My Summer Book Report

My Dad is a big believer in empowerment. Growing up in his house, he often said his role was to serve as a guide. My siblings and me were free and even encouraged to make our own choices and to live with the consequences of those choices. Dad would step in if and when we were doing something stupid, er requiring guidance. Possessing an entrepreneurial spirit, he encouraged the same in his children. One such “encouragement” was the summer book report. It strangely felt like punishment, even if he did sweeten the deal with money.

I can’t remember the first summer it started, but I think it was one that I spent in California with my grandparents. True to form, there were choices available for the report topics. Now I ask you, what 5th grader could possibly refuse to see the excitement of reading such epic tomes as “Think and Grow Rich”, “Closing the Sale”, Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, or psychological self-help fare such as “I’m OK, You’re OK” and “Games People Play?” Shivers run down my spine just remembering it. Thank goodness he never took it a step further and got us involved in Toastmasters. Puberty was going to be hard enough.

All of that being said, I now have something interesting to report for this summer. Today I want to talk to you about Walter. Wladziu Valentino Liberace, known to the world by his stage name Liberace and to his friends as Lee, has a museum and non-profit foundation here in Las Vegas. The Internet is a wonderful thing, so I am not going to go into a complete biography of “Mr. Showmanship”, but I will say that I was surprised about many of the things I learned about him. In particular was his commitment to music education. He created a non-profit foundation called the Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts in 1976. As a recipient of music scholarships himself, he used his celebrity to create the foundation and provide financial assistance for other aspiring musicians. To date, the foundation has awarded more than 5 million dollars in scholarship grants.

I bring all this up in the context of the summer book report because Walter strikes me as a pretty savvy businessman who understood how to capitalize on his talent. He was able to take something that he loved and believed in and make a living at it. He was then able to compound that love into a business, a cause, and a legacy. A true entrepreneur wouldn’t you say, Dad? Oh, if that was only the end of the story…

The other reason I bring up Walter is the BLING!!! Duh! I mean, have you met me???? I went to the museum a couple of weeks ago when Notlob was visiting. It was my first trip and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The costumes were amazing! And, I had my picture taken next to the World’s largest rhinestone. Still waiting for the picture…Anyway, there is a special exhibit this weekend for his shoes. SHOES! Like I was going to miss that? I think not. I arrived early this morning, Starbucks in hand, ready to be dazzled. (And anxious to see what temptations awaited me in the gift shop.) I happened to park next to a van for one of the local TV stations. I thought perhaps there might be some local coverage, but I wasn’t sure how high this thing rated. It is Vegas after all, right?

Once I was inside, I went into the exhibit and saw the display. What can I tell you? They were old blinged out shoes. Sure, the cowboy boots with the candelabra’s on them were cool, as were the red patent platform disco boots, but there were only about a dozen pair of shoes there. Was that it? Were those the best? I’m not sure exactly what I was hoping for, but pink loafers and red sequin Ked’s were strangely disappointing. I started wandering around the room and looking at the costumes and shoes again. Then a woman approached me and asked me if she could ask me a couple of questions on camera. Umm, YES!!

So she clips a microphone on me and tells me to watch her and not the camera and not to be nervous. (Oh, if she only knew who she was dealing with.) The cameraman gets me set up where he wants me and then we are off and running. I figure she is going to start with something easy and sure enough her first question is “What do you think of the shoes?” I said, “I think they’re great. I’ve already asked if they have replicas available in the gift shop.” She laughed and then asked, “I don’t know about you, but with the glamour of the costumes, it’s hard to notice the shoes, don’t you think?” I said, “Well, it’s interesting that you mention that. I didn’t realize the shoes on display would be from different costumes. So now I am looking forward to going back through the costumes and looking at the shoes again. But I don't think it matters how showy the rest of the costume is. I mean, the shoes make the outfit.” She said, “Perfect.”

Thank you, thank you very much. So now I just have to wait and see if I made it on the news at all. If not, I’ll probably wonder if maybe I would have benefited from a few toastmasters lessons after all? Here’s a cutie-patootie picture of Walter from the 1950’s.

Oh, and I managed to make it out of there with only one purchase. The shoes they had were not replicas of his shoes. How weird is that? They were just miniature shoes. Well, I have plenty of those, but I ended up with a rhinestone cowboy boot anyway. So I took that and my cupcake with Walter's picture on it and was on my way. I have a few hours left to try and figure out how to use my VCR before the news comes on. Why oh why do I not have TIVO???

PS: Ok, I saw the news piece. Sure enough, they kept the hook I gave them. "The shoes make the outfit." was the piece they showed. Awesome.