Liberace Extravaganza

Author : Connie Furr Soloman,Jan Jewett
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2013-04-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780062202567

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Liberace Extravaganza! by Connie Furr Soloman,Jan Jewett Pdf

Known for his spectacular performances, the magnificent Wladziu Valentino Liberace was a world-renowned star in the entertainment industry for more than four decades, and his dazzling, often outrageous costumes are what made him most memorable. In Liberace Extravaganza! the entertainer's sequined, bejeweled, and rhinestone-studded outfits, as well as his extravagant collection of furs, feather capes, sparkling bow ties, and custom-made shoes are exhibited in book form for the very first time. These mesmerizing costumes grew from Liberace's humble beginnings when, as a young man, he would perform in his brother's hand-me-downs. From there, his suits, worth as much as twenty-four thousand dollars, featured layers of silk and satin ruffles, Swarovski crystal rhinestones, and fourteen-karat white-gold, diamond-encrusted buttons, culminating in his "electric" costumes with four thousand light bulbs weighing more than twenty-five pounds. Michael Travis, Liberace's principal designer, has written the foreword for this breathtaking volume. Jim Lapidus, another of Liberace's designers, furrier Anna Nateece, and Ray Arnett, his producer, have contributed original sketches used to design Liberace's costumes. The result is a book that is one of a kind: a celebration of the legendary performer and a visual feast of the most extraordinary costumes ever created. With more than 260 full-color photographs

Author : Darden Asbury Pyron
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 549 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780226117126

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Liberace by Darden Asbury Pyron Pdf

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 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 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 impossible: 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

Author : Michael Feder,Karan Feder
Publisher : Harry N. Abrams
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2007-09-01
Category : Art
ISBN : 0810994526

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Liberace by Michael Feder,Karan Feder Pdf

The late Liberace swings his closet door open in order to coach readers on the fine art of extraordinary dressing. Not only can readers enjoy dazzling photographs of Liberace in the most outrageous of outfits, but they can also punch these photos out to play with the included paper dolls.

Author : Liberace
Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Pianists
ISBN : 9781563119132

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The Wonderful Private World of Liberace by Liberace Pdf

For decades, Liberace was known for his music, candelabra, charisma, diamonds and dazzle. Over the years Liberace acquired an astounding array of prestigious awards, including: Instrumentalist of the Year, Best Dressed Entertainer and Entertainer of the Year. He also earned two Emmy Awards, six gold albums, two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's highest paid musician and pianist. Best of all, he was known and loved throughout the world as Mr. Showmanship."" Relive The Wonderful Private World of Liberace in the reprinting of his fourth publication. When I started this book, I couldn't keep help wondering if I was doing it the right way. After all, it was so very different from the other books. One afternoon, I ran into Shirley MacLaine in a florist shop in Malibu. She'd never seen my Malibu place, so I invited her over. While we were having a drink, I discovered she had just completed her book Dancing in the Light. ""What a coincidence,"" I said. ""I'm just starting to write my fourth book."" She described a private place she had up in Washington, where she liked to sit outside, particularly when it was raining. She would sit under an umbrella and jot down the material in longhand. The solace and quietude of the place were very inspiring to writing in this personal style. I told here I was doing mine in longhand, as well, just as if I was writing a letter to someone. She smiled encouragingly. ""But that's exactly how you should do it ""So here it is a very personal letter from me to you, sharing an intimate glimpse into The Wonderful Private World of Liberace.""

Author : Jimmy Lavery,Jim Mydlach,Louis Mydlach,Henrietta Tiefenthaler
Publisher : Phoenix Books, Inc.
Page : 275 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781597775601

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The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy by Jimmy Lavery,Jim Mydlach,Louis Mydlach,Henrietta Tiefenthaler Pdf

The Secret Life of Siegfried and Roy reveals the touching, little-known story of how two youngsters founded a friendship, a franchise, and a tempestuous on-and-off love affair that would last a lifetime.

