System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Lawrence Welk, Conductor/accordionist
March 11, 1903 - May 17, 1992
Born in Strasburg, North Dakota, on March 11, 1903, accordionist/bandleader Lawrence Welk hosted one of the most popular TV shows in America from 1955 until the mid-1970s. Welk began recording in the 1930s and continued making his own brand of polka, easy listening and, what he termed, "champagne music for over thirty years. A home-taught musician who worked to overcome shyness in his early career, Mr. Welk became a prosperous businessman who syndicated his show after the network dropped it.
The accented English that he spoke throughout his career came to Mr. Welk honestly. His parents were born in Alsace, now part of France but once part of Germany. In 1892 they came to the US to farm in Strasburg. In the remote, agricultural community, Mr. Welk spoke as much German as English as a boy, and he dropped out of school in the fourth grade. An accordion that was a family heirloom and occasionally played by his father, Ludwig, helped whet an early interest in music. Mr. Welk obtained his own instrument as a teenager, playing at farm weddings and other community events until he reached 21. Turning his back on farm life, although not on its values of hard work and discipline, Mr. Welk went off to seek his fortune through music.
Along with the inevitable one-night stands came appearances on radio station WNAX in Yankton, S.D. By 1927, his six-piece band, L.W.'s Hotsy Totsy Boys, had become regulars. After he married in 1930, he tried to cut back on travel by turning to business, becoming successively the manager of a hotel, a restaurant and a music store. His autobiography, the aptly titled "Wunnerful, Wunnerful," traces "champagne music" to a broadcast from a Pittsburgh hotel in which a radio announcer reported the message of Mr. Welk's fan mail: "They say that dancing to your music is like sipping champagne." About the same time, Mr. Welk also composed his theme song, "Bubbles in the Wine." Interestingly, the bandleader himself was said to neither smoke nor drink.
By 1946, the band had become popular on the West Coast at the Aragon Ballroom in Ocean Park, Calif. In 1951, he began four highly successful years on a Los Angeles television station. ABC was dubious about big bands' appeal and only agreed to broadcast when an advertiser threatened to cancel his sponsorship of other two shows if the network didn't take Mr. Welk. Welk clung to the formula that had served well on local television in Los Angeles. The performers on the show appeared to be members of a family. The musical numbers were brief. Arrangements were simple.There was ballroom dancing, the waltz and the foxtrot, to tunes that encouraged listeners in living rooms throughout the nation to leave their couches and try a few steps themselves.
Sophisticates might have found corniness in Mr. Welk's easy-listening, easy-to-watch style, but for many Americans it was, in the artlessly enthusiastic phrase he made popular, "wunnerful, wunnerful.". The "a-one, a-two, a-three" cue line for which he was known helped to spread his fame even beyond the millions who tuned in to his weekly shows that appeared on ABC from 1955 through 1971. Another important attraction of the show was Mr. Welk's own obvious enthusiasm for it. In addition to performing, which he had abandoned in the late 1980s, Mr. Welk had profitable interests in recording, music publishing and California real estate.
Mr. Welk died at his home May 17, 1992 in Santa Monica, California, with family members gathered around. He had been suffering from pneumonia. He was 89. He is survived by his wife, Fern, and their three children, Shirley Jean, Donna Lee and Lawrence Jr.
