r***@gmail.com
2017-06-21 00:13:31 UTC
Dear David, I truly enjoyed your post about your experience at the Liberace House. I performed with Emilio Morel at the Hilton Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel in the Summer of 1999. I have been trying to get in touch with Emilio for quite some time now. If you know anything about his whereabouts, please let me know. My email address is ***@gmail.com
Your experience is close to mine when I first met Emilio! What a wonderful read. Thanks so much for posting! by the way, I hope you get this message. I am reading it today being June 20th, 2017. I wish I had seen this sooner.
All my Best,
Roland BaChoura
Your experience is close to mine when I first met Emilio! What a wonderful read. Thanks so much for posting! by the way, I hope you get this message. I am reading it today being June 20th, 2017. I wish I had seen this sooner.
All my Best,
Roland BaChoura
Day 8 Report, Sunday, May 18 -- Part 1 of 2
The day began with a morning session on the laptop. To save
us time, Roz went down to Toscano's Deli in The Rio and
brought back a lunch of corned beef sandwich, cole slaw and
toasted bagel. We then left the hotel and began what turned
out to be one of the most delightful, unusual and memorable
experiences we have ever had in Las Vegas. I can only hope
the following description does it justice.
May 16 would have been Liberace's 78th birthday, and this
weekend brought a number of events to honor the memory of
the flamboyant showman and pianist par excellence. One of
the events was a rare open house at "Las Vegas Villa,"
Liberace's home on Shirley Street, just off Tropicana near
UNLV.
Having read about the open house in the Las Vegas Review-
Journal several weeks ago, we very much wanted to attend.
When we pulled up in front of the villa, we found ourselves
speaking with a guard who talked to us from behind the closed
front gate. He asked if we were members of the Liberace Fan
Club and, when we replied in the negative, he said the open
house was for members only. At that moment, an officer of
the fan club came out from the house to speak with us. When
we said we were Liberace fans who had come all the way from
Massachusetts to attend the open house, she smiled broadly
and invited us inside.
What we found astounded us. Before we even reached the front
door, our hostess, Julia White, said, "Prepare yourself for
a surprise," and out stepped Liberace himself to greet us at
the door!
Well, it certainly was the spitting image of Liberace. In
fact, it was Will Collins, a dead-ringer who played
Liberace in "Legends in Concert" at the Imperial Palace and
now reprises the role in guest appearances all over the
country.
Will ushered us into the home, where a fee of $25 each was
collected from us to attend the open house. Julia introduced
us to several of the fan club members who had come to Las
Vegas from throughout the USA to be in attendance. There
were about 50 people there. White-jacketed waitresses
wearing gloves circulated throughout the house, offering hot
hors d'ouevres such as spinach puffs and little meat pies. A
table in a small reception room was piled high with cheeses,
fresh fruit, scrumptious-looking cakes and tortes. Glasses
of champagne were offered, and there was also a bar where
wine, beer and mixed drinks were served at no additional
charge.
After Roz and I posed for photos with Will "Liberace"
Collins, we toured the house at our leisure. Among the
architectural highlights we noted: The foyer's circular
staircase, hand-sculpted in Italy at a cost of $44,000; the
living room, with its etched floor-to-ceiling glass wall;
the glass bar with its $8,800 antique stained-glass ceiling
imported from England; the "Eternal Hallway," featuring
2,000-year-old marble pillars imported from Greece, antique
Baccarat wall sconces, and imported marble floors; the
Master Suite, with the $65,000 custom-designed tab/spa that
was the site of the "Bubble Bath" sequence that opened many
of Liberace's TV shows, and the ceiling mural interpreting
the Sistine Chapel at a cost of $1.5 million. We also saw
the massive walk-in closet, as large as some hotel suites.
Upstairs in the house, the centerpiece is the solarium known
as the Moroccan Room, built with $200,000 in custom-made
Moroccan tile, exactly duplicating the room at Liberace's
Hollywood penthouse. -- All this was wonderful to see, but
equally wonderful was what followed.
When we first entered the home, a superb pianist was playing
popular favorites in the Liberace style on the grand piano
in the living room, just off the foyer. Now, after more than
an hour of circulating throughout the house, enjoying
cocktails and food, and talking with the fan club members
gathered there, we all gravitated to the ballroom, part of
which sits over what was Liberace's swimming pool. As we sat
at small round tables covered with linen tablecloths, the
same pianist took the stage to present a 30-minute concert.
