Pianist’s Passion for Property : Liberace Owned Six Homes, Mall and Office Building
Liberace was having lunch with Mae West in the late ‘50s when the actress told him about a property she sold for several million dollars.
“That was when he saw gold in real estate,” said Jamie James, who handled Liberace’s public relations for 20 years before the musician-showman died last February.
And when he died, Liberace owned quite a lot of real estate. He had a mansion and shopping center in Las Vegas, a house in Palm Springs, another house at Lake Tahoe, a five-story office building with a residential penthouse in Los Angeles, and two adjacent co-ops in Malibu.
Neither an exact value of Liberace’s properties nor a value of his total estate, which is still being settled, was available, but they were estimated to be in the “multi-millions.”
Piano-Related Items
“He especially loved his homes,” James said, “and when he was not working, he enjoyed his properties as he did all things he collected.”
In his collections were pianos and piano-related things. In his Malibu co-op, there was a piano-shaped bar, piano-shaped couch, bath towels and ice bucket with keyboard designs, drinking glasses with swizzle sticks in the shape of musical notes, a black baby grand and candelabra, his trademark.
He also collected antiques, cars, Christmas ornaments, jewelry and art. Some of his collectibles are elegant, like the baccarat crystal table dating from 1850. Others are unusual, like the 1960 red and silver Cadillac limo with a diamond-studded candelabrum.
Auction Catalogue Due
These and many other treasures that belonged to Liberace will be auctioned April 10-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center by Christie’s and Butterfield & Butterfield. The catalogue, listing auction items, is expected to be out in January.
However, it does not include Liberace’s properties. And several of his properties are for sale, being readied for sale or in the process of being sold.
In the past few weeks, one of his Malibu co-ops and his office building with the penthouse entered escrow. Both were listed by Bill Weatherby of Santa Monica, who also has the $695,000 listing on Liberace’s other, larger co-op.
Liberace combined two units to make the larger co-op after he bought three one-bedroom co-ops in the six-unit, 25-year-old building in 1984. He kept his smaller, one-bedroom unit for guests.
It’s being purchased by Charles Stubbs, a retired TWA pilot, and his wife of 45 years. “It was one of Mrs. Stubbs’ big dreams to sit in her home and watch the waves,” said Richard Mark of Fred Sands Realtors, who represented the buyers. “It was a dream Mr. Stubbs wanted to fulfill for her.”
Furnishing to Be Removed
The couple already owns a home in Brentwood, so they will not live in Malibu full time, but they should be able to move in after Christie’s moves Liberace’s furnishings the first week of December, Mark added.
The furnishings will also be removed then from the two-bedroom unit, which will be rented out, unless it is sold first, at $4,500 a month until the co-op is turned into a condominium. It will be converted to a condo to facilitate financing, Weatherby explained.
The Stubbses purchased their unit for $285,000, $10,000 less than its asking price, to cover minor maintenance and conversion costs.
“I think they got a good deal, because you can’t get much on the sand in Malibu for $300,000,” Mark noted, “and it was appraised at $295,000.”
Tested Positive to AIDS
It was a good buy but not the bargain some people looking at the unit might have expected.
“I showed the unit a lot,” Mark said, “and I had people who thought they could steal it because Liberace had AIDS.” Liberace tested positive to the AIDS virus eight months before his death, according to a report of the Riverside County Coroner, though there was no mention of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome on his death report.
Some home shoppers have voiced concern about the AIDS connection, he said, “but Mr. Stubbs just said it was a shame such a nice young man died so early.” Liberace was 67.
More people have reacted negatively to the furnishings in the larger unit than to Liberace’s connection with AIDS, Mark observed. He figures that removing the furnishings will make the unit more salable. Glitz and glamour were Liberace’s signature at home as well as on the stage.
Like Color Black
One client didn’t like what Mark describes as Liberace’s “black theme.”
Liberace liked the color black. In his Malibu co-op, there is a steam shower with black tile; a black sink with brass fittings; black lacquered cabinets, a black sable bedspread, a black refrigerator, a black oven, black bar stools on brass legs, and lamps that are life-size statues of black figures holding gold chandelier-type lights.
Liberace liked mirrors. In Malibu, there are mirror-topped tables, a piano-shaped mirror over the bar, and a mirrored wall to reflect the ocean. Liberace also had a couple of mirrored grand pianos, but one is in his Los Angeles penthouse, the other in his Las Vegas home.
Chandelier Over Bathtub
He liked tiny, Tivoli-like twinkling lights and had them installed along the stage-like platform under his bar stools in Malibu and along the four posters of his king-size bed in Los Angeles, where an elaborate chandelier hangs over the master bathtub.
Liberace bought the 25,000-square-foot office building with 5,000-square-foot residential penthouse at 7461 Beverly Blvd. in 1978. Designed by Anthony Heinsbergen, the late great artist who painted the ornate interiors of many Art-Deco theaters built in the ‘20s and ‘30s, the office building was built in the late ‘50s just steps away from Heinsbergen’s offices, now headed by his son.
The penthouse has an outdoor swimming pool as well as a gourmet kitchen and a couple of fireplaces that Liberace added after he bought the building for just under $1 million.
More Than Appraised Value
Escrow is due to close Dec. 30 on the building, which is being purchased for $2.55 million by Larry Taylor, president and owner of Malibu-headquartered Christina Development. Though priced at first at $4 million, the building was appraised at $2.3 million, said Weatherby, “so it sold for more than the appraised value.”
Before the property entered escrow, Weatherby said, “It’s a user deal, not an investor building. It will take a unique person to appreciate it, possibly another entertainer who doesn’t like hotels.” After Taylor won out over five other written offers with his all-cash deal, Weatherby said, “He’ll probably put some entertainers into the building.”
The building has 18 offices besides the penthouse, which is being emptied of such Liberace belongings as Chinese rugs, leopard-skin stools and Oriental vases. The penthouse also had a life-sized brass sculpture of a sitting giraffe, which appeared to be watching a big-screen TV. As his publicist, Jamie James, expressed it: “Liberace was a great man with a great sense of humor.”
He Loved Penthouses
On a wall, there were some photos showing Liberace with President and Mrs. Reagan, Phyllis Diller, Eva Gabor, Jimmy Durante, and Jack Benny, who was playing the violin while Liberace played the piano.
More than Malibu, this was home to Liberace. The main reason: It was a penthouse. And Liberace loved penthouses.
The affection grew from the movie “Sincerely Yours,” which he made in 1955. Liberace played a pianist who owned a penthouse.
That’s why he bought the office building with the penthouse. That’s also why he rented an apartment at Trump Towers in New York.
The pianist Liberace played in the movie was going deaf so he learned to read lips. At Trump Towers, Liberace found it a challenge to read the lips of people in the park below through binoculars, said James.
“He liked to make his fantasies come true.”
He often did with real estate.
