When Frances and Salvatore Liberace discovered what their underage son was really doing, they were livid. Hiding his lucrative night job from his parents, he would explain that he and his band were playing church socials. His nights belonged to ragtime and honky-tonk music, which he played at Milwaukee roadhouses and bars. The prodigy was even allowed to leave grammar school early in the afternoon to play at high school dances.Ĭlassical studies, recitals, and competitions ruled 14-year-old Liberace's days. As detailed in Liberace: The True Story, by Bob Thomas, the once-alienated Liberace was constantly invited to liven up birthday parties with the latest tunes.
Nickname for a dwarfish piano prodigy professional#
Nevertheless, the tyrannical Salvatore's single-minded insistence on his children becoming professional musicians won out.Īs Liberace grew older, he discovered that his musical ability was a way to gain acceptance among his peers. According to the author, Frances felt her children would be better served in life by learning a "practical" trade like the family's struggling grocery business. "Frances groused bitterly about spending money on luxurious music lessons," Pyron writes. As documented in Darden Asbury Pyron's 2000 biography, Liberace: All American Boy, Liberace's parents fought constantly about their finances, but Frances' main complaint was over the expense of music. Despite her musical background, Frances discouraged her children's pursuit of music lessons as an extravagance too expensive for the cash-strapped family. Liberace's mother, Frances Zuchowska Liberace, hailed from Poland and had been a concert pianist before marriage. A professional musician, Salvatore instilled a love of music in his son. His Italian father, Salvatore Liberace, came from the fishing village of Formia near Naples.
The son of immigrant parents, Liberace was of Italian-Polish descent. This is the tragic real-life story of Liberace. In the end, Liberace's facade came crashing down as his death laid bare his most intimate secrets. Fearing the loss of his predominantly female fanbase, he created an illusion, which ultimately only he believed. Liberace fought endlessly to preserve his privacy in an era of rampant homophobia and intolerance. However, when the stage lights dimmed and the curtain closed, Liberace was a man at war with himself. Liberace was a star of the people who brought culture, albeit filtered through his own unique predilections and quirks, to the common folk. To his millions of devotees, he was far more than a musical idol.
Although he dressed in rhinestone-encrusted capes, was chauffeured to his concerts in a Rolls-Royce, and made his appetite for luxury a constant punchline in his stage banter, Liberace, in his public life, never exuded the aloof attitude typical of so many celebrities. On stage, Liberace oozed charisma and created an intimate rapport with his fans that belied his flashy stage clothes and ostentatious style.
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