Lawrence Welk

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Geoff Edgers

For three decades, Saturday night belonged to Lawrence Welk. The bandleader's program debuted on ABC in 1955 and quickly became an even more wholesome alternative to The Ed Sullivan Show. Despite breaking little artistic ground, The Lawrence Welk Show remained on the air for 27 years, making it the longest-running prime-time music program in television history. Welk's program highlighted conservative American values and was decidedly anti-hip, but retained a following into the 1990s, when reruns of the show made it one of PBS's most popular programs.

Though he would one day become the country's second most wealthy performer behind Bob Hope, Welk never forgot his poor beginnings in North Dakota as one of Ludwig and Christina Welk's eight children. His family's pre-Depression struggles were always with him and were partly responsible for his fierce loyalty to his band. His refusal to tip at restaurants could also be traced to his early struggles; instead of leaving money Welk would hand out penknives inscribed with his name. Work is what Welk knew, dropping out of school by the fourth grade to put time in on the family farm.

He learned to play music, starting on violin and graduating to his father's accordion. At 21, Welk left home to make his way in the music business. He had a brush with jazz history when, on an early recording session, he worked in the studio being shared by Louis Armstrong. But Welk never recorded hot jazz or the innovative big band style of Duke Ellington or Count Basie. He stumbled through much of the 1930s. One night in Dallas, South Dakota, his band even walked out on him, believing Welk would never make it as a leader. But by 1951, TV KTLA Channel 5 in Santa Monica began to broadcast Welk's band. Four years later, not long after his 52nd birthday, ABC added the show to its lineup. Welk's signature phrases--"ah-one and ah-two" and "wunnerful, wunnerful"--took hold.

Welk's successful formula called for short, tight musical and dance numbers and for songs people knew. Welk insisted that his show would "Keep it simple, so the audience can feel like they can do it too." In addition to Welk's band and the regular singers and dancers, The Lawrence Welk Show had many headliners: the Lennon Sisters, Joe Feeney, Norma Zimmer. But no star was bigger than the bandleader, whose Eastern European accent and humble nature endeared him to millions. Even though he had recorded for years, Welk rarely played on the show. Instead, his band featured a better accordionist, Myren Floren.

Welk's program maintained the clean-cut stability of the Eisenhower era even as the popularity of rock 'n' roll ruined many big bands in the 1950s and the country churned with the turmoil of the 1960s. As musical styles and tastes changed, Welk remained loyal to soft standards, or champagne jazz. He justified his decision by noting that "Champagne music puts the girl back in the boy's arms--where she belongs." Welk also refused to incorporate the new styles associated with the beatnik poets or play any jazz or rock 'n' roll, even when the network and his band members made suggestions. Welk didn't apologize for his tastes or opinions. He didn't like rock 'n' roll and didn't relate to the hippie culture. "It was always hard for me, for example, to understand the fad for patched-up jeans," he wrote in Ah-One, Ah-Two. "When I was a boy I had to wear them, much to my shame and embarrassment, and one of my earliest ambitions was to own a brand-new suit of clothes all my own." Because of Welk's clear vision of his show, The Lawrence Welk Show remained a snapshot of a happy, booming Middle America, frozen in a waltz and a smile.

Welk positioned himself as the conservative patriarch of his musical family. Women of all ages were his "girls," the players his "kids." Welk could be unforgiving when it came to his "kids." In 1959, at a time when Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine was bringing sex into the forefront of mainstream culture, Welk fired Alice Lon, one of the popular Champagne ladies, when she flashed too much skin on camera. A few years later, in response to letters of protest, Welk gave the Lennon Sisters an earful after they wore one-piece bathing suits for a scene taped by a swimming pool and forbade the girls from wearing such things again on camera. For the band members, Welk's familial philosophy worked both ways. Welk felt he couldn't let his band down and retire when, at 68, ABC canceled his show; but he didn't believe his crew should be paid any more than minimum union scale, though they were able to participate in his profit-sharing plan.

The Lawrence Welk Show was popular through the 1960s, but in 1971, ABC dropped it, concerned that a program sponsored by Geritol and Sominex couldn't appeal to the young, advertiser-friendly audience craved by marketing executives. Nearing 70, Welk took the news hard, as if he had failed his first audition. "I felt just about as bad as a man can feel," he noted in 1974's Ah-One, Ah-Two! Initially deciding to put away his baton, Welk reconsidered when letters of support poured into his office, more than a million in the end, enough to convince Welk to syndicate the show himself. Eventually more than 250 stations picked up the show, giving the program air-time on more channels than during its ABC years. When Welk brought his show back to the air, he did it his way. In the first show back, Welk made it clear that the bad experience wouldn't effect his style; he wasn't about to pander to that younger audience. The broadcast featured "No, No, Nanette," "Tea for Two," and a group tap dance.