt the Liberace Museum ever gets involved in political issues, but there's one issue before the State Legislature that's relevant to the Foundation.

    State Sen. Barbara Cegavske and a handful of other short-sighted politicians support the "right" of hotels and restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip to discriminate against people based on sexual orientation.

    In other words, if Cegavske had her way, there would be no Liberace. The Riviera or any other Strip property could have sent Liberace packing for being "too gay."

    The truth of course is that Liberace was a gay man who was the highest paid entertainer on the Strip, precisely because he was gay. He made fun of himself to the delight of thousands of fans. In addition, he endowed a Foundation that has provided millions of dollars in scholarship money to young people in Nevada and elsewhere.

    Liberace made a much greater contribution to the State of Nevada than Barbara Cegavske and her narrow minded supporters ever will.

    Politicians have no right to force their own personal religious views down the throats of Nevadans. Politicians who support discrimination against gays and lesbians should be voted out of office at the next election!


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