Wheels Blog: The Flamboyant Cars of Liberace

Marty Lederhandler/Associated Press Liberace with a 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I, which he used in a Radio City Music Hall show in 1985.

“Behind the Candelabra,” the new HBO movie about Liberace, has a scene in which he drives up to his Hollywood home (it’s actually Zsa Zsa Gabor’s home, but that’s another story.) in a Mercedes-Benz 450SL, and arrayed around the driveway is a collection of cars as flamboyant as the entertainer.

Claudette Barius/HBO Michael Douglas, left, and Matt Damon in the HBO film “Behind the Candelabra,” directed by Steven Soderbergh.

The movie, making its debut this weekend and starring Michael Douglas as Liberace, is billed as a look into Liberace’s private life and loves, so it is no surprise that considerable screen time is given to the man’s cars. Jerry Goldberg, the marketing director of the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, said in a 2010 interview that over the years Liberace had owned at least 30 cars before he died in 1987.

For decades, the museum, which closed to the public in 2010, had a more or less permanent display of seven of his favorite vehicles. These included a gold metal-flake, customized 1972 Bradley GT that Liberace drove in Palm Springs, Calif., where he lived. There was also a 1957 taxicab from England; it still had a working meter that registered pounds, shillings and pence. The museum’s display noted that Liberace loved picking up guests in it and turning on the meter.

His “Bicentennial Rolls-Royce,” a 1954 model that was painted in patriotic red, white and blue. For a 1976 performance he wore an outfit, including hot pants, that matched the car and piano. Matching cars, costumes and pianos were a recurring Liberace theme, as familiar in his act as his signature tune, “I’ll Be Seeing You.”

One of Liberace’s more valuable cars was a 1962 Rolls-Royce Phantom V Landau with a retractable top. He had it covered in a mosaic of jewel-like mirrors, with patterns of prancing horses. It has been described as “a disco ball on wheels.”

Liberace’s collection also included a certain amount of schlock, of questionable value. One of his favorites was a replica of a 1931 Ford Model A; Liberace used it as a stage prop.

There is also a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible that Liberace commissioned George Barris, the customizer, to turn into a mini Rolls-Royce. The resulting mirror-encrusted creation was lathered in hot pink paint and had the license plate “VWRR JR.”

Of course, there is also the so-called Rhinestone Roadster, a sort of kit-car creation adorned with faux gemstones that matched a stage costume and the piano that was used in his 1986 performance at Radio City Music Hall.

That car, by the way, was on display in New York last week, along with other Liberace memorabilia, in conjunction with the movie’s premiere. The Liberace Foundation still controls many of the museum’s artifacts (although some have been sold).

His favorite car? Mr. Goldberg, the Liberace museum’s marketing director, said it was a 1954 Cadillac Eldorado presented to him by his old television show’s sponsor, Citizens National Bank.

But what was Liberace’s first car? Mr. Goldberg said Liberace’s first car, which he couldn’t afford to buy until he was already 30 years old, was a red 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 convertible.

Why that car? Though Olds clearly had a winner with the new 88 and Liberace loved the color red, why an Olds 88?

Eighty-eight matches the number of keys on a piano.

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Categories: Flamboyant, Liberace, Wheels