Liberace – Bigger Than Ever at SPAC
by Hermine Sherman, The Post-Star, August 25, 1977
He made his entrance dripping in white mink and bowed out in a red, white and blue outfit which he lit up as the stage darkened.
Who else – but Liberace.
The entertainer known as Mr. Showmanship delighted over 11 thousand people Sunday, which he proudly announced broke some kind of attendance record at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
There’s no doubt about it – he has the audience eating out of his hand. And speaking of hands, his are weighted down with diamonds and precious stones in such forms as a grand piano. He delights in telling his fans all about them.
“I didn’t get dressed like this to go unnoticed,” he quipped as the audience gasped at his floor-length white mink coat with its long cape. The silver sequin suit underneath was “just something I had hanging in the back of the closet.”
He then sat down on his white mink-covered piano bench to dazzle the crowd with some George Gershwin tunes. That finished, he introduced one of his discoveries, a hilarious comedy puppeteer named Barclay Shaw, while he went backstage to change into something “more spectacular.”
His next showstopper was a long hot pink sequin cape over a matching suit. After shedding the cape, he began to play some classical music by Chopin, which, although adequate, was not done with the same degree of excellence as his boogie-woogie, such as “Boogie Eight to the Bar,” and the favorite of all, “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue. His medley of Eddie Duchin numbers such as “Somebody Loves Me” and “It Had To Be You” were a thrill for the “thirtyniners” in the audience.
At one point. he introduced his protege, Vince Cardell, who appeared in the same white tails as Liberace and played in the same grand manner on a second grand piano, topped, too, with candelabra shining with red electric lights. His “Ebb Tide” was delightful.
Just as you began to wonder how he could top his last costume. Mr. Showmanship swaggered in wearing a Black Diamond Mink cape lined in Austrian rhinestones – the most expensive in the world – and weighing some 136 pounds.
Making their first appearance in America was a close-harmony trio called “The New Faces,” discovered by Liberace on his last trip to England, where they are Britain’s most televised vocal group. They were neatly dressed, with the girl in a long gold gown lined in red and slit from thigh to toe. The audience loved them, as Liberace noted.
The audience, in fact, showed its enthusiasm the whole time, and there were at least two standing ovations for the man, who is known to be the highest-paid entertainer in history.
His jokes are corny, including the one about now owning the bank where he once borrowed money. But it’s all so true
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