Long before Madonna and GaGa , Liberace was a star known by one name.  He was a classicly trained pianist who rocketed to fame as a flamboyant entertaniner who appeared in movies and toured with his oversized grand piano to the major venues of the world. His sense of humor and his outrageous  sequined, bejeweled wardrobe were his trademarks. At one time he was listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the top earning musician and pianist on the planet. Very few of his many fans knew he was actually a fine classical musician. They only thought of him as “Mr. Showmanship.”  He created a foundation to help musians and opened the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas in 1979. Liberace died in 1987 at the age of 67.  Yesterday the foundation announced it was closing the museum- a victim of the huge attendance fall off as a result of the recession, which has hit Las Vegas with great intensity. The announcement sparked the rememberance of Liberace’s visit to Chipp in the late 1960s- it could have been 1968,1969. We had created a limited edition of a very edgie summer jacket. It was made of 4 1/2″  patches of 6 different white and blue cotton prints which were sewn togeather- stripes, polka dots, and geometrics. The jacket was featured in one of our front windows.  My father and I were out of the store at a meeting when Liberace came in.  When we returned one of our salesman rushed up to us tell us we had missed the excitement- Liberace had walked in and bought one of the jackets, paid for it with cash, and carried it away with him. My father got very upset.  He said that if we were carrying something that appealed to Liberace we were doing something wrong.

Tags: Liberace, Liberace Museum

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