as seen: a museum

© kjm

When I was a kid, Liberace, a Milwaukee native, attempted to buy an old mansion not far from my house, in order to open a museum. The neighbors protested, I think, for fear of big buses and big hair - or possibly there was a law on the town's books outlawing the public display sequined hotpants. Anyway, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin lost out to Las Vegas, Nevada.

We visited the museum recently (Marilu scored with a really good floaty pen - ringed hands moving across keys), and it was well done - with his collections of pianos, cars and, of course, stage outfits. The strip mall location, though, was a bit less than grand. One outside wall of the museum is designed to look like a gigantic page of sheet music for the Beer Barrel Polka.

Which proves, you can take the boy out of Milwaukee, but you can't take the Milwaukee out of the boy. Even if that boy is Liberace.