By Lucie M. Winborne, ReMIND Magazine
With a strong German accent and stiff on-camera presence, Lawrence Welk made a rather unlikely TV star. But the master of “champagne music” was well-versed in the most basic lesson of media success: Know your audience and give them what they want.
Lawrence Welk was born on March 11, 1903, in Strasburg, N.D., on a farm that today is a tourist attraction. A fourth-grade dropout, Welk learned to play his father’s accordion, and by age 13, was performing professionally at local events. A few years later, his father bought him his own instrument in exchange for the boy’s promise to work on the farm and give his musical earnings to the family until he was 21. Upon reaching that age, Welk took up music full time, playing with several bands before forming his own orchestra, with which he recorded several albums and had a four-year radio show sponsored by Miller High Life Beer.
His greatest success came with The Lawrence Welk Show, which debuted in 1955 and became one of ABC’s most popular shows. Directing a team of solid performers in both standards and pop hits, Welk’s regulars included accordionist Myron Floren, the Lennon Sisters and former Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess.
But while the show’s bubble-accented flow seemed wholesomely effortless, behind the scenes Welk was a stern taskmaster. Comedians were not invited on the show for fear an off-color joke might slip through; nor did Welk use alcohol- or cigarette-related sponsors. And when he fired his first “Champagne Lady,” Alice Lon, in 1959, the persistent story developed that it was because she displayed too much leg.
Ahead of his peers in some ways (he was the first variety show host to regularly feature a black performer), in others Welk was distinctly behind the times, most notably when singers Gail Farrell and Dick Dale cheerily performed the 1971 hit “One Toke Over the Line” with no apparent clue as to its obvious drug reference. At the song’s conclusion, Welk straight-facedly said, “There you’ve heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.”
Welk’s success wasn’t confined to the bandleader spotlight. A skilled businessman and investor, he owned a restaurant and club, authored four books and was awarded U.S. design patents for a music-themed restaurant menu, accordion-themed restaurant serving trays and an accordion-themed ashtray.
In 1982 Welk retired from both the road and his show, though he produced two Christmas specials over the next few years. A decade later he died of pneumonia at age of 89.
While his innocent style was dismissed by many as square and idealized, in 1996 Welk was ranked No. 43 on TV Guide‘s 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. Fans of a certain age continue to enjoy reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show on public television stations; the “Live Lawrence Welk Show” makes annual concert tours across the U.S. and Canada, featuring stars from the series; and his band still performs at the Champagne Music Theater in Branson, Mo.
Not bad for a fourth-grade dropout farm boy.
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