Introduction
1. Eric Felton, “Lady Gaga and Liberace: Separated at Birth?” The Wall Street Journal (September 17,2010).
2. Adam Nagourney, “Mr. Showmanship’s Show Is Closing,” The New York Times (September 18, 2010).
Chapter 1: The Beginnings
3. Darden Asbury Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001), 39 (Pyron’s source is “50 N.t., n.d., Liberace File #7, Milwaukee Public Library”).
4. Liberace, Liberace: An Autobiography (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1973), 54-55.
5. Ibid., 66.
6. Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy, 43 (Pyron’s endnote is “Wisconsin College of Music Bulletin, season of 1930–31, Milwaukee Public Library”).
7. Ibid., 51 (Pyron’s endnote is “N.t., n.d., Liberace File #7, Milwaukee Public Library; ‘Liberace Coming Home,’ March 29, 1951, Liberace File #2, Milwaukee Public Library, confirms”).
8. Liberace, Liberace: An Autobiography, 73.
9. Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy, 57 (Pyron’s endnote is “N.t., n.d., Liberace File #7, Milwaukee Public Library”).
10. Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy, 56 (Pyron’s endnote is “ ‘Liberace Whips Up Music, Muffins at His Old School,’ n.d., File #3, Milwaukee Public Library”).
11. Bob Thomas, Liberace: The True Story (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 29–30.
12. Liberace, Liberace: An Autobiography, 89.
13. Ibid., 172.
Chapter 2: The 1950s
14. Bob Thomas, Liberace: The True Story, 60.
15. Ibid., 62.
16. James Bacon, “Liberace First Pianist Since Paderewski to Need Hall Like Madison Square Garden,” News and Courier (May 23, 1954).
17. Jocelyn Faris, Liberace: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995), 111.
18. Ibid., 57.
19. Liberace, Liberace: An Autobiography, 90.
20. Faris, Liberace: A Bio-Bibliography, 54 (Pyron’s endnote attributes this to Faris with “ ‘Strain Put on Fuses at Liberace Concert,’ Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 1954”).
21. Ibid., 56.
22. NY Sunday News (July 13, 1969) [title and author unknown].
23. Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy, 265 (Pyron’s endnote is “ ‘Fresh Flowers from Friend Elvis,’ n.d., Liberace File #83, Milwaukee Public Library”).
24. Thomas, Liberace: The True Story, 117.
25. Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy, 265 (Pyron’s endnote is “ ‘Fresh Flowers from Friend Elvis,’ n.d., Liberace File #83, Milwaukee Public Library”).
26. Pyron, Liberace: An American Boy, 201 (Pyron’s endnote is “ ‘Liberace Puts Punchline First,’ n.d., Liberace File #16, Milwaukee Public Library”).
27. Variety (Oct. 15, 1958) [title and author unknown].
28. Marian Christy, “Liberace: Super Showman Has Known Hard Times,” The Ledger (September 12, 1974).
29. Faris, Liberace: A Bio-Bibliography, 63.
30. The Phil Donahue Show (featured in the Liberace Museum; air date not available).
31. Aline Mosby, “Meet the Man Who Made Liberace Glitter,” Binghamton Press (January 6, 1956).
Chapter 3: The 1960s and ’70s
32. New York Daily News (July 13, 1969) [title and author unknown].
33. Ibid.
34. Maggie Sieger, “Seams like a dream,” Daily News (November 27, 1994).
35. Ibid.
36. Christie Mitchell, “Island’s Talented Thespians Should Perform in Summer,” Galveston News (December 2, 1962).
37. Sieger, “Seams like a dream,” Daily News.
38. “Liberace,” Saturday Evening Post (December 3, 1978) [title and author unknown].
39. “Liberace,” Washington Star (August 24, 1977) [title and author unknown].
40. “Liberace,” Saturday Evening Post (December 3, 1978) [title and author unknown].
41. Liberace, Liberace: An Autobiography, 163.
42. Morton Moss, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (June 16, 1969).
43. “Bugle, Bangles and Beads,” (author unknown; August, 1973) [title and author unknown].
44. Morton Moss, Los Angeles Herald Examiner (further details unknown, 1969).
45. Forrest Duke, “Liberace Out-Dazzles Hilton Star Liberace,” Las Vegas Review-Journal (June 5, 1974).
46. Emma, Trotter, “Glamorous Life,” Luxury Las Vegas (March, 2010).
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.
50. Athan Karras, “Michael Travis, Designer for the Superstars,” Greek American Review (December, 2003).
51. Ibid.
52. Ibid.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. Betty J. Ott, Buffalo News (title unknown; August 23, 1959).
Chapter 4: The 1980s
58. Liberace, Pianist,” Parade (article title and author unknown; February 5, 1984).
59. Benjamin Epstein, “Blackwell Dubs Princess Worst-Dressed,” Los Angeles Times (January 24, 1986).
60. Cheryl Lavin, “It’s Mr. Showmanship: Liberace Continues to Bank on Self-Parody,” Chicago Tribune (November 10, 1986).
61. Ibid.
62. Mike Hodgkinson and Naomi Greenaway, “Sole Trader,” Sunday Mirror, London (January 26, 2003).
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. Cindy Cullen Chapman, “Designer Keeps Liberace under Lavish Wrap,” Gazette (courtesy of The Liberace Foundation, n.d.).
66. Quote supplied by The Liberace Museum’s tour guide.
67. Elliot Krane, “Michael Travi$, De$igner of Liberace’$ $pangled $uit$,” This Is Las Vegas (April 20, 1979).
68. Ibid.
69. Liberace, The Wonderful Private World of Liberace (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), 174.
70. Ibid.
71. Lavin, “It’s Mr. Showmanship: Liberace Continues To Bank on Self-Parody,” Chicago Tribune.
Liberace in a white fur coat made by Anna Nateece.