The pianist's name is Emilio Morel. An Argentinian, Morel
was an early winner of a Liberace play-alike contest, and
he is a world-class performer. Layering arpeggios and lush
chords over each other as Liberace did, Morel delivered
renditions of classical favorites and broadway songs from
"Phantom of the Opera," "Evita" and "My Fair Lady." His
audience received him enthusiastically, and we were
delighted to be present for Emilio's performance.
Following Morel, Will Collins returned in his Liberace
persona. He played a couple of tunes, adequately but not as
accomplished as Morel of course, then moved through the
audience, delivering many of the famous lines exactly as
Liberace did. Example: "You like my rings. Well, here, take
a closer look. After all, you paid for them!"
Oh, we had such a delightful time. When Collins concluded
the event by delivering Liberace's goodbye theme song, "I'll
be Seeing You," we were sorry to have it end. It was an
absolutely magical two hours, and an experience we'll long
cherish.
After leaving the Liberace villa, we drove downtown and
parked in the garage of the Las Vegas Club, validating our
garage ticket in the casino to obtain six hours of free
parking. The construction at the Las Vegas Club is now
complete, and the project has been beautifully done. It
hardly looks like the same place anymore. There's a new
sports bar, new gift shop, and a nice stuccoed walkway
leading between the old and new casino areas. We went
upstairs to The Upper Deck Restaurant, where I re-examined a
private room at the back,which I had been considering for a
group dinner during this visit. Looking at the room and
talking about possible dinner arrangements with the hostess
suggested to me that we may be able to have a successful
group dinner there on a future visit.
We ran $20 through a VP machine, and we are exactly even on
our limited VP action to date.
Next, we walked out the back door of The Las Vegas Club and
entered The California for dinner at Pasta Pirate. Our
reservations were for the 5:30 p.m. opening, so we were
immediately seated.
Our dinners started with salads composed of iceberg lettuce,
chickpeas, tomato, olives, two slices of pepperoni, and
pepperoncini. Roz had an Italian dressing on her salad, and
I had a creamy French with honey. The usual basket of
seasoned bread was placed on the table, along with a dish
of marinara sauce for dipping.
Rosalyn's menu choice, at $13.95, would seem to be one of
the true bargains on the Pasta Pirate menu: linguine in a pesto
sauce, topped with a variety of grilled seafood, including
clams, an oyster, small lobster tail, scallops, swordfish,
and two large shrimp. Rosalyn's opinion: absolutely scrumptious.
My selection was the restaurant's one-pound serving of
Alaskan king crab legs, split down the middle to make
removal of the sweet, tasty meat as easy as could be.
Continued in Part 2
Best wishes from David ...in Las Vegas
The day began with a morning session on the laptop. To save
us time, Roz went down to Toscano's Deli in The Rio and
brought back a lunch of corned beef sandwich, cole slaw and
toasted bagel. We then left the hotel and began what turned
out to be one of the most delightful, unusual and memorable
experiences we have ever had in Las Vegas. I can only hope
the following description does it justice.
May 16 would have been Liberace's 78th birthday, and this
weekend brought a number of events to honor the memory of
the flamboyant showman and pianist par excellence. One of
the events was a rare open house at "Las Vegas Villa,"
Liberace's home on Shirley Street, just off Tropicana near
UNLV.
Having read about the open house in the Las Vegas Review-
Journal several weeks ago, we very much wanted to attend.
When we pulled up in front of the villa, we found ourselves
speaking with a guard who talked to us from behind the closed
front gate. He asked if we were members of the Liberace Fan
Club and, when we replied in the negative, he said the open
house was for members only. At that moment, an officer of
the fan club came out from the house to speak with us. When
we said we were Liberace fans who had come all the way from
Massachusetts to attend the open house, she smiled broadly
and invited us inside.
What we found astounded us. Before we even reached the front
door, our hostess, Julia White, said, "Prepare yourself for
a surprise," and out stepped Liberace himself to greet us at
the door!
Well, it certainly was the spitting image of Liberace. In
fact, it was Will Collins, a dead-ringer who played
Liberace in "Legends in Concert" at the Imperial Palace and
now reprises the role in guest appearances all over the
country.
