One of the more entertaining free or cheap things to do in Las Vegas is coming to an end, sad news for those of us who view the sparkling Strip with a bit of nostalgia. The Liberace Museum is closing. It’s impossible to miss the Liberace Museum’s building, constructed like a piano and all flash-bang attention grabbing. Though I only went to the Liberace Museum once, now I wish I’d made a point of revisiting it. Visitors to the Museum practically need to don a pair of sunglasses to dim the light bouncing off all the glitter, sequins and bling.
The Liberace Museum anchors a strip mall in Las Vegas that has many closed stores — hardly a destination shopping area, in other words. The New York Times reports that its assets won’t be sold off though, and may become a traveling museum. Over at Babble it’s reported that the “new Vegas” has tried to rebrand itself as less over-the-top glamorous, and while this may be true, it’s hardly evidenced on the Strip. What visitor to Las Vegas hasn’t been stunned by the in-your-face glam of it all, with Vegas showgirls, the live lions at MGM Grand, faux Italian appeal of the Venetian and more? People who go to Las Vegas generally know what they’re going to get (besides, perhaps, a lot more poor than when they arrived). The Liberace Museum ethos would seem to fit right in — heck, Liberace practically invented bling.
The mainstream shows, Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, pop singers’ steady gigs and stand up comics making a 
name for themselves are testament to the increased amount of sheer entertainment available for Las Vegas tourists. While the family-friendly Vegas thing is possible, it never took off, and those of us who travel to Las Vegas and don’t want to gamble have more entertainment and activity choices than ever. The Liberace Museum didn’t have the visitors it needed to sustain itself, what with all these options. Today’s young adults may not even have much of an idea of who Mr Showmanship was in the first place; he was most popular in the 1970′s, before they were born.
So much of Las Vegas is about self -invention. The Liberace Museum’s closing points to this, as it will make room for newer attractions. It’s the Vegas way, sure, but there’s something about the closing of a door to the bygone era of Liberace’s popularity that can make one wistful. Earlier I wrote that it’s impossible to miss the Liberace Museum’s building. I was wrong; I miss it already.
I always wanted to visit the Liberace Museum but it is way off the strip and not easy to get to with the latest round of traffic revisions. Now I’m sad that I didn’t get to see it. Vegas owes a lot to Liberace. The Chamber of Commerce should do something to give the Museum a new home in a better trafficked area.
It’s true that the Liberace Museum is/was off the beaten track, but the museum’s curators did have a free shuttle bus that made stops along the Strip. I remember that it picked up passengers in front of MGM Grand, at least.
Say it isn’t so. I loved the Liberace Museum when I went there and always encourage people to make it a stop in L.V. What’s with all this re-invention of the sin city, anyhow? First it was going to be a family place, now its a snooty high class place. Oh darn! Give me back tawdry and rhinestones.
He taught the world how to appreciate “bling”. Sad to see it go.