The Mighty Liberace
Posted by Dirty Harry on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Reader elizabethe writes in The Muppet Christmas Carol thread:
The Muppet Show is hysterical and really smart. It wasn’t afraid to take risks either. Liberace was on once and they devoted almost the entire show to a straight up piano concert.
Wow. That loosened a memory.
I saw Liberace in February of 1986, just a month shy of my twentieth birthday. It was one of mine and The Hot Little Number I Call Mrs. Harry’s first dates. We were just friends then. I, of course, was only going along with that nonsense in the hopes that 22 years later we’d be married and shacked up like, you know, we are now.
Since, we’ve seen many of The Greats: Sinatra, Springsteen, Tina Turner, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Tom Petty, Neil Diamond, Clapton, Santana, Bob Seger, Aerosmith, The Stones… But Liberace was by far the best time I’ve ever had at a live show. The man was an extraordinarily gifted pianist and performer. Two of the best hours of my life. Liberace spread joy like a well-tailored wizard, and you could tell that’s what he lived for. What I wouldn’t give to have captured on tape that little concert at The Riverside Theatre in downtown Milwaukee — but a few miles from where Liberace was born.
Even the intermission performers were fabulous.
Sadly, the details of the night have all but vanished. What I do remember is that after it was over my face hurt from smiling, my gut from laughing, and for days after I felt as though life was full of joyous possibilities.
Couldn’t wait to see him again, and was very, very saddened to hear of his death almost a year to the day of the show we had been fortunate enough to attend.
Still have the ticket stub.
Are there any left who just want to make us feel good?
ADDED: According to Wikipedia, Liberace was both a devout Catholic and a political conservative.
Filed in General |
John McClainon 10 Dec 2008 at 12:11 pm 1“I wish my brother George was here”
Die Hard Fan
maatkareon 10 Dec 2008 at 12:43 pm 2Anyone going to Las Vegas should take time out to visit the Liberace Museum off the Strip–it’s a great attraction.
Grofeon 10 Dec 2008 at 1:11 pm 3This may sound strange, but I felt really good after a Collective Soul show. The next night I saw Robert Plant (who was great too) but somehow the CS show stayed with me. They just seemed really happy to be there and gave all they had. I know this doesn’t really fit but thought I’d share it anyway.
Zundfolgeon 10 Dec 2008 at 1:37 pm 4No because those that are left are left and there is no “feel good” to the left except for a small zone between your navel and your knees (and then only if its PC).
H. Wood Bigshoton 10 Dec 2008 at 2:36 pm 5I saw Liberace when I was a ten year old in Houston. Never forget that white rhinestone outfit.
As an aside to Harry’s list of Greats, probably the best concert I have ever seen was The Bee Gees. The Bee Gees you say?
Yep, it was 1979. My dad bought six tickets for me and two buddies to take our girlfriends. We went under extreme protest.
The show was terrific-great harmonies, all their sixties stuff.
For their encore, they came down a ramp from the level above the platform. They started playing just the music to ‘You should Be Dancing”, just the music. Went on for about five or six minutes-nothing but the music.
Then every light went out-and a spotlight lit up the top of the ramp. There stood John Travolta-he busted into his moves from Saturday Night Fever…the roof absolutely blew off the place! It was un-freaking-believable…
Tar Heel Momon 10 Dec 2008 at 2:36 pm 6I remember seeing him in the early ’80s on Donahue: there he sat at the piano, with the candelabra and the rhinestone ensemble and THAT HAIR. At one point he got up and approached the little blue-haired ladies giggling with excitement in the front row. He held out his hands, dripping with rings and enormous jewels, and told the ladies, “They’re real, but go ahead and touch ‘em - after all, you paid for them,” and flashed that million-watt smile.
What a charmer!
Johnny Ed's Babyon 10 Dec 2008 at 2:52 pm 7Growing up in the ’60’s I remember being entertained by Liberace whenever he turned up on tv. As I became a teenage my friends all made fun of him as too square and corny but I still liked him.
The idea that he was gay never crossed my mind - I never thought of him as anything other than an entertainer on a stage with his piano. Thank goodness we didn’t have the internet back then or we would all have too much personal information on people that just wanted to entertain us. Like Jack Benny, Bob Hope and other entertainers from the pre-Bruce era, you never had to worry about a five year old watching him.
As a performer I think he deserves the highest praise - he was always entertaining.
Joan of Argghh!on 10 Dec 2008 at 3:01 pm 8I’ll always remember his light-up hot pants and fur robes. Oh, how the little old ladies laughed and squealed!
Also can remember his rendition of Three Little Fiddies performed after the stylings of Brahms, Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. Awesome.
billypaintbrushon 10 Dec 2008 at 3:28 pm 9Boy, some needed joy for the Christmas season. like the wikipedia says, he played the classics the way people wanted to hear them, with fun and leaving out the boring parts.
,,, and now back to Michael Caine and the Fozziwig Rubber Chicken Factory
bradon 10 Dec 2008 at 4:23 pm 10Loved him as a kid, when a man can have kids loving to watch him play the piano, then he must be one heck of an entertainer and Liberace was.
ChristopherMCon 10 Dec 2008 at 4:45 pm 11Lots of women just adored the guy at one time. This was, of course, before the invention of gaydar.;)
maatkareon 10 Dec 2008 at 5:04 pm 12My mom certainly wasn’t fooled, and Liberace successfully sued and English tabloid for even suggesting he was gay. AT the museum they scrupulously avoid mentioning his personal life at all, and do not refer to his dying of AIDS. His foundation still gives a lot of money away for music scholarships, but it’s fun to see the rhinestone covered cars and pianos.
maatkareon 10 Dec 2008 at 5:04 pm 13oops–sued ‘an’ English tabloid.
bwbandyon 10 Dec 2008 at 7:25 pm 14I remember that episode of “The Muppet Show” as a kid and I thought it was great. Amazing the stuff you run across on this site.
Don’t ever stop. I look forward to reading this site daily.
Buck Turgidsonon 10 Dec 2008 at 8:27 pm 15I don’t know if it is true, but according to some TV movie I paused on for about 5 minutes while channel surfing, Liberace loaned Elvis a jacket at some show they played together and thus was born the rhinestone Elvis.
Bubbaon 11 Dec 2008 at 6:36 am 16Liberace’s cool, but any discussion of pianist-and-entertainer’s who leave the entire audience smiling from ear to ear must also include Victor Borge.
About major musical acts who have the same effect now, I’d say that U2 and Coldplay come closest to producing shows that are truly joyful, and Weird Al Yankovic’s shows are fun for any age group that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
But, for my buck, the most consistent source of joy from the performance arts is catching one of the Bard’s comedies, at Atlanta’s New American Shakespeare Tavern:
http://www.shakespearetavern.com/
You get dinner while you’re there — traditional pub fare, including things like shepherd’s pie, or Scotch eggs for MacBeth — and they present their plays with the desire to honor what they playright originally intended, but with an enthusiasm that really connects with the audience.
I couldn’t recommend the Tavern more strongly.
Robert Lindseyon 11 Dec 2008 at 9:03 am 17Reminds me of the Bloom County cartoons where Steve Dallas accidentally lets his mom know that Liberace isn’t walking the straight and narrow. She’s devastated.
I agree about Victor Borge. Very funny man.