Lawrence Welk 1955

Dean

Well-known Member
Not wanting to hijack the thread below, I've started this new one.

Below is a link to (I believe) the very first Lawrence Welk show in 1955.

For any of you that appreciate accordion music and the polka, enjoy.

Dean
Clarinet Polka
 
In both set of Grand Parents' homes you watched the Lawrence Welk show. You stayed quiet too or you where in TROUBLE!!!! It was a much simpler time. Things where more ordered. I wish I could dance like many of the people on his show. I am like a bull in a China shop. Kind of stomp around.

A fun story. My Fraternal Grand Parents where very typical German people, Not real emotional or would show affection much. Then you add in them being very conservative on money matters. They loved to ball room dance. They would drive to Storm Lake, which is 250 miles west, to see/dance whenever Lawrence Welk would be there. They would go to the Cobblestone Ballroom. They talked about eating a nice meal and then going to the ballroom to dance the night away. They would sleep in the car and drive home the next day. This was about their only "vice". LOL

Think about a 500 mile trip in the late 1940s and early 1950s. There where no four lane, high speed, roads then. I bet that it took them 6-8 hours of driving time each way.

Looking back it seemed strange to me that "OLD" people would do this. LOL I just was figuring out their ages then. Heck they would have only been in their late 30s and early 40s. I guess your Grand Parents just always seem "old". LOL
 
In June, July or August in the 50s-60s, we would drive to Iowa to visit my Mother's family in Tama County.

I remember sitting in the parlor on Saturday night watching Lawrence Welk on a round tube B&W TV. After the show was over (but only after it was over), my first cousin would get out her accordion and my uncle would get out his clarinet (and sometimes his raccoon coat) and make music. FWIW, mu uncle played in a band in the 20s and played a great version of The Muskrat Ramble.

I remember watching, mesmerized as my cousin played The Beer Barrel Polka on her accordion.

I also remember my Mother, who was a good dancer, saying that one of the regrets of her life was never learning the polka when she was young.

Dean
 
Just looked up a Raccoon coat. A new one is going to cost you Several thousands of dollars. WOW I wonder where they get the furs??? I do not know of a single place around here to sell coon skins anymore. Used to run a trap line and hunt coons all winter long. I could do that before school and after work in the evenings. I would skin the animals and my wife would scrap and stretch the furs. Wonder how many wives would/could do that today. LOL
 
Stumbled across this while listening to accordion music.

For the purists, it's farm related and you will see a Lanz tractor more than once.

Enjoy.

Dean
Accordian Music
 
Hello Dean,

I sure do! Here is why,

Guido.
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Raccoon coats were a fad during the 1920s.

My uncle (and both of his brothers) went to engineering school in the 1920. IIRC, they went to "Ames," which is now, either Iowa State or the U of I. All became civil engineers, remarkable in the 1920s.

My uncle Carrol played in a band and had a full length raccoon coat, which he wore to/from and sometimes during performances where he played clarinet.

For a good movie about the era, watch A River Runs Through It, which is, I believe, Brad Pitt's first movie. There is a scene where the Muskrat Ramble is played, though, IIRC, on a player piano, and with no raccoon coats.

Dean
 
Hello Dean,

1961 model, came with me from the old country Italy there is. I do a good version of roll out the barrel. That one is a good one too. If I listen to it a couple of times I may be able to play it. I can't read music, all by ear,

Guido.
 
Wonderful, Guido.

Below is a link to an Andrews Sisters version of The Beer Barrel Polka.

My Mother was a WWII Veteran, an Army nurse in the South pacific.

I love the Andrews Sisters, the McGuire Sisters and the Lennon Sisters.

Keep it alive.

Dean
Beer Barrel Polka
 
Great version, JD.

Lawrence Welk played the accordion, though he rarely did so on his show because Myron Floren was the featured accordion player, whereas Lawrence was the band leader.

Lawrence was also a great dancer. He danced with multiple partners over the years and could lead a partner over the Niagara Falls.

He and his era are both missed.

Dean
 
Hope you had a happy time, happy time, happy time, hope you had a happy time, Dodge had a good time too. Sometimes that show was like icing on the cake Saturday eves after a hard week on the farm.
 
Hello DEan,

I listen to it, and let it auto play to the next one. I set my browser that way,

Later....................

Guido.
 
If Lawrence Welk was in reruns I would sure watch, it reminds me of my Mama. She loved the Lawrence Welk show followed by Gunsmoke and Red Skelton, in that order. I think she gave up on TV completely sometime in the 90s, I don't know what she would think now days.
 
