WELK HISTORY – Welk Musical Family.com
WELK HISTORY
WELK HISTORY
SINCE 1955, LAWRENCE WELK BROUGHT MUSIC AND HAPPINESS TO MILLIONS OF TELEVISION VIEWERS COAST TO COAST AND BEYONDTHIS IS HIS STORY
The musical genius we all know as Lawrence Welk was born March 11, 1903 on a farm near Strasburg, North Dakota.He was the third youngest of eight children to German immigrants Christina and Ludwig Welk.Discovering at a young age it was music was to be his career and not farming, he convinced his father to buy him his first accordion from a mail-order catalog. With accordion in hand, young Lawrence got his start performing at church socials, weddings and local dances around Strasburg.When he turned twenty-one years of age, he left the family farm to pursue a career in the world of show business, first with several bands throughout the Midwest thanks to his magic fingers on the accordion. However, after a while, he found that being a bandleader was more fun and challenging than just being a member only. In the late 1920s, he lead several big bands in North Dakota and eastern South Dakota which included the Hotsy Totsy Boys and the Honolulu Fruit Gum Orchestra, which regularly performed one-nighters on the road and on the radio courtesy of WNAX in Yankton, South Dakota.
It was around this time in 1931 that he married the love of his life, Fern Renner. The couple would have two daughters, Shirley and Donna, and a son, Larry Jr.During the “Dirty Thirties,” his band began to take shape, especially on one faithful night in 1938 at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh where the name “Champagne Music” came into being because a patron described Welk’s music as being “light and bubbly like champagne.”In 1939, Lawrence hired Lois Best as his first full-time “Champagne Lady” and a year later, booked his orchestra for a long term engagement at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois, which lasted nine years. Throughout World War II, Lawrence added many young and talented members to his orchestra, such as Jerry Burke on organ, trombonist Barney Liddell, Orie Amodeo on reeds, trumpet players Norman Bailey and Rocky Rockwell, Johnny Klein on drums, vocalist/saxophone player Dick Dale and accordionist Myron Floren who would also be the Maestro’s trusted right hand man, serving as both orchestra announcer and conductor.In 1951, Lawrence and his band set out for an engagement at the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica, California, and liked it there so much that soon enough, they stayed and called the West Coast their home. While performing at the Aragon, local Los Angeles televison station KTLA began live remote broadcasts of Welk’s shows from the ballroom on Saturday nights. They became a local ratings smash, which made the possibility of going national a matter of not if, but when.
Then in 1955, the ABC network came calling. With the combined efforts of Welk’s agent Sam Lutz and producer Don Fedderson with sponsorship from Dodge automobiles, Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers made their national debut in July of 1955. Regulars like guitarist Buddy Merrill, vocalist Jimmy Roberts and Larry Hooper along with Champagne Lady Alice Lon became household names as the titled “Dodge Dancing Party” became a hit in the Neilson ratings. It was during this period that Lawrence added dancer/marimba player Jack Imel, jazz clarinet player Pete Fountain, the vocals of the Lennon Sisters, Irish tenor Joe Feeney and honky-tonk piano player Jo Ann Castle to his ever growing Musical Family. He even convinced ABC to air a spinoff, Top Tunes and New Talent which later became The Plymouth Show (sponsored by Plymouth automobiles), which aired from 1956 to 1959.As 1960 came about, changes became evident. Norma Zimmer took the reins as Champagne Lady and the JB Williams Company (makers of Geritol, Sominex and Aqua Velva) replaced Dodge as the show’s sponsor which itself was now billed as simply The Lawrence Welk Show. It was during the decade that dancers Bobby Burgess and Barbara Boylan joined the show along with Arthur Duncan in 1964 as the show’s first featured African-American performer with his skills as a tap dancer. The show itself made the transition from broadcasting in black & white to that in color as viewers got to see how colorful the show got, and it wasn’t just the outfits they wore!When Barbara left the show in 1967 to get married and start a family, Cissy King came on as Bobby’s new dancing partner. Also, Tanya Falan joined the show as a singer later in the year, but soon became a member of Mr. Welk’s real-life family when she married Larry Jr. As 1968 began, country music singer Lynn Anderson, vocalist Andra Willis and the duo of Sandi Griffiths and Sally Flynn (whom replaced the departing Lennon Sisters) joined Cissy and Tanya as the many new faces on the show.
As the decade drew to a close, the size of the Musical Family grew with the additions of talent such as vocalists Gail Farrell, Ralna English and Guy Hovis along with trumpet player Johnny Zell, guitarist and country vocalist Clay Hart, pianists Bob Ralston & Bob Smale, Dave Edwards on reeds and bassist Richard Maloof as additions to the orchestra. All was well on the Lawrence Welk Show until 1971 when ABC, citing a change in demographics, cancelled the show after sixteen years. Fans protested, flooded the network’s switchboard with calls of support for the Maestro along with over a million pieces of mail. That show of support encouraged Welk to the world of syndication, airing his program on a independent network of more than 200 stations coast-to-coast beginning that September.By that time, addition talent in vocalists Mary Lou Metzger and Ken Delo would join the Family and as the 1970s progressed, would be joined by vocalists Tom Netherton, Ava Barber, Anacani, Kathie Sullivan and the Semonksi Sisters. When the show celebrated it’s 25th anniversary on national television in 1980, the Musical Family expanded with even more faces such as The Aldridge Sisters (Sheila and Sherry) and the Otwell Twins (David and Roger). Ron Anderson and Michael Redman would be brought on by Gail Farrell to form the popular vocal trio of Gail, Ron and Michael.On April of 1982, the final regular episode of the series aired when Lawrence decided to hang up his baton for good. But as one would say, this is not yet the end of the story.
Even as production on new episodes ceased, repeats continued to air in syndication under the title “Memories With Lawrence Welk.” Also, the Musical Family would reunite during the holidays for Christmas reunion specials.Then in 1987, PBS aired a biopic of Welk during it’s pledge drive titled “Lawrence Welk, TV’s Music Man.” The response and ratings were overwhelming that with the help of OETA, the public broadcaster for the state of Oklahoma, began airing classic episodes of the Lawrence Welk Show on public television stations coast-to-coast, complete with wraparound segments hosted by surviving members of the Musical Family. In subsequent years, that would followed by over a dozen Welk Musical Family specials aired during pledge drives.After over 90 years since Lawrence left the farm to pursue his musical ambitions, and over 60 years since his show first aired on nationwide television, Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers have left an enduring mark on music and pop culture.And we will continue to keep a song in our heart and until next time Adios, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehn.GOOD NIGHT!
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