Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau.
The flamboyant entertainer with West Allis roots had a talent for tickling the ivories that was rivaled only by his expert showmanship. Play along with us. By Tim McCormick
1. True or False When Wladziu Valentino Liberace began his career, playing movie houses and saloons, he adopted the stage name “Walter Busterkeys.”
2. True or False Liberace, escorted to the ring by the Rockettes, worked the very first “WrestleMania” in 1985 as a guest timekeeper.
3. True or False Liberace’s Las Vegas mansion, which, according to the musician, included a $1.5 million mural painted by a descendant of Michelangelo, sold for just $500,000 in 2013.
4. True or False The now-shuttered Liberace Museum (also in Sin City) once housed a fan-submitted Steinway piano made of 10,000 toothpicks.
5. True or False Throughout his 72-performance run of Liberace!, Jack Forbes Wilson will hammer out 17,280,000 individual notes on the keys as he tackles fan favorites like “Chopsticks” and “The Boogie Woogie.”
➤ The Milwaukee Repertory Theater stages Liberace! Nov. 7-Jan. 11, 2015.
Answers:
All five are true-to-life facts about Liberace and the Rep’s production.
