Inner-View; Interview with Liberace

Interview with your host. Just kind of sitting around here with a man that you probably would recognize even if he didn't have all the furs and the diamonds because maybe it's the smile that makes it I don't know. But as you see it's Liberace. Thank you. Yeah well thank you. That was a try at that. Yeah that's right we didn't ask him to play but I wanted you to know and folks I don't know if you know but I want you to know that this well when grand piano was donated to Channel 10 by the Liberace Foundation Las Vegas 1980. How's that for. Entertainers are forever being called on to do things and forever being asked to give this and we don't. But a lot of entertainers

ignore it and hide from it. But you have a reputation of being generous in that way. Why. Well I am I feel privileged that they asked me first of all and. I can't do everything that they want me to do because there's a lot of benefits. And I think they sometimes have benefits for diseases that I haven't discovered yet. But I do try there. Spread it out so that. I can do my part the best way I know and that is to sort of conserve myself and just do they really. Important and needy ones ours do the cerebral palsy. And I get a lot of requests for articles that they can auction off you know at fundraising things and sometimes they get an amazing price for

some of these things I. I remember one incident where they they're having some kind of a tennis tournament for charity. And. I did a gag tennis tournament with Bobby Riggs one time and in order to make it finally I had a tennis outfit all jewelled and sequined and I only wore it that one time. So that was when I thought well this is a perfect thing they donate and they got $10000 for it you know because I wore it and it's you know that I love doing things like that and of course the museum is probably the best way I know of for funding. Universities are seven of them now that we give scholarship funds to through the museum and the Liberace Foundation. I also saw that you walked into a florist not so long ago

they were doing. Arrangements and of course your fancy and all of a sudden you put your own name on it for special designs I got that right. Yes they're going to put out a Liberace collection of glamorous floral arrangements that people can put in their homes and they're all named after musical compositions like Clair de Lune and Moonlight Sonata and concerto Rhapsody and. There are silk flowers that are glamorized with Ride stones and the sparkle and it seems to fit the modern deck car of a lot of people say well the museum is something and it just so happens as if you didn't know here we have George came in high tree Good luck to you. I'm very apt to be here in the audience and listening to my brother here. Tell us about. Well first of all tell us about this because I asked George would he bring over a can of

lager and. And sure enough you tell us about this one. Well this year we're I'm going to get my you know we brought this from the museum it's one of the highlights of all the people that come in because one of the first candelabras 1947 is the date on it then it's quite heavy. You know I grabbed and it took both hands and a lot doing to bring it over here and one of the boys said one of the candles a little crooked I said don't try to straighten it out might fall apart. I said that's it from the Liberace Museum. Why why the Candelabra. Well I saw a movie about 945 call a song to remember in which Chopin was portrayed by Cornell Weill and in one scene in the movie Merle Oberon carries and candelabra places and Chopin's piano and it was one

of the highlights of the movie I remember it being so beautiful and here was this great composer sitting in this dock and throw away like she walked there with the Candelabra suddenly everything lit up in his music. It has seemed to sparkle more and everything so I thought I'd say that's a great gimmick so the next day I went out looking for a candelabra and I found one on 3rd Avenue and they are in an antique shop and it had real candles It was electrifying. And I opened that the Persian room in New York at the Plaza Hotel. And I just before I made my entrance a darkened the room and then I didn't have Merle Oberon but I haven't an attendance. Come in and place the candelabra on the piano and suddenly the audience who had been chatting and

talking and suddenly became very hush hush and very quiet and attentive and I began my show and I found it was a great attention getter and almost overnight it became a trademark because the press in New York picked up by some of them spelled my name wrong but they said he's the piano player with the Candelabra. And suddenly I found that people were imitating me. A. Comediennes and all that and they easiest person in the world to imitate because all I have to do is walk out with a candelabra instead of the piano and everybody knew it was me. But what a wonderful thing to say to the you know your name Jeff Sullivan and you sing and in Jubilee at the MGM. Right now singers you know and I know singers no matter how good they are become a dime a dozen. You know in the marketplace piano players with a smile

