By this time, he was already displaying a penchant for turning eccentricities into attention-getting practices, and earned popularity at school, despite some making him an object of ridicule. He also showed an interest in draftsmanship, design, and painting, and became a fastidious dresser and follower of fashion. For a while, Liberace adopted the stage name "Walter Busterkeys".
Though Sam and Frances did not approve, their son was earning a living during hard times. Liberace also performed in cabarets and strip clubs. In 1934, he played jazz piano with a school group called "The Mixers" and later with other groups. He gained experience playing popular music in theaters, on local radio, for dancing classes, for clubs, and for weddings. Liberace concentrated on his piano playing with the help of music teacher Florence Kelly, who oversaw Liberace's musical development for 10 years. In childhood, Liberace suffered from a speech impediment, and as a teen, from the taunts of neighborhood children, who mocked him for his effeminate personality, his avoidance of sports, and his fondness for cooking and the piano. The Depression was financially hard on the Liberace family. "My dreams were filled with fantasies of following his footsteps.Inspired and fired with ambition, I began to practice with a fervour that made my previous interest in the piano look like neglect." Paderewski later became a family friend as well as Liberace's mentor, to whom the protege never missed any opportunities to pay tribute. "I was intoxicated by the joy I got from the great virtuoso's playing", Liberace said later. At the age of eight, he actually met Paderewski backstage after a concert at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. He studied the technique of the Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. By the age of seven, he was capable of memorizing difficult pieces. Liberace's prodigious talent was evident from his early years. While Sam took his children to concerts to further expose them to music, he was also a taskmaster demanding high standards from the children in both practice and performance. Liberace began playing the piano at the age of four. Liberace later stated, "My dad's love and respect for music created in him a deep determination to give as his legacy to the world, a family of musicians dedicated to the advancement of the art." While Sam encouraged music in his family, his wife, Frances (despite having been a concert pianist before her marriage), believed music lessons and a record player to be unaffordable luxuries. Liberace's father played the French horn in bands and cinemas but often worked as a factory worker or laborer. He had three surviving siblings: a brother George (who was a violinist), a sister Angelina, and younger brother Rudy (Rudolph Valentino Liberace, named after the actor due to his mother's interest in show business). Liberace had an identical twin who died at birth.
His mother, Franciszka Zuchowska (1892–1980), was Polish. His father, Salvatore ("Sam") Liberace (1885–1977), was an immigrant from Formia in the Lazio region of central Italy. Władziu Valentino Liberace (known as "Lee" to his friends and "Walter" to family) was born in West Allis, Wisconsin, on May 16, 1919.