Author : Richard Zoglin
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2020-11-10
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781501151200

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Elvis in Vegas by Richard Zoglin Pdf

“Outstanding pop-culture history.” —Newsday The “smart and zippy account” (The Wall Street Journal) of how Las Vegas saved Elvis and Elvis saved Las Vegas in the greatest musical comeback of all time. Elvis’s 1969 opening night in Vegas was his first time back on a live stage in more than eight years. His career had gone sour—bad movies, mediocre pop songs that no longer made the charts—and he’d been dismissed by most critics as over-the-hill. But in Vegas he played the biggest showroom in the biggest hotel in the city, drawing more people for his four-week engagement than any other show in Vegas history. His performance got rave reviews; “Suspicious Minds,” the song he introduced there, gave him his first number-one hit in seven years; and Elvis became Vegas’s biggest star. Over the next seven years, he performed more than 600 shows there, and sold out every one. Las Vegas was changed, too. By the end of the ‘60s, Vegas’ golden age—when the Rat Pack led a glittering array of stars who made it the nation’s premier live-entertainment center—was losing its luster. Elvis created a new kind of Vegas show: an over-the-top, rock-concert extravaganza. He set a new bar for Vegas performers, with the biggest salary, the biggest musical production, and the biggest promotion campaign the city had ever seen. He opened the door to a new generation of pop/rock artists and brought a new audience to Vegas—not the traditional well-heeled older gamblers, but a mass audience from Middle America that Vegas depends on for its success to this day. At once “a fascinating history of Vegas as gambling capital, celebrity playground, mob hangout, [and] entertainment Valhalla” (Rolling Stone) and the incredible “tale of how the King got his groove back” (Associated Press), Elvis in Vegas is a classic feel-good story for the ages.

Author : Bob Thomas
Publisher : St Martins Press
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1988-12-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0312913524

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Liberace by Bob Thomas Pdf

A profile of the performer's public persona, and career accompanies a look at Liberace's private personality--a hopelessly romantic homosexual secretly seeking pleasure at the risk of ruining his career

Author : Jessica Glasscock
Publisher : Black Dog & Leventhal
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-10-26
Category : Design
ISBN : 9780762473434

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Making a Spectacle by Jessica Glasscock Pdf

From 13th century Franciscan monks to Beyoncé in Black is King, Making a Spectacle charts the fascinating ascension of eyeglasses—from an unsightly but useful tool to fashion's must-have accessory. The power of glasses to convey a range of vivid messages about their wearers have made them into a billion-dollar business that appeals to cool kids and rock stars, and those who want to be like them, but the fashionable history of eyeglasses is fraught with anxiety and drama. At the beginning of the 20th century, the assessment in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar was that spectacles were "invariably disfiguring." Invisibility was the best option, and glasses were only to be put on once the lights at the opera went dark. While variations of that glasses-shaming sentiment appeared at regular intervals over the next 100 years or so, eyeglasses continued to evolve into an endless array of shapes, colors, purposes, and personalities. Once sunglasses took off in the 1930s, the magazine editorial made glasses a conspicuous part of the fashion narrative. Eyeglasses went to the ski slopes, the stables, the beach, the Havana hotel. Plastic innovations made a candy-colored rainbow of cat-eyes and "starlet" styles possible. Suddenly, everyone had the opportunity to look like Jackie O on vacation in Capri. Making a Spectacle traces contemporary high fashion frames back to their origins: the military aviator, the glam cat eye, the nerdly Oxford, the high-tech shield, the fanciful butterfly, the lowly rimless, and other styles all make an appearance. Featuring interviews with influential designers, makers, and purveyors of glasses including Adam Selman, Kerin Rose Gold, and l.a. Eyeworks, Making a Spectacle also takes a look at today's most cutting edge eyewear, showing the reader the latest and most innovative ways to see and be seen.

Author : Darden Asbury Pyron
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2000-06-15
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0226686671

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Liberace by Darden Asbury Pyron Pdf

The author of "Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell" presents Liberace's life as a metaphor for both good and ill in American culture. In this fascinating biography, Pyron complicates and celebrates the reader's image of the man for whom the streets were paved with gold lame. 49 halftones.