become a dime a dozen in the marketplace so the old adage is you gotta have a gimmick. And this does that seem to you like the key. I don't need you I tell you that to me I don't know. I must thank Liberace because I think he's probably responsible for my going into show business when I was a kid growing up I used to watch your half hour television show. I grew up in Tennessee I think it came on at about 10:00 in the morning there or something. And you always look so happy and I thought that's what I wanted to do. As I got a little older my mother gave me piano lessons and I went from there into the singing and so forth. So that's really I went up at last for a kiss but I thank you very literary. You've been in show business for three years is your thirty sixth year professional. They're actually I've been around music. Almost all of my life since I was four. Now in the time you have officially introduced and helped

people what are you unaware of all the people who have been influenced how and how do you find that out except incidences like this. Well sometimes. People write me letters telling me about. The end for as my program has had on their lives is something when I meet them in person at one of my shows they'll come up to me and tell me stories like Jeff just talk. And then there's a lot of people that I never really get to talk to that are in hospitals and things it's quite amazing to know the far reaching effect of television in that respect. A lot of people who can't get out to see shows that. You can influence their lives without really knowing it just by appearing on TV

and I think television is very important for that reason but I I think my favorite kind of entertaining is playing to a live audience and person you know that's to me the purest form of show business. It was a television show live in. Well I did it in front of an audience but it was failed. It was still in the beginning it was a local show which was live and then we went in syndication after a year and. The program eventually was seen in a by three hundred and fifty or more markets which is more than that works. And that's why in every city it was on a different time some cities it was night. Sometimes the during the day or the afternoon or the morning but it was on somewhere all the time. When you're doing it do you ever think about making a mistake while you're playing. Well you know I figured out what I want to that small that I would be terrified to go to this

day. I always one of the child's a very early TV because we did the show. Very impromptu ally we didn't rehearse a great deal. I would get together with the director and with my brother jars and we talk over the music and we just did it you know and there we didn't worry about if I perspired I perspired I took a handkerchief and I wiped my brow. But now it's so polished that is so perfect. Everything has to be so you know rehearsed in everything that sometimes I think it loses its spontaneity. And that's was one of the things about early TV it was natural and the rail that as fact I always felt the camera was a person because I never thought of millions or thousands watching I just thought of a group of people sitting in

their living room watching the show and I treated it in a very and through that way and if I bumped into the camera I would say excuse me. You know did you happen to see the Academy Awards region. And what was your impression of Liberace and you kind of wonder what's your name. Sherry Langley. I enjoyed it. What is it that it was that larger than life image up there and you were playing all the nominated songs nominated score is that a silly musical score. Well it's kind of funny because you know like I always have a candelabra and when they set the during the dress rehearsal they set the stage. And I came up out of the floor and I looked up and there was no candelabra on the piano. And I like that one of these set this as and I said You forgot my candelabra you know it's part of my trademark I really should have it he said.

Way way they went. There are giant candelabras that were about 15 feet tall and he said will this be allright. This huge candelabras they took him out of some mansion they bar them for this. And I said I was out of my life but I didn't get it in terms of actual performance. Give us an idea of the difference between what you were describing in the early television series and what just happened on the Academy Awards in terms of atmosphere in terms of what's expected of you as a performer. Well it's there's there's no there's no room for error and a show like the Academy Awards because it is a lie and it is. You can afford to make any mistakes. So I remember in the dress rehearsal one of the dancers in the James Bond number.

All only for your eyes only with a Sheena Easton he slipped down the stairs and he was the main character he was playing James Bond. He slipped down one of the stairs and hurt his knee. And so during the dress rehearsal. He had been rehearsing this for two weeks and it was a big opportunity for him. And then during the dress rehearsal he limped slightly and they took him out and replace him with an understudy. So those things kind of sad when that happens. You're kind of keyed out. You have to you're under pressure because you know you've got to get one chance it had better be good. And. Early television was more relaxed I mean if you made a mistake you. It made you human and I would split infinitives or something like that.

