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The
finest of Las Vegas's handful of museums is, not surprisingly, the one
most in keeping with the city's sheer exhibitionism. The Liberace
Museum, two miles east of the Strip, is a fabulous romp through the
life and times of the former Walter Liberace (1919-87), who changed his
name to a single word on the advice of fellow-Polish musical maestro
Paderewski.
Liberace originally wanted to have his museum in his hometown of
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, but couldn't buy the house he had in mind, and
plumped for scattering it across three separate buildings in a small Las Vegas mall instead. A framed contract from 1940 shows how he started
out, playing fie hours a night, six nights a week for $45 in
Milwaukee's Plankington Red Room . Yellowing newspaper cuttings and
family photographs trace his subsequent progress from sensitive youth to
a caped Dracula, concealed beneath layers of pancake makeup. Alongside
pictures of Liberace with Elvis at the New Frontier in 1957 and of
showbiz pals ranging from Cary Grant to Bill Cosby, hang a fine
collection of images of the pope, the queen, and Charles and Diana not
with Liberace. You can also enjoy film of Liberace on stage with Debbie
Reynolds, performing a frighteningly soulless rendition of "Your Love Is
Taking Me Higher," and admire the conviction with which he
advertised
Blatz Beer in 1951.
With
success came scandal - he was ruthlessly hounded by the press - but also
phenomenal wealth. His collection of pianos ranges from an instrument
dating from 1788, via one thought to have been played by Chopin for
Liszt, to a giraffe-shaped piano with an upright harp-like frame, and
there's also a fine array of cars, including a white hounds'-tooth
London cab driven by an oversized white teddy bear.
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Home furnishings on display include a horrendously vulgar desk that
belonged to the last czar of Russia, and Liberace's personal bedroom
suite, equipped with two single beds.1775 E Tropicana Ave.
Phone: 798-5595, . Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm
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