LIBERACE

In an age when virtually everyone famous behaves outrageously, it is hard to remember just how outrageous Liberace once seemed. Back in the 1970's and 1980's he held court in Las Vegas, performing almost nightly in an odd mix of wondrous piano playing and high camp. Middle-aged women in particular loved him, and were more than prepared to suspend disbelief and take him at his word as an eternal bachelor instead of the promiscuous gay man that he really was. Public homosexuality was widely believed to be the kiss of death in the entertainment industry in those days, particularly in America, and Liberace always denied that he was gay, suing newspapers who suggested otherwise and constructing a complex network of female friends and associates to try and prove otherwise. It was only when he died of an Aids-related illness that the truth came out. Again, it is hard to remember that people felt they had to do that sort of thing only 30 years ago.

Between the 1950's and the 1970's he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, and his Las Vegas shows towards the end brought him in around US$300,000 a week. Much of the money was spent on extravagantly kitsch homes and clothes, huge fur coats and a mansion with pianos in every room. The greater the kitsch, the more his public loved him.

This evening my wife and I saw the new Steven Soderbergh film Behind The Candelabra, which charts the long-term relationship between Liberace and his boyfriend Scott Thorson. It's a workmanlike film, rather than a great one. However, Michael Douglas is brilliant as Liberace; expect him to be nominated for the best actor award at next year's Oscars.  

Walter Blotscher