The flood of calls to KTLA on that May 2 evening was so overwhelming that KTLA extended Welk's contract for four years. KTLA-TV broadcast that night and for four weeks from the Aragon. In 1951 the band landed an engagement in the Aragon Ballroom on the Ocean Park pier in Los Angeles. The decline in big band popularity prompted Welk's move to Los Angeles in the late 1940s. The audience wrote letters that our music was bubbly like champagne." Gates commented, "One problem with this story: Welk didn't hire bad musicians." "We decided to play short notes so nobody would notice we weren't that good. "You have to play good to hold a note," Gates quoted Welk as saying. Newsweek's David Gates called it "a sedate blend of woodwinds, strings and muted brass, tripping through familiar melodies above ripples of accordion and Hammond organ." Welk had suggested several origins for this "champagne" sound.
During a 1938 live radio broadcast from Pittsburgh's William Penn Hotel, a radio announcer read a fan letter over the air: "They say that dancing to your music is like sipping champagne." Band Leaders magazine called the music "lilting, danceable music," and a Variety writer liked the band's enthusiasm. It was during this time that the term "champagne music" was coined to describe Welk's style. He kept at it, though, and soon the popularity of his ever-growing band led to a slew of engagements in ballrooms, hotels, and on the radio across the Midwest. Not even his Lawrence Welk's Fruit Gum Orchestra succeeded-free gum at dance engagements only made for a sticky dance floor. Although original, an accordion-shaped grill that served "squeezeburgers" failed to charm the customers.
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At the same time he began investing in a series of small businesses.
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Local radio stations let the Biggest Little Band in America, as they were called, play for free in exchange for publicizing upcoming dance engagements.Īt age 21 Welk left home, and by 24 he had formed the Hotsy-Totsy Boys. Lack of funds prevented him from hiring other musicians, but he eventually found a drummer to accompany him. At age 17 Welk decided to form his own band. Although he regularly performed with local bands, his extremely loud and sometimes off-key playing often prompted his removal from the group. By the time Lawrence was 13, he was playing at barn dances, weddings, and other social events. He remarked, "There's something you learn by hardship, by a little fear."Īt night, blacksmith-turned-farmer Ludwig Welk tught his son to play the accordion.
In the New York Times, Welk credited his incredible success in part to his hard youth he did not speak English until he was 21.
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He lived in a rural German-speaking town and dropped out of school in the fourth grade in order to farm full time.
Although his polka-playing accordion talents led people to believe that Welk was Polish, his parents actually emigrated from France to Russia and then to the United States, resulting in a mixed German and middle European twang.Īlthough Welk was born in the United States, his second-generation accent was thick.
The mixed heritage of this area-it was once part of Germany-helps explain Welk's unusual accent. To avoid religious persecution, his parents, Christine and Ludwig Welk, had fled their home in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France. With his signature phrases "ah-one an ah-two" and "wunnerful, wunnerful," Welk either thrilled or bored hundreds of thousands of people every Saturday night for years, and in reruns after the show ceased production.īorn on March 11, 1903, in a sod farmhouse near the village of Strasburg, North Dakota, Welk was one of eight children. From 1951 to 1982 this camera-shy bandleader stiffly conducted his orchestra's trademark "champagne music," while good-looking, clean-faced young men and women danced, sang, and smiled their way across the television screen. Shirley Donna.Īdored by loyal fans, ridiculed by the younger set, bandleader Lawrence Welk still managed to lead one of the longest-running shows in television history. Born March 11, 1903, near Strasburg, ND son of Ludwig (a blacksmith and farmer) and Christine (maiden name, Schwab) Welk died May 17, 1992, of pneumonia married Fern Renner (a former nurse), 1930 children: Lawrence, Jr.