Liberace

More people watched his nationally syndicated television show between 1953 and 1955 than followed "I Love Lucy". Even a decade after his death, the attendance records he set at Madison Square Garden, the Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall still stand. Arguably the most popular entertainer of the 20th century, this very public figure nonetheless kept more than a few secrets. Darden Asbury Pyron, author of "Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell", leads us through the life of America's foremost showman with his fresh, provocative and definitive portrait of Liberace, an American boy. Liberace's career follows the trajectory of the classic American dream. Born in the Midwest to Polish-Italian immigrant parents, he was a child prodigy who, by the age of 20, had performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Abandoning the concert stage for the lucrative and glittery world of nightclubs, celebrities and television, Liberace became America's most popular performer. While