LIBERACE

PIANIST, ENTERTAINER

The much-beloved Las Vegas showman Liberace always tried to conceal his sexual orientation, but his death from AIDS confirmed for most people that he was, in fact, homosexual.

Wladziu Valentino Liberace was born May 16, 1919, in West Allis, Wisconsin, and began piano lessons at the age of four. In his teens he played cocktail piano in bars under the name Walter Buster Keys, which he dropped after appearing with the Chicago Symphony in 1936. He created a flamboyant persona based on lavish costumes, candelabra on the piano, jewelry, furs, and glitzy shortened versions of keyboard classics. In the 1950s he reached enormous audiences via TV, where his show was carried by more stations than I Love Lucy. Good humor and self-mockery were a part of the act, generally ridiculed by critics, but he knew the way to "riches, rhinestones, and Rolls-Royces." He made a few films, notably The Loved One (1965), but TV and Las Vegas shows were where he made big money, reportedly $5 million a year for 25 years.

In England, where his fans included Queen Elizabeth II, he won a libel suit against a writer who implied that he was gay, but the charade was hard to keep up after his young bodyguard, chauffeur, and companion sued him for $113 million in palimony in 1982. Until he died, he denied that he had HIV, but a coroner's report revealed his death on February 4, 1987, was caused by AIDS. His fans didn't care if he was gay. They still flock to see his costumes, jewelry, pianos, and cars at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Entrance fees support his foundation for the performing arts, which in the 1992-1993 academic year awarded scholarships totalling $351,544. Next Card 30: CHARLES LUDLAM & ETHYL EICHELBERGER: Actors AIDS AWARENESS: PEOPLE WITH AIDS

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