Segment from The Liberace Show Christmas Show Join Liberace singing at the piano as he plays popular Christmas carols including... O Little Town Of Bethlehem O Holy Night along with interludes and inspirational thoughts, and closing with family and friends singing Jingle Bells together, with Santa Claus. Wladziu (or Władziu) Valentino Liberace (/lɪbərˈɑːtʃi/ lib-ər-ah-chee; May 16, 1919 -- February 4, 1987), best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist. In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned. During the 1950s--1970s he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world and embraced a lifestyle of flamboyant excess both on and off the stage. Liberace, known as Lee to his friends and Walter to family, was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb, to Frances Zuchowska (August 31, 1892 -- November 1, 1980), who was of Polish descent, and Salvatore (Sam) Liberace (December 9, 1885 -- April 1, 1977), an emigrant from Formia, Italy. He had a twin who died at birth and he was born with a caul, which in his family, as in many societies, was taken as a sign of genius and an exceptional future. Liberaces father was a musician who played the French horn in bands and movie theaters but sometimes had to work as a factory worker or laborer. While his father encouraged music in the family, his mother was not musical and thought music lessons and a record player to be luxuries they couldnt afford, causing angry family disputes. Liberace later stated, My dads love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art. Liberace began playing the piano at four and while his father took his children to concerts to further expose them to music, he was also a taskmaster demanding high standards from the children in practice and performance. Liberaces prodigious talent was in evidence early. He memorized difficult pieces by age seven. He studied the technique of the famous Polish pianist and later family friend Ignacy Paderewski and at eight met him backstage at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. I was intoxicated by the joy I got from the great virtuosos playing. My dreams were filled with fantasies of following his footsteps...Inspired and fired with ambition, I began to practice with a fervor that made my previous interest in the piano look like neglect. The Great Depression was hard on the family financially. The early-teenage Liberace also suffered from a speech problem and from the taunts of neighborhood children who mocked his avoidance of sports and his fondness for the piano and for cooking. Liberace focused fiercely on his piano playing and blossomed under the instruction of music teacher Florence Kelly who guided his musical development for ten years. He gained experience playing popular music in theaters, on local radio, for dancing classes, for clubs, and for weddings. He played jazz with a school group called the Mixers in 1934, then other groups later. Liberace also performed in cabarets and strip clubs, and even though his parents did not approve, he was earning a tidy living during hard times. For a while he adopted the stage name Walter Busterkeys. He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and he became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. By then, he was already showing the knack of turning his eccentricities into attention-getting virtues and he grew more popular at school, though mostly as an object of comic relief. In a formal classical music competition in 1937, Liberace was praised for his flair and showmanship. At the end of a traditional classical concert in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1939, Liberace played his first requested encore, Three Little Fishes, which he played in the style of several different classical composers. The 20-year-old played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on January 15, 1940, at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, performing Liszts Second Piano Concerto under the baton of Hans Lange, for which he received strong reviews. He also toured in the Midwest. Between 1942 and 1944, Liberace moved away from straight classical performance and reinvented his act to one featuring pop with a bit of classics or as he also called it classical music with the boring parts left out. In the early 1940s, he struggled in New York City but by the mid- and late 1940s, he was performing in night clubs in major cities around the United States, largely abandoning the classical concertgoer.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 21:10:22 +0000
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