Will ushered us into the home, where a fee of $25 each was
collected from us to attend the open house. Julia introduced
us to several of the fan club members who had come to Las
Vegas from throughout the USA to be in attendance. There
were about 50 people there. White-jacketed waitresses
wearing gloves circulated throughout the house, offering hot
hors d'ouevres such as spinach puffs and little meat pies. A
table in a small reception room was piled high with cheeses,
fresh fruit, scrumptious-looking cakes and tortes. Glasses
of champagne were offered, and there was also a bar where
wine, beer and mixed drinks were served at no additional
charge.
After Roz and I posed for photos with Will "Liberace"
Collins, we toured the house at our leisure. Among the
architectural highlights we noted: The foyer's circular
staircase, hand-sculpted in Italy at a cost of $44,000; the
living room, with its etched floor-to-ceiling glass wall;
the glass bar with its $8,800 antique stained-glass ceiling
imported from England; the "Eternal Hallway," featuring
2,000-year-old marble pillars imported from Greece, antique
Baccarat wall sconces, and imported marble floors; the
Master Suite, with the $65,000 custom-designed tab/spa that
was the site of the "Bubble Bath" sequence that opened many
of Liberace's TV shows, and the ceiling mural interpreting
the Sistine Chapel at a cost of $1.5 million. We also saw
the massive walk-in closet, as large as some hotel suites.
Upstairs in the house, the centerpiece is the solarium known
as the Moroccan Room, built with $200,000 in custom-made
Moroccan tile, exactly duplicating the room at Liberace's
Hollywood penthouse. -- All this was wonderful to see, but
equally wonderful was what followed.
When we first entered the home, a superb pianist was playing
popular favorites in the Liberace style on the grand piano
in the living room, just off the foyer. Now, after more than
an hour of circulating throughout the house, enjoying
cocktails and food, and talking with the fan club members
gathered there, we all gravitated to the ballroom, part of
which sits over what was Liberace's swimming pool. As we sat
at small round tables covered with linen tablecloths, the
same pianist took the stage to present a 30-minute concert.
The pianist's name is Emilio Morel. An Argentinian, Morel
was an early winner of a Liberace play-alike contest, and
he is a world-class performer. Layering arpeggios and lush
chords over each other as Liberace did, Morel delivered
renditions of classical favorites and broadway songs from
"Phantom of the Opera," "Evita" and "My Fair Lady." His
audience received him enthusiastically, and we were
delighted to be present for Emilio's performance.
Following Morel, Will Collins returned in his Liberace
persona. He played a couple of tunes, adequately but not as
accomplished as Morel of course, then moved through the
audience, delivering many of the famous lines exactly as
Liberace did. Example: "You like my rings. Well, here, take
a closer look. After all, you paid for them!"
Oh, we had such a delightful time. When Collins concluded
the event by delivering Liberace's goodbye theme song, "I'll
be Seeing You," we were sorry to have it end. It was an
absolutely magical two hours, and an experience we'll long
cherish.
After leaving the Liberace villa, we drove downtown and
parked in the garage of the Las Vegas Club, validating our
garage ticket in the casino to obtain six hours of free
parking. The construction at the Las Vegas Club is now
complete, and the project has been beautifully done. It
hardly looks like the same place anymore. There's a new
sports bar, new gift shop, and a nice stuccoed walkway
leading between the old and new casino areas. We went
upstairs to The Upper Deck Restaurant, where I re-examined a
private room at the back,which I had been considering for a
group dinner during this visit. Looking at the room and
talking about possible dinner arrangements with the hostess
suggested to me that we may be able to have a successful
group dinner there on a future visit.
We ran $20 through a VP machine, and we are exactly even on
our limited VP action to date.
Next, we walked out the back door of The Las Vegas Club and
entered The California for dinner at Pasta Pirate. Our
reservations were for the 5:30 p.m. opening, so we were
immediately seated.
Our dinners started with salads composed of iceberg lettuce,
chickpeas, tomato, olives, two slices of pepperoni, and
pepperoncini. Roz had an Italian dressing on her salad, and
I had a creamy French with honey. The usual basket of
seasoned bread was placed on the table, along with a dish
of marinara sauce for dipping.
Rosalyn's menu choice, at $13.95, would seem to be one of
the true bargains on the Pasta Pirate menu: linguine in a pesto
sauce, topped with a variety of grilled seafood, including
clams, an oyster, small lobster tail, scallops, swordfish,
and two large shrimp. Rosalyn's opinion: absolutely scrumptious.
My selection was the restaurant's one-pound serving of
Alaskan king crab legs, split down the middle to make
removal of the sweet, tasty meat as easy as could be.
Continued in Part 2
Best wishes from David ...in Las Vegas