You know ma'am a walkie and I said. And then people thought it was charming. You know I was letter perfect. But nowadays if you make a grammatical error they'll stop the film. I said you used a double negative. You said this or that. Let's do it again. You know. And then I like the early TV because I remember one time I was doing kitten on the keys and I said to the director who is such a friend as well as a director. I said do you do gold sun is that I said when it be fine if we can have a cat or kitten walking across the keys he said well wait a minute he said somebody out in the alley. And next thing I know I had a cat on the keys walking all over and they were Impalas it and people remember that. And another time I did. A number called How deep is the ocean. Now that's immediately calls for some giant fabulous underwater set. You know that could cost

thousands and thousands of dollars. So Duke says Has anybody got an aquarium. And so bring it to the show they brought their quarry and they shot through the aquarium and I was playing the piano at the aquarium and it looked just like a million dollar stage set. But you weren't going glub glub glub Ken that fun ever be back again on television is it gone forever. Well I think there's a few shows that still have that spontaneity I think that's one reason. Johnny Carson is so popular because things happen on his show that. Are a very spontaneous and you have the feeling you're watching it live even though it may be on a delayed broadcast but I I'd like to see that type of thing. Come back tomorrow. I think that's one reason our newscasts are so popular

because they are. You know for the moment. And then. We are now seeing things that we weren't able to see an early TV like of historical moments and as when Reagan went to visit the poll. I mean they are mediately had that on television which is unbelievable that they can do it so immediately you know when we come back we're going to ask you some things about how your career got off the ground. Oh yeah. And I'd like to change and there's something a little bit more spectacular is that OK with you. I am

I am. That's Liberace. Thirty six years you're beginning your 36 years in professional. Yeah. And there's one thing we want to show you from. Your I am with Peter and with it you get this wonderful look at this. This is a retired piano organ teacher and this has been one of my hardest things to practice. Do you recognize this of course you do. Yeah no interpretations. This really goes back. Yeah 1953. And some of the piano arrangements that. And you say they were hot. Yes and I like them because they sound like Liberace. Well what do you mean but what is a Liberace. They are they have a great style. Style First of all

and they're definitely Hiers. And if you want to sound like him I heartily recommend that. Well I am very flattered that you still have the book and that it sounds like they as they are my arrangements but difficult right and wrong. I think that's one reason that book didn't sell it was to look. We always sell one copy. OK first of all when did you know you could play the piano as well as you did. How early will you was it. Well I I really Charles can remember a time when I didn't play the piano. I started. Playing by ear at first when I was a little kid. And. My sister was taking piano lessons and she hated the practice so. My mother would be in the grocery store in the front and we lived in the

back of the grocery store so she'd say Angie that's my sister practice. And she would put me at the piano and I would. Place for her and my mother would think Angie was practicing and she'd be out playing and I'd be setting at the piano practicing her lesson. And by ear. And then of course they found out that. I was doing it. In a kind of a sneaky way so that I started taking piano lessons. And eventually I got a scholarship at the miscast College of Music with a very fine teacher. And I studied with Florence Kelly. Who is a student of Moritz Rosenthal who is a brilliant concert pianist. And the scholarship lasted for 17 years. I made my debut during that

time then. With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I. Made my recycle debut. There is not what I had with the Chicago Symphony I played the Liszt the concerto on a major. But during all of this time with all this concert and classical music I was also playing with a dance band and playing popular music so that's how I got interested in that kind of music because with that kind of music I was able to make a living. But with the concert music it was mostly for glory. I had a lot of offers to play but not a lot of Officer pay. So when you have the crossroads and you have to make that decision wherever they want it may I play that style shows. I play the waiting and the dancing schools. I've played for dancing school lessons and the teacher couldn't afford to pay me

sometimes because the kids wouldn't pay her for the lesson. So she'd give me dancing lessons in return for play. And I found that that all came in handy later on. You know somebody said Can you dance I said I don't know let's try. And I found out I could get it. Any regrets not going to the full concert route in the classical music. I don't think so because I I've been able to reach so many more people. Playing all kinds of music then if I was just a musical purist I greatly admire a concert pianist like Vladimir Horowitz and Rubinstein. But I think the best answer that I ever came across was in a. A review of one of my concerts in San Francisco where the reviewer said Liberace is no Rubenstein but neither is Rubenstein a

