Mr Showmanship

Liberace’s dining room

Simpering Liberace was a darling of the tinkering ivories and a litigious protector of his sexuality. A gaudy gaiety of a man. An entertainer who craved love and affection from his audience and pounced/ponced about the stage with wanton, nay gay, abandon. His glitzy showmanship gathered many fans and equally drew derision and side swipes/sleights. Throughout his life he vigorously maintained and jealously protected his brand of ‘heterosexuality’ and woe betide the journalist who printed otherwise. His private life was not to be divulged and he led a life of genuine heartache as he tried to mesh his public persona with a very messy and often sticky private life.

In 1956 a British journalist described Liberace in the following unflattering terms: “A deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love". While not explicitly stating the obvious, the description strongly implied homosexuality. Liberace sued the tabloid, the ‘Daily Mirror' and won the libel case. Under oath he declared his heterosexuality.

He was eventually ‘outed’ by a spurned lover although Liberace successfully defended the subsequent court case for palimony. On the 4th of February 1987 Liberace died from AIDS, although the diagnosis was not mentioned on the death certificate and only became manifest at autopsy.

A great showman; a man of contradiction; a man who was obviously homosexual but because of the power of celebrity, money and litigation maintained an air of childlike sexual innocence. In reality Liberace was a tortured but relentless and promiscuous sexual predator.

I hear tell that Liberace was embalmed before he was buried. I wonder if he would burn well?