President’s ouster part of expanded plans for Liberace’s image

By John Katsilometes

Thursday, April 30, 2009 | 8:10 p.m.

This could be Liberace’s largest world tour since … well, since he died 22 years ago.

The Liberace Museum’s reorganization this week, which led to Darin Hollingsworth’s long-expected (even by him, as it turns out) departure as the institution’s president after three years of service, is part of a larger plan to take the Liberace brand on the road. Hollingsworth is a fine museum head and spokesman whose chief strengths are behaving chief-like -- managing a core staff and nurturing growth through local donations. But those skills are not what the Liberace Foundation particularly needs as it moves forward in its new partnership with Exhibits Development Group, an organization out of St. Paul, Minn., that you might not know of but is crucial to the regeneration of Liberace’s name, image and merchandise.

“I don’t have the legal background in the areas of intellectual property that they’ll need as they move forward,” Hollingsworth said during a phone conversation today. “Their needs will change with the collection on tour. I realize that. They’ll need someone to manage all of that commercial real estate.”

EDG does a lot of that. Beginning in 2010, the company will send select items plucked from the Liberace Museum collections to such Liberace-friendly towns as Milwaukee (his original home) and Palm Springs, Calif. (his late-in-life home). Cities in Florida, where God bless ’em they still remember when Lee was an affable young pianist at the Riviera, are natural Liberace tour destinations (the museum itself would remain in operation during this period). Every stop should be fertile territory for new donors to the foundation. Expect this national Liberace outreach program to coincide with a PBS-style documentary on Liberace’s life that will be shopped to cable TV channels. Also in the works is a full-scale Broadway production centering on Liberace’s life and career. A one-man, cabaret-style show starring Waylan Pickard (described by Variety as “a flamboyant ivory tickler,” which I think is a compliment) is already moving toward a Broadway booking.

Hollingsworth’s departure is, naturally, a money-saving move. My colleague Kristen Peterson’s story about the foundation’s finances indicates that the organization would save $120,000 as a result of reorganizing Hollingsworth off the staff. This is what happens when a museum’s attendance falls from 250,000 annually, the figure Liberace Museum officials gave me for a 1998 story about the attraction, and today’s estimated 50,000.

What would really help lure the masses to the museum would be a ribald, warts-and-everything feature film about Liberace’s lives and loves. But Hollingsworth, even as he dims his own candelabra as museum president, has not supported exploiting Liberace’s legacy for financial gain. Hollingsworth said he’s known for “quite a while” that he’d soon be gone, but helmed the museum through its Erich Bergen-fronted showcase fundraisers and the April 15 30th anniversary celebration. He was finally told Monday by foundation administrators Jack Rappaport and Jeff Koep and that he would no longer be needed. “Nobody wanted to detract from the showcases and the anniversary. It was paramount that the momentum continues.” Hollingsworth’s parting words: “I’m going to stay loyal to this community and the museum. I drank the rhinestones, yes.”