Liberace. So I thought that was a compliment you know and I think Rubenstein thought so too. George was a pain in the neck in the house with no not at all in fact I don't know if live remembers as the first time I've actually saw him pick out the tunes he was four years old. I remember it well I was there and we had a record player and one of the tunes as ole Katherina remembered I turned and I he's used to pick that out and I said someday is going to really be a pianist. And that dream came true and it was yes it did the two of you work together for how long. All right we're toured at least 15 years on the road together that our TV show and all those years and then a wonderful Association and we're still working together. Yes yes it's one of those rare things where brothers are happy and working together and it doesn't always happen as you know well that's a lot of groups that are family oriented. Eventually

seen the break out because. I guess is too much of being together they can handle it but we always got along great that's for sure. Yeah I'd like that one question. This was probably our first night and I was on TV with a drum roll. General. Lee I would like to ask you one of those YOUR that you feel you haven't achieved yet that you'd like to achieve in your career. A lot of people asses at the museum I thought I'd ask you directly. Well it's always something to look forward to. And. And music you never feel you've learned at all. And show business is so far reaching now days that the longer I'm in it it's scenes that I've done very little really. And I only hope that time will afford me the opportunity

to play in some of the countries I've never been to I've never been to the Far East I've never been behind the Iron Curtain to perform and. I would like to feel that I did it all. You know and. That's why every day I try to make something happen. You know because I feel if I Dahlan it's a wasted day and I don't. As you get older you start thinking about wasting time. You know when you're young is that oh I got lots of years ahead of me you know. But then when you get past 50 then you you start thinking of conserving yourself and your time and making it worth something. I've never done. I've never done. A Broadway show for instance I would like to do that. And.

Being on the Academy Awards I thought I was fantasizing a little that I thought were going to be modeling. I could be in a movie and get an Oscar. Yeah I would love that. And playing what kind of a role. I really don't know because. Would you like to for instance get away from everything you've been doing employing something very dramatic maybe melodramatic. Well I think the public would expect me that. Do something that was music guardian to you and all but it still could be very dramatic. And some of the lives of the composers I'd love to do that. It's been a long time since we've seen anything like that on the screen and I think that musicals and motion pictures are beginning to come back again. You know they could be funny movies they can be comedies but they're still music oriented like Victor Victoria I thought was brilliant. I love that.

And that you had a a completely new appreciation of the people in that movie who I'd seen many many times before were they doing something different. You know it's so great I love Julie Enders of Robert Preston. So he went on then i completely forgot about music man I completely forgot about Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Completely different. And then I'd love to do something like that where people are say wow I knew Liberace played the piano but I didn't know he could be funny I didn't know he could act and I'd love to do something like. And would you it would be easy for you to accept him in a more dramatic role in a movie. Would you like to see him do something like that. I think so yes it would be different and enjoyable I'm sure. What if it was really a gutsy movie with a musician a composer who really had serious problems.

And let's say he became a drunkard. Would you would you be able to see him in that kind of debauchery that we would make him in this movie. Never tell us who you are. My name is Karen park and I'm an opera singer and a ballet mistress so singer to singer. I remember Liberace in a black and white movie years ago. When I was very little girl. And I never forgot how beautiful he was. Moving. Remember that part of us. I'm a pianist of course high class very high class. What movie are we talking about. I think is that the one where I lost my hearing as a singer. Thanks. So yeah yeah it was it yeah but he was so handsome and such just this sophisticated wonderful pianist. I just thought oh he's gorgeous ok given those attributes the sophistication the good looks and all that kind. Would it be that much more difficult for you to play the broken

down on Tin Pan Alley this movie that we're going to create for you. It's a movie I did before that was Shelley Winters. I played a beachball who played the piano dive in the South Sea Islands and it was called South Sea Center and there are always fights going on in this dive and Shelley when I was at that time was the sex symbol and then very soon she looks and beautiful beautiful. And there. She was my buddy and I was her accompanist in this dive bar she sang. And I had a wrinkled and long hair and I was a beach comber. And there it was a good role for me because it was such a tourist from what people were used to seeing me always well-groomed and everything so. Now through that I got the Warner Brothers movie and at the time they were

filming the giant. At. Warner Brothers. Which was their spectacular movie and then the director of that movie Saw my rushes of my movie and he said someday I'd like to do a real serious movie with George STEVEN Yeah the Rock Hudson. Yes. And coming from George Stevens the great director I was very complimentary and he told me he said I said you're a born actor. And so I. I consider that a cow but what about the liabilities. You're known. You were saying before the recognition would people allow me they'd they'd want me they'd expect me to do some music in a movie. Are you locked into is this Is this what fame does. Is this what the celebrity status does it locks you in as well as frees you. Well I think there's always room for expansion of an end that

I think people. Are. Right to expect a certain something from per farmer but then if they can give him that extra twist or another dimension they'll accept it I really do. I wouldn't want to do a movie for instance where. I murder people or kill people or do something like that. I think. Movies that that are like you say where the person is self-destructive can be very sympathetic. If you recall years ago Bing Crosby made a black that which you played at Duran and you had great sympathy far because he was a nice man I didn't have control of this personal life show of hands gang.

