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Ken Delo sells hypnosis tapes and a self-published novel the Lennons sell dolls Ava Barber opened a sandwich shop, etc., etc. THE CHAMPAGNE MUSIC MAKERS: LAWRENCE WELK bandleader and host was born in Strasburg, North Dakota on March 11, 1903. And they are all trying to find ways to make more money. They were famous for the brief time they appeared on the show and now have to base their entire careers on their status as a "former Welk star" as they appear on cruise ships, small nightclubs, etc. If you watch the PBS rebroadcasts and reunion shows, it's a little sad to see these performers today. He later went to prison for molesting one of his young male piano students, but he's out of prison now and apparently nobody on the show holds it against him, as he frequently appears on Welk reunion specials. Lawrence Welk (MaMay 17, 1992) was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader and television impresario best known for hosting the musical variety show The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982. I don't know if there were any other gays on the show, but piano player Bob Ralston was married to the harshest looking Dutch lady you ever saw. Who married Lawrence Welks son Tanya made her Welk show debut on New Years Eve 1967, and shortly afterwards was made a regular member of the cast. Kathie Lee outed him in her autobiography when she wrote about her first husband, who was gay and "lived with a gay performer on the Lawrence Welk Show." He was also the only performer on the show that I ever saw go up on his lyrics (ironically, it was "Young at Heart" which begins, "Fairy tales can come true." and then he froze and went, "buh-buh-buh-buh." He forgot more lyrics later in the song. Welk's signature 'uh one, and uh two,' conducting style, his praise of his 'wunnerful' performers, and his grinning on-stage polkas with matrons from the audience as the 'bubblemachine' cranked away made him a household name.Tom Netherton used to sweat so much on the show that I'm surprised he didn't get electrocuted by the microphone. His audiences of middle-aged and older viewers took his performers to heart - especially a quartet of fresh-faced young women named the Lennon Sisters he introduced on his Christmas Eve, 1955, show. Welk was born on March 11, 1903, on a farm near Strasburg, N.D., one of eight children of immigrants who left the Alsace-Lorraine region of what is now northern France in 1878.īy the time he was 13, he was playing at community dances and church socials on an heirloom accordion his father brought from the old country. He promised to remain on the farm until he was 21 if his father would buy him a new $400 accordion, and to turn over to his father every penny he made until the debt was repaid.Īt 21, he launched his musical career, an accordion soloist who couldn't read music and never had a formal lesson. He formed his first orchestra in Aberdeen, S.D., and played on radio station WNAX in Yankton, S.D. The station was the group's headquarters for the next six years as they did one-night stands through the Midwest and eventually long-term engagements in Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Boston and Pittsburgh.ĭuring the 1940s Welk and his band played regularly at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago. In 1951 the orchestra was signed for a six-week engagement at the Aragon Ballroom at Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif.
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'The TV started one night when a local television station came to us at the Aragon and said, 'Do you mind if we pick you up tonight,'' Welk recalled at one time.