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Liberace: He's Far More Important And Influential Than You Think

International Business Times ^ | 05/31/2013 | Palash Ghosh

Posted on by SeekAndFind

A tepid, superficial and unsatisfying movie by HBO has brought the spectacle of Wladziu Valentino Liberace -- better known to the world simply as pianist-showman extraordinaire Liberace  back into America's living rooms and consciousness more than 25 years after his death from AIDS complications.

Liberace led as fascinating and tragic a life as you could imagine, one that deserved a deeper, more comprehensive treatment than what director Steven Soderbergh served up Sunday night.

Aside from the absurdities of casting the very homely Michael Douglas as the superstar pianist (and the 42-year-old Matt Damon as his teenaged lover, Scott Thorson), the HBO offering utterly failed to explore just what made Liberace such a compelling and, yes, highly influential, figure in American pop culture history.



(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...

TOPICS:

History

Music/Entertainment

Society

TV/Movies

KEYWORDS:

gay

hbo

hollywood

homosexualagenda

homosexuality

liberace

liberalmedia





Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

Liberace was a fantastic musician. The youtube videos of his performances are all we need. I don’t care about anything else.



To: cotton1706

He was an old school homosexual who didn’t think it was anybody’s business. One of the guys I grew up with is the same way. He calls the militants “Self hating ideological faggots”



by 4 posted onby cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)

To: SeekAndFind

I’d be willing to live and let live on this issue, only the other side doesn’t want to.



To: SeekAndFind

I remember those days. Apart from Liberace, who was indeed obviously gay but never said so, I knew several other people personally who were gay. You knew that they were gay, but they never rubbed your nose in it, or insisted that you worship gaydom, the way they do now. And I knew a couple of genuinely conservative gays. Not just libertarians who claimed to be conservative. In fact, one of them came and gave a talk at NYU about why it was NOT a good idea for gays to become political activists trying to force everyone out of the closet and naming everything else a hate crime. Regrettably, he lost the argument.



To: SeekAndFind

My mother used to love to watch him. Drove us crazy. We would be real quiet...wait for Liberace to lull her to sleep...and change the channel!! Of course she would immediately hop to attention...and order us to change it back. Life was hard...



To: Sacajaweau

Sure as hell beat Lawrence Welk that I was forced to watch. LOL!



by 8 posted onby RushIsMyTeddyBear (Great vid by ShorelineMike! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZjJk6nbD4&feature=plcp)

To: SeekAndFind

Grandma loved him! I had another guitar player in my band who could do Lee’s voice perfectly. I’d get him to sing stuff like “Friends in Low Places” as Liberace. Hilarious!



To: SeekAndFind

Liberace coined the phrase “laughing all the way to the bank”.



To: SeekAndFind

I read one time, that Liberace had gone to sleep in his dressing room. The rug had just been cleaned with Carbon Tet and this caused him to pass out. He was awakened when someone brought him the news that John Kennedy had just been shot and this is what prevented Liberace from dieing.



To: SeekAndFind

Brings back memories of the Mike Douglas show. I like Michael Douglas (the actor) but it is sad when a biopic actor can’t possibly duplicate the charisma of the original. Liberace was a much more lively and fun character than depicted, it wasn’t just a lisp and fancy sets.



To: SeekAndFind

I watched Liberace numerous times and was always entertained immensely. He was the consummate entertainer and spared no expense in putting on a show. The fact that he was a homosexual did not matter....he neither endorsed nor condemned it!!!



by 13 posted onby ontap (ion. Would you suggest that that organization)

To: cripplecreek

It’s so stupid and transparent. As if nobody knows that there’s been gay people in the entertainment world. Like we all need to be reminded and told about it...becuase of course it was THE most important thing about them. But it wasn’t. Burgess Meridith was gay. So what. I loved his acting. The guys from the Wizard of OZ were gay. So what. I loved their acting. Rock Hudson, the dad from the Brady Bunch and on and on. I don’t care that they were gay. It was a personal aspect of their lives that is none of my business and that I care nothing about. But I know it and it makes no difference, because if I didn’t know it, it would make no difference.



To: Arm_Bears

I can respect Liberace’s desire to keep it private. And that way he didn’t have to try to force others to accept it as normal. I assume I don’t have to explain what “it” was.



To: SeekAndFind

He was also one of the early TV celebrities. Part of the reason his stage glitz was so elaborate on television was that it had to be communicated through a black and white medium. He may not have been Paderewski but he certainly had a real insight into stage presence.



To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

My sympathies...That was worse. I can see the beat in my head. God help us to forget...(but not everything).



To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

I had to watch both Liberace AND Welk but at some point we stopped watching Liberace. I think my Dad figured it out and stopped it. My grandmother loved them both but she also loved Marlin Perkins, Billy Graham, and Fulton Sheen.



To: Cicero

I had a friend and working colleague who turned out to be gay. He showed no overt signs of it. He was old school and was married to a German “war bride.” He “came out” after his wife died. We remained friends until I left the area. He knew my attitude toward “gayness” but it was something we just put aside.



To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

Ironically, I think very square Lawrence Welk probably had much the same audience as Liberace.



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