How many of you would really be turned on or turned or let's put it turned off with a movie. Featuring this man and he played a piano player who didn't really make it. And he constantly had the bad brakes and and we see him in the course of the movie even though it's sympathetic we see him disintegrating as a human being and becoming a just a drunken bum. How many of you would be turned off by a movie off turned off by a movie like that. He's a great actor. You mean the rest of you would say that's OK. Oh go make a movie. You have every one that you want. Why I think he's a great actor and I think he would be capable of doing anything even flying through the air with his own piano by the way that could happen because this man right here John I was talking to before. Tell me the company that you and John Martino have performed together

many years ago. York Pennsylvania I don't know if you remember bunch on the air in acrobats with the Three Stooges and everybody was the head. And Connie Stevens who. Anyway we're opening a circus here in Las Vegas and we'll be teaching everything to do with circus clown juggling What have you and why. Partner you Steve Look Pete who is the record breaker in the Guinness Book of World Records and he's out there setting up his 100th unicycle now. And so we are creating an excitement and you know you have you're going to be in that school is it right for you. Yes I am. Joy Jones why are you in the school. When I was six I took tap dance which my mother got me into accordion lessons but I wasn't pushed. And for the last 12 to 15 years I've been developing and now I know I have the power and the drive to do it and I want to

do what you're doing. I want to be the Mother Teresa of Las Vegas. I want to give and help to others that don't have the drive in a push to do it. Well that's a that's a wonderful attitude. How essential in your career which were really going to get back to. How essential is the drive in a career. Well I think in the beginning it's very important the dedication and the drive. That after. After you seem to attain certain goals. I think the tendency then is to relax a bit and enjoy it. And. I used to set impossible goals by myself. And then. If I didn't if I reach something along the way that was important it still wasn't satisfying to me.

We're going to pick this up because when we come back we're going to talk about the fact that this man in the late 50s changed the whole nature of headliner status in Las Vegas. We'll be right back with Liberace. Thank you. Do. Do.

You. Think. Thank you. And they are now suddenly show room Mr. showmanship and it's. I've said upon occasion I you've taken flamboyance to an art form flamboyance to me is kind of cliche ridden until all of a sudden this marvelous one on one

personable style of yours takes it to an art form now that's rare that you can get away with that because on one hand that's gimmick. But on the other hand it doesn't come across as such. At what point in your career did you did you know that this was happening or did you ever really able to find out when this was happening. Well that happened rather accidentally at for us because I didn't wear flamboyant clothes on my television series for instance I wore. A black full dress. And it was an anything special. But when I played the Hollywood Bowl for the first time I wore a white full dress. And the reason I did it is so that people in the back rows could see me better and that I wouldn't fade into the black of the orchestra. Check see those behind me and I stood out. And in 1952

that was considered very daring to wear a white suit. And. So then. After that I realized that. My attire was like lightning in the bottle so I went from white to gold from Golden sparkle and from Sparkle the diamonds the diamonds the furs that I find myself more or less caught in a trap of having to top myself each time around and making it more spectacular. And then of course the thing that happened is that other entertainers began dressing up and wearing fabulous. Outfits and clothes and. I. Began copying me so I had to be very aware that I was dollars. A step ahead if anybody copied me and wore something I never wore that

again I had to go one better and in order to be a leader you have to be exaggerated. And I think my customers now. Are. Exaggerations because they have to be in order to get their reaction from the public. Because if I wore Now what I wore 20 years ago people sitting in my audience would be dressed that way. Does that mean twenty years from now they're going to be dressed as you are now. You never could tell. There was a taking the lead what you did and the hotels made a very daring move with you in the late 50s. Everybody around in this town was getting 25000 maybe if they were really a superstar a week and all of a sudden they opened a new show room at the Riviera Hotel in. And they give you the contract the first one in the history of Las Vegas. If I'm correct fifty

