Liberace: An American Boy

by Darden Asbury Pyron

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 twentieth century, this very public figure nonetheless kept more than a few secrets. Darden Asbury Pyron, author of the acclaimed and bestselling Southern 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 twenty, 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 entertainer. While wildly successful and good natured outwardly, Liberace, Pyron reveals, was a complicated man whose political, social, and religious conservativism existed side-by-side with a lifetime of secretive homosexuality. Even so, his swishy persona belied an inner life of ferocious aggression and ambition. Pyron relates this private man to his public persona and places this remarkable life in the rapidly changing cultural landscape of twentieth-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 fascinating biography, Pyron complicates and celebrates our image of the man for whom the streets were paved with gold lamé.

"An entertaining and rewarding biography of the pianist and entertainer whose fans' adoration was equaled only by his critics' loathing. . . . [Pyron] persuasively argues that Liberace, thoroughly and rigorously trained, was a genuine musician as well as a brilliant showman. . . . [A]n immensely entertaining story that should be fascinating and pleasurable to anyone with an interest in American popular culture."— Kirkus Reviews

"This is a wonderful book, what biography ought to be and so seldom is."—Kathryn Hughes, Daily Telegraph

"[A]bsorbing and insightful. . . . Pyron's interests are far-ranging and illuminating-from the influence of a Roman Catholic sensibility on Liberace and gay culture to the aesthetics of television and the social importance of self-improvement books in the 1950s. Finally, he achieves what many readers might consider a persuasive case for Liberace's life and times as the embodiment of an important cultural moment."— Publishers Weekly

"Liberace, coming on top of his amazing life of Margaret Mitchell, Southern Daughter, puts Darden Pyron in the very first rank of American biographers. His books are as exciting as the lives of his subjects."—Tom Wolfe

"Fascinating, thoughtful, exhaustive, and well-written, this book will serve as the standard biography of a complex icon of American popular culture."— Library Journal

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Music, History

512 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2000

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

After watching "Behind the Candelabra" on HBO, I thought I would read more about Liberace. At first, I was a bit put off by Pyron's writing style -- too much history about gays in America during the time Liberace was growing up, living and dying. However, I started to become more interested by why Liberace was hiding his homosexuality than being peeved about the history part. The book was an honest assessment of this flamboyant star. It took a while to read as it is a huge tome but overall, I learned a lot about Liberace and the culture of our country. I wouldn't recommend it if all you are looking for is an expose -- it is not that type of book.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sympathetic portrait of "the showman". The author seeks to place Liberace in the larger cultural picture, and for the most part he succeeds. I had never thought of Liberace as part of the long stream of classical/pop crossover artists, but it makes perfect sense. The writing can be uneven. Certain errors like the misspelling of Harry Hay's name pop out.

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An academic book that was rather prurient and full of pages of irrelevant material. If you start a section with 'it is unlikely that Liberace was aware of...' then I don't see the point of that digression. Still, I know more about the 'showman' than I did before and you can just skip the waffle.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting

[Studvet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book and written in depth and detail. Some really interesting sociological and psychological overviews. Was expecting a quick read and initially thought the discourses were going to be off-putting but quickly became fascinated. I thought there was real depth to the characterisation ands a real attempt to understand Liberace and what drove him and how he was affected by his times. I ended up watching lots of clips and documentaries about him which added even more to the book. I ended up looking and admiring Liberace a lot and sympathised with him with regard to the rapacious press and a lot of nasty, snobbish, humiliating comments about him. At the end of the day he only claimed to be an entertainer and at that was a real star with extraordinary audience rapport ands an obvious desire to connect and entertain them. He was technically brilliant as well despite some cruel comments. A lot of the comments appear extremely homophobic with time. He comes across as a kind heart in rapacious times but with an inherent toughness to keep going. What an audacious entertainer!

[Chel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book was an act of serendipity. As a subscriber to the online Chicago Manual of Style, I get periodic offers of free backlist ebooks from the University of Chicago Press, and when this one was offered, I said yes. I carried it around in my Nook and read it off and on over a period of several months, often playing through with other books. I was never a Liberace fan or particularly interested in him, but I was fascinated by the context of this entertainer's life. Why was he so popular in the years that he was popular? What did his popularity reveal about the times and the culture? This was my parents' youth and my childhood, and it fascinates me in the same way that I am fascinated by the TV show "Mad Men," for the same reasons. The author is good at addressing these matters, as well as exploring what it was like for Liberace as a gay man before and after Stonewall and the cultural change that followed. I'm glad I read it.

[Lissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exhaustivelty detailed account of the life and times of Mr. Showmanship. It starts out well, with his odd careeer trajectory contrsted with the rise of television, gay culture, the immigrant experience and other facets of American life. However, once Stonewall hits, the author seems to abandon his story for extensive gay theorizing and sections where the name Foucault is seen more than that of Liberace.

[Katharine Holden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting viewpoint (the title), but filled with astonishingly bad writing and use of words like "faggy."

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never thought I'd be so fascinated by a book on Liberace but I was enthralled! Loved it!