Product Description

More people watched his nationally syndicated television show between 1953 and 1955 than followed "I Love Lucy". Even a decade after his death, the attendance records he set at Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall still stand. Arguably the most popular entertainer of the 20th century, this very public figure nonetheless kept more than a few secrets. Darden Asbury Pyron, author of "Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell", leads us through the life of America's foremost showman with his fresh, provocative and definitive portrait of Liberace, an American boy. Liberace's career follows the trajectory of the classic American dream. Born in the Midwest to Polish-Italian immigrant parents, he was a child prodigy who, by the age of 20, had performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Abandoning the concert stage for the lucrative and glittery world of nightclubs, celebrities and television, Liberace became America's most popular performer. While wildly successful and good natured outwardly, Liberace, Pyron reveals, was a complicated man whose political, social and religious conservatism existed side-by-side with a lifetime of secretive homosexuality. At the same time, Liberace's swishy persona belied an inner life of ferocious aggression and ambition. Pyron related this complex private man to his public image and places this remarkable life in the rapidly changing cultural landscape of 20th-century America. Pyron presents Liberace's life as a metaphor, for both good and ill, of American culture, with its shopping malls and insatiable hunger for celebrity. In this biography, Pyron complicates and celebrates our image of the man for whom the streets were paved with gold lame.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #732538 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Customer Reviews

A fasctinating life in its historical context
This book turned out to be a real surprise. I got it because of good reviews in the New York Times and the Economist and i wasn't disappointed. Darden Asbury Pyron (don't Americans have great names!) is a hyper-analytical historian who uses Liberace's life to follow several strands of 20th century American history. Liberace's homosexuality is a central theme and Pyron writes fascinatingly about how being gay has changed since World War Two. Liberace's fame tells the story of the phenemenon of modern celebrity, the early days of TV, the growth of Las Vegas and the eccentric life of a unique star. Maybe most interesting is what the author has to say about the values of heartland America where Liberace came from and where he was worshipped by so many (mainly blue-rinsed) fans. I haven't read a book which explained so brilliantly what provincial, white lower middle-class Americans are all about. Al Gore should have read this before the election and he wouldn't have let Bush walk away with all their votes. It's a real eye-opener for non-Americans used to reading about the sophisticates on the coasts who don't share the same values of patriotism, hard-work, positivity and kindness to others (apart from jews, blacks and deviants or anyone else who was too unlike them!).

The weaknesses and that sometimes Pyron gets a bit too analytical for his own good, like his interpretations of the lyrics of "I'll be seeing you". I also got annoyed by the new-to-me verb memorialize which appears at least 20 times every chapter!

I never liked Liberace but the book warmed me to him, especially because of his lonely desperate to please personality. Far more interesting for me was what I learned about the times he lived in and the American cultures he lived his life in.