In about a month Las Vegas will lose another great connection to its glory days. The closing of the Liberace museum.
Snicker if you want, but I have always said that this out of the way little bit of Vegas history is a must on any true Vegas tourists’ list. I don’t care what you thought of the man; his museum peels back the curtain and lets you see what made this piano player a legend and what this legend meant to Las Vegas as well as the world of modern entertainment.
I always loved this place for the shock value it brought to my guests. Young or old, everyone has a preconceived notion of who he was. After walking through the buildings and seeing the capes, the cars, the pianos and the life, you always walked away with a new found appreciation for who he really was.
Now it all looks like all the capes, cars and pianos will be packed away. Maybe a few pieces sold off and others put on a national tour. They have hinted at a return in the future. Any way you cut it, Vegas loses again.
The sad thing is that all this could have been avoided if the foundation board had been doing its job instead of feeding its own ego. The museum gets a lot of tourists even in its off strip location. It has a lot of potential, just piss poor management and marketing.
In announcing the closure, the board blames the economy and even took a hit at the local’s lack of support that caused them to lose too much money. Not the fact that its in a bad location for tourists, relies on rent from other tenants to pay its bills (it owns the strip mall that houses the museum) and the foundation board is over paid with serious conflicts of interest.
So get out here and see it before its too late. Closing Day is October 17th
I’ve been trying to find current websites on Liberace’s legacy or what’s left of it to no avail. What’s happened to everything. Liberace was my idol when I was a child. I’ve played piano since I was six years old since seeing Liberace on tv ( in the fifties ). He was my inspiration to play piano. When I saw him on tv I was transfixed, nothing could remove me from the screen! My father and mother saw how Liberace influenced me so they took me to a concert of his in Nashville, Tenn. to see him. When he was in the audience my father literally pushed me in the isle to shake hands with him, considering how shy I am. That was the ultimate highlight of my life to shake hands with ” Mr. Showmanship”!! I would give an arm or leg ( not a finger ) to have or see something of his, what’s left.