It is remarkably fifty years since the sparkling multi-million-selling entertainer Liberace sued the Daily Mirror for libel (and won!). Gossip columnist Cassandra (William Connor) had described him as:
"The summit of sex - the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she, and it can ever want… a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother-love... this superb piece of calculating candy floss... the biggest sentimental vomit of all time... a preposterous clown."Absurd, of course! After all, this is the same "devout Catholic" Liberace who outsold Elvis, broke all the records for ticket sales at Madison Square Gardens and in Vegas, and was "almost married" to the silver screen formation skater Sonja Henie - how could he be gay?
The rest, as they say, is history. In 1982, his former lover Scott Thorson sued for "palimoney" (and was paid off to the tune of $95k!), and (in a sickening media frenzy at the time) eventually "Mr. Showmanship" died of complications from AIDS in 1987.
But let us not dwell on that when we can have the man himself. Enjoy your weekend with a bit of sparkle!
The book Crying All the Way to the Bank: Liberace V Cassandra, which gives all the gory details of the fabulous libel trial, was published in June 2009.
And why not visit The Liberace Museum?
We are toying with the idea of going to see the current production in the Leicester Square Theatre Liberace - Live From Heaven starring (would you believe?) Bobby Crush, but not sure what exactly we would be letting ourselves in for if we did... Read more
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