I was never a big Lawrence Welk fan, but I did like watching and listening to Jo Ann Castle. Ragtime piano
 
My Dad liked to watch Lawrence Welk on Sat. night but us kids couldn't wait for it to get over so we could watch Have Gun Will Travel and Gun Smoke. Get the milking done and our Sat. night baths taken just in time--8 o-clock Have Gun Will Traval and 8:30 Gun Smoke.---Tee
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That was great! Thanks for posting it. That show was a staple at our house- I especially liked the luffly Lennon Sisters.
My grandmother claimed to have been Larry Hooper's Sunday school teacher in Lebanon, MO. I looked up the dates, and that can't have been, because she would have long since left Lebanon before he was born- but she wasn't prone to making things up, so it may have been Larry's father.
 
I Was extremely happy when at 7 or 8 years of age, sometime around 1962 or 63 that my dad decided that I didn't have to watch Lawrence Welk with him and I could go play.

Rick
 
Love it, Big T.

Saturday night was the only night that we could stay up late to see Gun Smoke and Have Gun Will Travel.

Thanks for the memories.

Dean
 
My first crushes (all of them) were the Lennon Sisters.

Though I like many of the Lennon Sisters recordings, the link below is to my most favorite.

Dean
I Understand
 
My Grandma and Lawrence Welk went to school together. My dad and Lawrence's nephew were good friends. I always wanted to watch Get Smart on the other channel but Grandma won and watched many of his shows on Saturday night. And Gun Smoke.
 
My mom and dad could not stand Lawrence Welk. But they liked polka music. Saturday night at our house was all western and country music
shows.
 
And-a-one-anna-two-anna................................................Loved his shows and the way he treated his employees.
 
Tony .... that's nothing, my grandfather played 7 different instruments in his band and my great uncle drank beer with him most days of the week. Now, top that one ...... ha !!!
 
OK LOL My aunt and her sisters were on the LW show and sang before anyone heard of the Lennon sisters. My Grandma's sister baby sat LW. I worked as an engineer at WNAX in Yankton where LW played on the air back in the day.

LW wanted an accordion but couldn't afford one. So he promised his Dad that he would stay on the farm until he was a certain age (can't remember the age) in exchange for his father buy-ing him an accordion. I too stayed home on the farm until I was 24 to help my Dad out with no pay.

Maybe doesn't beat you but still interesting.
 
(quoted from post at 08:33:36 03/18/18) Another of my favorites from 1955.
Blue Skirt Waltz

The Blue Skirt waltz was for many years a tune that would come to mind now and then, but I knew very few words to it and I could not remember where I knew it from. That was until Alan in Nebraska put up a video of him playing it. Then I was able to look it up on YouTube and find out all about it.
 
My Mom and Dad watched him every week. Lawrence Welk built a resort in the 60's. about 35 miles from me. As far as I know, it's still in operation. Stan
 
Still watch Lawrence Welk on Saturday evenings on South Dakota Public Broadcasting tv channel.
I too, had to watch as a kid because that was just the way it was when your parents decide the channel.
I didn't always like the singing when I was at that age but did appreciate the instrumental talent.
I recently read Lawrence Welk's autobiography. I recommend it highly not only for the story of his life but also for the historical history of the early Dakotas and the hard-scrabble pioneer life. At the risk of this being too long winded, here are some condensed points of interest for you Lawrence Welk fans.

History lesson:

The Welk family were Germanic Catholics who came originally from the Alsace-Lorraine. In 1878, after the Franco-Prussian wars, Alsatian families went to Odessa, in the Ukrainian section of southern Russia, in order to escape religious persecution. Lawrence's parents, who were children at the time, went along with that original band of settlers, and later on were married there. As time went on LWs (Lawrence Welk's) father became increasingly dissatisfied with the conditions in Odessa, and in 1892 he and LW's mother decided to emigrate to America. They had no money, no material possessions of any kind, except for an accordion and some leather-bound Catholic missals. LW's uncle who was married to his father's sister, had already settled in the Strasburg area of North Dakota, and he advanced LW's parents the money to make the trip. They traveled by steerage to New York, and then by train and horse cart to Strasburg, with LW's father carrying the accordion every foot of the way. It had been in the family for generations and belonged originally by an ancestor who was a blind strolling player.