Author : Ludwig van Beethoven,SilverTonalities
Publisher : SilverTonalities
Page : 4 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2022-01-10
Category : Music
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Fur Elise Easy Violin Sheet Music by Ludwig van Beethoven,SilverTonalities Pdf

Beethoven's Fur Elise for Solo Violin A SilverTonalities Arrangement! Easy Note Style Sheet Music Letter Names of Notes embedded in each Notehead! By purchasing this arrangement, you agree to use them for personal use only; no re-selling of any or all of the contents is permitted

Author : Jesse Isaac Berrett
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Electronic
ISBN : UCAL:C3389688

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The Secret Lives of Consumer Culture by Jesse Isaac Berrett Pdf

Author : Vincent L Stephens
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 343 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2019-10-16
Category : Music
ISBN : 9780252051661

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Rocking the Closet by Vincent L Stephens Pdf

The all-embracing, "whaddya got?" nature of rebellion in Fifties America included pop music's unlikely challenge to entrenched notions of masculinity. Within that upheaval, four prominent artists dared to behave in ways that let the public assume—but not see—their queerness. That these artists cultivated ambiguous sexual personas often reflected an understandable fear, but also a struggle to fulfill personal and professional expectations.Vincent L. Stephens confronts notions of the closet—both coming out and staying in—by analyzing the careers of Liberace, Johnny Mathis, Johnnie Ray, and Little Richard. Appealing to audiences hungry for novelty and exoticism, the four pop icons used performance and queering techniques that ran the gamut. Liberace's flamboyance shared a spectrum with Mathis's intimate sensitivity while Ray's overwrought displays as "Mr. Emotion" seemed worlds apart from Little Richard's raise-the-roof joyousness. As Stephens shows, the quartet not only thrived in an era of gray flannel manhood, they pioneered the ways generations of later musicians would consciously adopt sexual mystery as an appealing and proven route to success.

Author : Richard Rodriguez
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-03
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781101638019

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Darling by Richard Rodriguez Pdf

An award–winning writer delivers a major reckoning with religion, place, and sexuality in the aftermath of 9/11 Hailed in The Washington Post as “one of the most eloquent and probing public intellectuals in America,” Richard Rodriguez now considers religious violence worldwide, growing public atheism in the West, and his own mortality. Rodriguez’s stylish new memoir—the first book in a decade from the Pulitzer Prize finalist—moves from Jerusalem to Silicon Valley, from Moses to Liberace, from Lance Armstrong to Mother Teresa. Rodriguez is a homosexual who writes with love of the religions of the desert that exclude him. He is a passionate, unorthodox Christian who is always mindful of his relationship to Judaism and Islam because of a shared belief in the God who revealed himself within an ecology of emptiness. And at the center of this book is a consideration of women—their importance to Rodriguez’s spiritual formation and their centrality to the future of the desert religions. Only a mind as elastic and refined as Rodriguez’s could bind these threads together into this wonderfully complex tapestry.

Author : Juli Ana Andrew
Publisher : Dorrance Publishing
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2013-09-25
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781480901445

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Vienna by Juli Ana Andrew Pdf

In the quiet town of Bridge Falls, a boy meets a girl with whom he falls in love. Though this is what he feels, he himself doesn't know, or is afraid to admit that such is his feelings for her. Rainey has big plans for himself. Though adept at farm life, having grown up in one, he doesn't want that life. He is studying architecture and will soon be graduating, on his way to fulfill his dreams. Vienna is the new girl in town. She is beautiful and quirky. Her family owns the newest diner in town, which has become a quick success. And that is where the fateful first meeting of Rainey and Vienna takes place. They are drawn to each other like moths to a flame, their young hearts reveling at the feelings and sensations that they evoke to each other. But unacknowledged love, at least in words, can be as damaging as an unrequited one, since they both look and sound the same. And from this tragic omission, caused by youthful arrogance and misunderstanding, will a love story be fulfilled, yet twenty years in the making. About the Author JULI ANA ANDREW lives in a small rural community in Southern British Columbia with her husband. They live on the banks of a pristine river. Her main priority was raising their two children and being involved in their activities. Once they left home, she worked as a long-term care aide at their local hospital. She has also done various volunteer work. Juli's hobbies have included traveling, gardening, antiquing, and painting. VIENNA is her first novel, and she is well on her way to continuing on with her story in a sequel.

Author : Craig Nelson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : STANFORD:36105017531638

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Bad TV by Craig Nelson Pdf

The ultimate in the genre of funny TV nostalgia books, Bad TV celebrates the amazingly bad shows that have made it onto TV--from My Mother, the Car and Pink Lady & Jeff to Manimal and Cop Rock--and into our psyches, and hands out awards to the bad classics in every category. 45 photos.