What was lawrence welk really like

So, this series lives up to its promises of quality entertainment, spanning the 's with the 's, and holds up quite well today in PBS rerun packages, which are introduced by "Lawrence Welk Show" alumni, who also offer interesting behind-the-scenes commentary in lieu of commercial breaks.

And maybe that's why I still find myself checking out a few minutes of it most Saturday nights on public television. You can't listen to that stale band, bland numbers, or tawdry accordion playing without wondering how in the hell people back then didn't die of boredom.

But like clockwork, whenever I was visiting my grandparents in Sioux City, IA, when this show came on their world screeched to a halt and anyone in the room over 60 was mesmerized. They watched this thing as closely as I watch a football game I have money on. And the younger family members would frantically search out a TV in another room so as not to hear even one tap of that black guy's shoes.

Let alone an entire lifeless song. When you look at the band members, it looks like Nixon's Silent Majority all picked up instruments and decided to beat back the minions of anything un-American with their phony smiles and mellow tones.

The audience members were mostly elderly folks without much taste in either clothing or music themselves. Every now and then, some of them would be invited on stage to dance with Mr. Welk himself. My grandmother even claimed she once danced with Mr.

Welk, though this story has never been authenticated. Frankly, there's nothing really like this on television today. It's so earnest and squeaky-clean that it either makes you cringe or long for the days of decades long ago when someone could be taken off television for simply saying the phrase "water closet". There were no doubt edgier shows on television at the time this show was at its peak, but most old folks I've known were watching this instead.

None of my grandparents are left, so watching this show is actually one way to channel their memory. But I just cannot take more than a couple minutes of the blandness. I'll be generous and give it 7 of 10 stars since it has meant so much to so many people. The Hound. Having lived for some time in southwestern Missouri, and having had many occasions to be in Branson - personally and on business - I was there when the Welk Resort was constructed by Lawrence Welk, Jr.

The facility is away from the cacophony of noise from Branson's "main drag," has one of the finer theaters, as well as entertainment in the dining area. We stayed there one week with friends, and it's the only hotel I've ever seen where the registration card has a place to check "if you have heart problems.

People have criticized Welk's music as corny and unimaginative - but while the folksy manner of the host and most of the performers may have seemed a bit excessive at times, one must remember this orchestra spawned Pete Fountain, whom I have seen at Welk reunion shows, both on TV and live. One of the finest albums I have has an eclectic group of numbers, all by Johnny Hodges with the Welk orchestra. Hodges, of course, before he went on his own, was simply Duke Ellington's lead sax player.

The shows provide a lot of nostalgia, whether one may have seen them originally, and whether or not the viewer is a great fan of Welk's music. The older ones are several decades old, and present a variety of music which was contemporary then and nostalgic now. The shows which, say, or years-ago were nostalgia pieces then, are even more so now. The answer surely would be this show. It displays more comb-overs, dye jobs and toupees, per capita, than anywhere on the planet.

It presents more examples than a "Hair Club" or "Sassoon" catalog ever could. It's fascinating to watch the camera pan the group, and imagine everyone sans the comb-overs, pieces, and Clairol. Just an amusing bonus to this entertaining show. A comforting show indeed! This show was so fun to watch! When I got hooked on the show again in Texas in , I took a liking to the peppery singer Bob Lido. Perhaps the show seemed like old hat in However, when it ran on ABC from to , it really reflected the tastes of much of Middle America, to which I belonged to.

The s did not just belong to the Flower Children; it belonged just as much to those who liked the performers on this show as well as other shows, such as The F. And I condemn no side; I am a Green Party type who likes this sort of show.

I especially like the older episodes, and am fond of Alice Lon. This show should be praised for preserving big band music at a time when it had fallen out of favor.

And so many of the performers should be recognized for their efforts. May this show keep running on PBS for many years to come!!

The Lawrence Welk Show rcj 18 April FROM Hollywood This was the second longest-running musical variety program in the history of television and righteously so.

However,the earlier episodes of The Lawrence Welk Show were in classic black and white from until The show made the transition to color in the fall of and that same formula that Lawrence Welk had would remain from until However,his show would remain on ABC-TV for an astounding seventeen years on the air until its final episode in Lawrence Welk's musical variety show during its 17 year-run on network television is right up there with "Lassie",and "Murder,She Wrote",for the duration of its longitivity.

After ABC-TV cancelled "The Lawrence Welk Show" in the spring of ,the series found a new life when it was picked up for syndication where it remained for another eleven years on the air from until After an astounding 27 years on television,"The Lawrence Welk Show" was picked up again in ,only this time around went from syndication programming to public television,where repeats of the show which include episodes from the mid's and some of the 's and early 's have been seen since.

About the show itself,this was a brilliant variety indeed that sent its viewers back to a time when variety shows were solid family entertainment and that is what you got with this show.

Welk had a tremendous eye for talent. He launched the Lennon Sisters, who became one of the most popular recording acts of the period, and he gave the virtuosity of Floren center stage on numerous occasions. The two would often duet, but Welk would let Floren have most of the big moments and flourishes, as he was simply a better player than Welk was.

In his second autobiography, Ah-One, Ah-Two! But Welk also was willing to take chances on just about anyone. In Ah-One, Ah-Two , he writes about auditioning those who came up to him on the spot, and he was the first variety-show host to employ a black performer regularly on his show, in tap dancer Arthur Duncan.

Others argue Lon, a young mother, wanted too big of a raise. This had the effect of keeping the safe world his audience liked intact, while simultaneously engendering a fierce loyalty to Welk from young performers who might otherwise be venturing into the music scene of the era.

Indeed, many Welk performers married other Welk performers, and after a time, the whole show seemed to occupy an alternate universe from the increasingly youth-heavy Los Angeles it was taped in.

The Lawrence Welk Show did try to change with the times. It updated rock songs and folk hits in the big-band style, though it inevitably sanded any edges off the product, making everything from The Beatles to Burt Bacharach sound like The Lawrence Welk Band. Welk wanted to make a show that stood for good, old-fashioned, Christian entertainment, but he also wanted to make a fun show, one that would get the folks at home up and dancing, just like the shows he used to play in the Midwest.

Instead, he closed himself off more and more from the world at large, and ABC cut him loose in I think we got off the track when we encountered the massive trend toward rock and roll, and acid rock, during the late sixties.

They appear now on more than public television stations. Lawrence Welk Jr. The couple, however, frequently lived at their second home in Bonsall near Escondido. It was in Escondido that Welk turned another small trailer park into a successful, upscale mobile home park and vacation resort.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by two daughters, 10 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Funeral services will be private. Sylvere Lotringer, intellectual who infused U. Bobbie Kirkhart, the matriarch of atheism in L. All Sections. About Us. B2B Publishing. Business Visionaries. Hot Property. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! On top of the already-horrific destruction and loss of life, the natural disaster also gives rise to a nuclear After struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, U.

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