thousand dollars a week. That's right. That's glamorous on one hand but oh boy did that put pressure on you on the other hand. How was it like. Well I was very happy at the Last Frontier Hotel I was playing and I had been making. I started out there. Making. First seven hundred fifty dollars a week and they doubled it to fifteen hundred and they eventually after many many appearances I was getting twenty five thousand dollars a week and I like that. I like the frontier and I was very happy there. Then the Riviera was opening out and. They made me an offer and I told my manager I said I really. Would like to stay at the last frontier I'm happy there. So he said well we've got to give a reason why you don't want to play and I said Well I think the best reason you can give them is

that. Tell him I want $50000 a week. They'll never pay that. But they did. And of course at that time that was. That was the highest salary ever paid a performer. And then of course what happened then is it set a standard for other acts because other performers said well if you if they paid him they'll pay me. So it kept rising as a result of it. Now I think this sours have. Reached their peak. And. I think. If they go any higher it's not going to be feasible for some of these. Rooms to book shows because they can't take in that much money to cover the cost of some of the salaries that some of the

performers are demanding. And what happens to you if you make that much money here. Even though you go to another city in this country or another country and they can offer you a lot of money from their standards it surely isn't what you're getting here how does that affect you do you would you. Are there entertainers like yourself who would say well forget it I'll just stay home. Well it strains some of the way Vegas has they reputation for being a high salaried place for entertainers. However on the road and places that. The general public has never heard of the less there travelers are salesmen. You can even make more money than you do in Las Vegas. My highest weekly salary was made in Merrillville Indiana. But you never know sure it's just outside of Chicago and it's if it's a theater or in a hotel complex

and. People come there they have dinner in one of the dining rooms and they come in. It's kind of a package deal and they seat about 4000 people and there. The admission is popularly price and that includes the dinner and all that sort of thing. And people make a holiday out of it. You know they count they spend the weekend they see your show or they have dinner and they swim in the indoor swimming pools. And. I was absolutely amazed that salaries beyond Las Vegas could be made on the road and. Of course there are places that. See there are a lot of people like Arenas there are certain places I play like Hershey Pennsylvania. Why play the 12000 people and I you know so. A lot of the younger entertainers difference is coming through in the

rock who have not come the way you came. I just can make it on two nights at a coliseum when they are in the arena and therefore they don't want to be bothered with the two shows a night for seven nights and then two weeks three weeks. What you do they don't want to put up with it. But if that if that is so and one of the reasons is the money but the other one is the pacing is this is just the exhaustion. How do you how do you just handle that exhaustion that must be a very exhausting procedure. Well I think the stimulus is the fact that every audience is a new audience. You never have anything in Las Vegas that you can say. It's the same show for same audience every audience is a challenge. And. So you get the adrenaline going you know when you walk on the stage you don't always feel 100 percent. You know sometimes you know you're tired or maybe you have a a

pain someplace. But when you go out on that stage and you see all those people there and you know that they have spent good money they come in to see you. You feel obligated to do your best work and even if you don't feel good somehow this adrenaline starts going and it's and I've given some of my best performances when I was in the top physical condition and. Because when I feel super My mind has a tendency sometimes to wander. You know I guess I am involved in a lot of projects. And then I sometimes want to let my mind wander and pretty soon I look down at my hands and then that do what I want. Right where am I going to lose my place. How do you one wind after a ship. Well it's easy for me because I live in Las Vegas I have a home here and I go haul and

all my dogs greet me. I have a lot of dogs. They are great and I forget all about show business. All I could think of is their demands they want. Each one has to be greeted and picked up taken out and maybe they want a little snack. I have one dog that's an ice cream free. And I have to spell it out I see if I say it out loud he goes crazy. So I say. He'll have a dish of ice cream and. I know the veterinarians are going to say it's not good for his teeth. Ice cream but he doesn't have any teeth so it's alright. He's my favorite dog he's blind has no teeth and he's hard of hearing. You mentioned that you were involved in a lot of projects do you ever feel or did somebody tell you that you're spreading yourself too thin so for his good physical and mental health that it's going to hurt you

