Latest Las Vegas casualty: Liberace Museum to shut down

[Newsjock]

Source: Las Vegas Sun

One of Las Vegas' jewel attractions, and a significant part of its cultural and entertainment history, is closing.

The Liberace Museum, which has exhibited the jewelry, pianos, garish gowns and other artifacts owned by the great pianist and showman, announced today it will close effective Oct. 17. The museum opened April 15, 1979.

... At its peak, the Liberace Museum rivaled Hoover Dam as one of the region's most popular off-Strip tourism destinations, drawing 450,000 visitors per year. That number is closer to 50,000 today, even with an aggressive marketing effort by the museum that has helped boost raw visitor numbers through such promotions as 2-for-1 ticket packages. But actual ticket revenue has not matched even modest gains in visits to the museum.

Officials long have said that the museum has suffered as the competition from the Strip has become more enticing to tourists and that Las Vegas residents are not compelled to visit an attraction that sits far from the city's heaviest population bases.

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/kats-report/2010/sep/10/liberace-museum-closing-final-day-operation-longtm/

[Renew Deal]

1. The number of people with an interest is declining.

Hopefully it gets moved into one of the casinos.

[jobycom]

2. That's horrible! When we forget the price the French paid for Liberty, what becomes of us?

:cry:

[Maat]

3. HeeHee.

:rofl:

[Ozymanithrax]

4. The Roy Rogers museum closes in 2009 and now Liberace...

What is the world coming to when minor pop culture icons of the 50's and 60's are no longer an attraction. Chandell, we will miss you.

It is a sad sad world.

Happy trails to you, Liberace.

[tabasco]

5. I'm not sure why,

but I was sad to read this.

Ol' Liberace was such a fabulous sumbitch.

[Speck Tater]

6. Does anybody under 50 even know who the hell Liberace is?

I remember seeing him on TV in the 50's but I'm 65. People younger than me, which frankly, is just about everybody, were never exposed to him so to them it's just a meaningless name.

[SoCalDem]

7. People who remembered him, are dead or dying off

I have actually been there... All the mirrors made it look a lot bigger than it actually is:) The collection could easily be moved elsewhere, if there was an interest in the stuff..

[BattyDem]

8. What a shame. That place was great!

The costumes, the cars, the pianos, the glitz ... it's Vegas history! However, it was a bit inconvenient to get to and the area wasn't exactly tourist worthy. I always thought it should have been moved to Fremont Street years ago. THAT area is "old Vegas" and I think Liberace's museum would have fit in perfectly! The pedestrian traffic at the "Fremont Street Experience" would have kept the museum filled.

The article says it's "closing indefinitely, but not forever." I hope that's true. It's a very unique and interesting part of Vegas history and it deserves to be seen. You don't have to be a fan ... the spectacle of it all is a lot of fun, LOL! Sell the property and put the museum where the people are! :-)



edited: typo