1980s
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World AIDS Day (2025)
Happy World AIDS Day. 🕯️ Today, we honor the lives of the millions lost to HIV AIDS, including Liberace and his longtime partner Cary-James. Liberace first learned he was HIV positive in the summer of 1985.1 According to Cary-James, the discovery was made during a routine medical examination in which Liberace was told that he’d Continue reading
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Finocchio’s and the “Liberace Effect”
Happy Pride Month everyone! 🌈✨ This week, I thought I’d kick things off by sharing a piece from my collection which has a special place in both gay and Liberace history: a Liberace-autographed menu from the “fabulous” legendary drag club Finocchio’s! Originally opened as a speakeasy back in 1920s San Francisco, Finocchio’s would undergo its Continue reading
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Liberace, King Neptune, and the Met Gala
Happy Met Gala day! While dozens of Met Gala attendees have drawn inspiration from Liberace’s colorful and revolutionary costumes over the years, few have paid as direct or committed a tribute as Glee and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy. In 2019, Murphy attended the camp themed Met Gala in a coral and cream colored Continue reading
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Liberace: Punk Rocker?
Happy 2025 everybody! Recently, I came across this funny (and perhaps apocryphal) newspaper article from the Staffordshire Evening Sentinel which details Liberace’s visit to a punk clothing shop in London on May 21st, 1983. While the article doesn’t specify which punk clothing shop Liberace may have visited, my friend and punk history blogger The Hotter Continue reading
Beyond The Candelabra 