because you are involved in so many things. Well I I always try to get my rest I think that's very important. I get eight hours and I regard as when I go to bed I set the alarm for eight hours after I get my rest. And if I can work in some of my other projects during the waking hours that I have left then I do it but I never do it at the expense of my show or I never make myself exhausted you know just to say that I did something you know. I have other businesses that I ride and I'm in real estate and I have an antique shop open. My involvement then they and the Liberace Foundation picks up a certain amount of my time at the museum and. I have to have some kind of a project going all the time or I feel

stagnant. I have to add a room to my house or build something you know that get something going. I love restoration I'm heavy into that. Tell me about how you've seen his show often. Yes I have. And you are prima Sinatra. Tell me what appeals to you in the show where you surely you wouldn't go back. Well the first time I saw illegal was in there in Beverly Hills I think it was the combo back in 46 to 45. And I became an instant fan. And then in 1953 my husband conducted the orchestra for Lee when they opened the Riviera. And I've been a fan of his for many many years. What is the appeal in the show room. Well my husband was a pianist and I had a special. I have a special fondness the pianist all pianist but especially because he's so sympathetic and warm and good. He should have been I think a concert pianist you know. And this comes through in the piano play.

I think so yes. If you know anything about the piano. Yeah. You know it's a rare gift to just that thin line the sentimental line and to make it genuinely was feeling and the cheap sentimentality and this is it never goes over the line you know. How do you know. That's the mystery of your career of course. Well you know even though I'm considered a. Popular. In a popular artist I. I get marvelous offers to do things with classical are going to say yes and fact I'm going to. Do an album this coming season with the line and so are mine. And. They want me to put my little Liberace touches in the classics and otherwise you know they could get a dozen other people to play the piano the way. The music is written.

But they want me to put my own interpretation into some of the classics and they're one of the biggest selling records. That made the popular charts. I was hooked on classics and as classical music played with a disco be it Liberace cha cha cha. Where did that come from do you have any idea of the song it is a song isn't it. Oh really. Certainly we've been here 30 years or 30 years. Oh I get it Liberace chacha. Oh yeah try anything. Tell us more about what the style might be. You know how do you define the Liberace style. Well I think you just drive it would you care to describe it. Well I think my style is classical Arianne that you know I

think I feel like I basically am a concert pianist who puts a classical flair and to a popular music. You know like. That sort of thing yeah. Another piano player right. She really sings but she bought a music store here in town and from the piano. What. Tell me something about how that style

affects you. I was trained classically also and my sisters and I now have a retail store. But the style is definitely relates to everyone whether you're classical or popular it's a universal language which is also I mean the style relates to every style relates to everyone as well no. Well what is it that relates to classical popular with feeling with simplicity. Use the hole in the entire keyboard just create a warm feeling it's. Something you can relate to. All languages and all people are wonderful and this is why you know I think. What the young lady says is something that was proven to me last year when I toured Europe for the first time in the non-English speaking countries. I was afraid of it I had avoided it for many years and they said Well music is a universal language you know. So I went ahead and I

did my my concerts and I talked and I wore the costumes and everything. And their response was just overwhelming I couldn't believe that in Germany and then. And then. Both area and. And. Holland and all these places that I play they understood it you know and they really responded. And some of the people I've met after didn't speak a word of English. They were they just enjoyed themselves. No question. You said you had many other business interests and I've always wondered how long has it been now that you've had an interest in pianists. Well they were the first. Company piano company to loan me pianos early in my career and. It was very important to me that I have a good instrument My father taught me when I was a little boy he said never play

a bad answer and are playing at a disadvantage. And. I was amazed to find out after I became professional and I went around the country playing in a hotel supper clubs and things that they would have terrible piano also and maybe they were painted a pretty color or something but they were terrible answer. And I would go and I say I'm sorry I can't play that piano and they said why not common Cavalera played it and the hell that guy played it. Well I'm sorry we can't hear more because we've run out of time what a delightful just you didn't finish them. Oh.

D. D.

D. This is a program about music and entertainment liberties that is about and then we just personality around a room as if it were a magic one. The one and only Liberace. I hope you'll join us.