What better compliment to the neon glitz of Las Vegas than a museum brimming with rhinestones, Rolls Royces and furs? The publicist calls it "a little taste of Liberace" -- precisely the kind of understatement that gilded pianos and full-length mink capes leave reeling in the desert dust.
The Liberace Museum is celebrating its 18th anniversary Tuesday. Among other things, the museum houses a collection of Mr. Showmanship's pianos, costumes, and the cars he used to make his stage entrances.

"There's a Rolls Royce ... covered in mirrored tiles that are etched with galloping horses," says Jamie James, Liberace's publicist from 1967 to 1987. "And there's an Excalibur completely covered in Austrian rhinestones -- even the tool kit -- that he used for his last show at Radio City Music Hall."