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This "deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love" rose to stardom playing "classical music without the boring parts" and didn't need to stay in the closet because he wore its entire contents. How could he become an emblem of Middle American family entertainment? The United States of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s was undergoing enormous social change \u2013\u2013 the Civil Rights Movement, the Summer of Love, Women\u2019s Lib, the Stonewall Riots, Gay Liberation, and the beginning of the AIDS movement \u2013\u2013 and Liberace was an entertainer who appealed to precisely those parts of the country who sought to resist those changes. Hated by classical music critics, he was beloved by audiences precisely because of the openness of his secret and the way he performed a kind of minstrel act that nevertheless won him fame, riches, and glory. \n\xa0\nVisit our website for Patreon, T-shirts, and an eopside archive.\n----more----\n\xa0\nGabler, Neal. \u201cRobert Harrison\u2019s Scandalous Confidential Magazine.\u201d Vanity Fair, April 2003. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2003/04/robert-harrison-confidential-magazine.\nLiberace Music Video & Entrance 1981, 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dioRwB4RvrQ.\nO\u2019Connor, Pauline. \u201cMapping the Many Razzle-Dazzle Homes of Liberace.\u201d Curbed LA, May 24, 2013. https://la.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-many-razzledazzle-homes-of-liberace.\nPyron, Darden Asbury. Liberace: An American Boy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.\nRechy, John. \u201cRandy Dandy.\u201d Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2000. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-06-bk-65295-story.html.\nThorson, Scott. Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace. Head of Zeus, 2013.\n\xa0\n\nOur intro music is\xa0Arpeggia Colorix\xa0by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons\xa0Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ\xa0Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.