Cathedral City Man Appears in New Liberace Film

Liberace Film, ‘Look Me Over – Liberace,’ Scheduled to Debut in 2021

CATHEDRAL CITY — Steve Garey, a Cathedral City resident, who studied piano with Liberace from 1982 until his death in 1987, appears in the new Liberace film, “Look Me Over — Liberace,” which has already won some prestigious awards in the United States. Garey will play himself in the film.

While studying with Liberace, Garey said he lived in a guest cottage at Liberace’s property on Belardo Road in Palm Springs,

“We were good friends and nothing more,” Garey told Uken Report. ” I learned a great deal from Lee, about music, about life, and about being a good and decent person. He loved the Coachella Valley deeply, was involved in many local charities and chose his home in Palm Springs as the place he would return to to breathe his last breaths. He was one in a million and this new Liberace film, “Look Me Over —Liberace” sheds new light on the man himself, his complexities, and his affection for Palm Springs.”

This 90-minute documentary film (initially released in Europe) is a must-see for Valley residents and music fans of all ages, Garey said.

Jeremy J.P. Fekete, who wrote and directed the film, writes in his summary that Liberace was an icon, flamboyant pianist, egomaniac, showman par excellence: Liberace – the King of Bling, led his life in the fast lanes between Hollywood, Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

In the middle of the California desert, where Hollywood stars celebrated wild parties around private pools, he lived a paradoxical life of spectacle and secrecy, illusion and reality, Fekete writes. “His success is closely linked to the growing popularity of television and the American TV era. Scores of American housewives adored the musician who could play everything from jazz to classic. His public life was as paradoxical as his performances were glamorous. No other artist cultivated such an openly camp persona on America’s biggest stages while at the same time vehemently refusing to come out as gay, a facade Liberace kept up until his death.”

He was one of the first celebrities to die of complications from the AIDS virus, although his death was officially attributed to “heart failure” in order to preserve the memory of the one-man Disneyland. In the film Fekete examines his stellar career and its abrupt end in the context of America’s social and media history.

“Liberace’s story reflects the American dream – but also the country’s bigotry and the divisions of a rapidly growing society,” according to Fekete.

Photo caption above: Vintage photo of Steve Garey, Liberace and drummer Rancho Mirage resident Julie Bloch.