Lawrence's first accordion:

Lawrence was born in 1903. He learned to play on his fathers accordion that was brought from the old country, but eventually wanted his own. He got his first accordion as a teenager by trapping and hunting. The government also had a bounty on squirrels at the time. He got .02 / tail sent in to the government office, packed in small Bull Durham tobacco bags. He finally managed to save up fifteen dollars and sent away for an accordion. It fell apart in only a few weeks and he was heartbroken but determined to have another, so he went back to his trap lines and rifle. After what seemed an eternity, he saved twenty dollars and sent away for another, not realizing that a twenty dollar accordion wasn't much better than a fifteen dollar accordion. The same thing happened and he learned a hard lesson on the value of quality and craftsmanship.

Sometime later, at about 17 years of age, a traveling musician came to Strasburg to play a series of accordion concerts and dances. The event changed LW's life. It was the first piano-type accordion he had ever seen, and he was overcome with admiration for its beauty and the clarity and brilliance of its tone. For days after, he could think of nothing else. He felt he had to have one just like it. But it cost four hundred dollars! At a time when most farmers earned less than that in a full year's work. He eventually hatched out a plan but it would take his father's help. "Father, if you would give me four hundred dollars to buy an accordion like Tom Gutenburg's I'll work for you for four years on the farm and give you every cent I make playing for weddings and festivals and barn dances...and name days...and ...everything."

Fast forward four years......:

As my twenty-first birthday approached I was filled with excitement. I sent away for a new suit. I packed and repacked my small valise a dozen times - a change of underclothing, two shirts, some hand-knit socks, a sweater, my missal, my rosary, my prayer book. I shined and reshined my shoes and I marked the days off on the calendar. On March 11, 1924, I woke very early in the morning. I was twenty-one years old. I got dressed in my unfamiliar new finery, inspected the contents of my valise one more time, and counted my small hoard of money. I had enough for my train fare plus three one-dollar bills, which I pinned in my inside coat pocket, and a little loose change. After breakfast I said my farewells. We said goodbye quickly and then I turned to my father. "So you're going," he said with that level look of his. "Well, you'll be back. You'll be back just as soon as you get hungry. He'll be back in six weeks," he added, turning to the rest of the family, "looking for a good meal!" They all laughed and I did too, but I knew I would never return for help. I would never come back till I had proved myself. My father and I had made a bargain, and we had each kept his word to the letter and spirit of the agreement. He had kept his word and I was free to go. Now it was up to me to prove that my dreams were more than dreams. I jumped into the buggy and made the three mile trip to Strasburg.

The next few weeks:

I learned almost immediately that my father was right when he predicted that I wouldn't earn a lot of money every night. In fact, I was hard put to earn anything at all at first. I had gone to Aberdeen, South Dakota, the day I left the farm, partly because we had friends living there, and partly because I had only enough money to buy a ticket that far. I stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Faith and their two sons who played the violin and piano, and they helped me get engagements around town. I barely made enough to pay my room and board. In desperation I joined a children's band. I was two feet taller and ten years older than anybody else in the group, but I didn't care. I was earning money and gaining experience, and I just beamed and smiled right along with the other members of the Jazzy Junior Five.

............

The reason I wanted to share these few sentences from the first few chapters of his book is because of the posts below that have links to a few snippets from 1955 during his earlier television career. Many people think of LW as that older man on TV who had a big band with champagne bubbles floating in the background and think it was always that way. We all know him from the last 30 years of his career on television but what most people don't think about is the first 30 years from 1924 to 1954 that he spent on the road, traveling from town to town, playing for nickels and dimes, building his name and learning the business. He also raised a family during this time and moved them often, never really having a permanent address until sometime after the television programs took hold. Something else to think of is with all the hard work, determination and sheer guts it took to do what he did, one has to keep in mind he spoke mostly German and very little English when he left home. He was very self conscious of his heavy accent his whole life and worked very hard to say the right words the right way and embarrassed himself constantly both off and on stage. Also he had to compete with the other big bands like Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Glen Miller to play the best dance halls and hotel ballrooms. He credits his success to the opportunities still available in this country, his own determination, and his faith in God.

If you can find this book, it's titled: Wunnerful, Wunnerful! The autobiography of Lawrence Welk
It's a very interesting read and I recommend it to anyone who has an appreciation for his background and his type of music.
 
(quoted from post at 13:53:09 03/18/18) Hated everything about the Lawrence Welk Show with a passion until......Anakani....passions change!
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You and me both buddy! Anacani was the main reason I watched for quite a while. What an angel!
 
Thanks for your time. Very interesting. Another example of what made this country great. Let's make it great again.
 

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