Imel joined the Lawrence Welk Show in 1957 with an abundance of energy and ideas, so much so that a couple of years later, Lawrence and executive producer Jim Hobson gave him duties of Associate Producer. Because his lifetime spanned most of the 20th century. shows, theaters and county fairs and later did a tour in the Navy.
Welk won a Gold Record for his 'Calcutta,' released in 1961.Īmong the many ventures that added to his wealth was the Welk Group, which included a resort, a TV production company, a syndication division and a record group. The premiere of this special marks the 100th birthday of Lawrence Welk, who died in May 1992. 1 dance band in the country by the National Ballroom Operators of America, and the program was selected as the musical show of the year by the Nation's Radio and Television editors. In 1955, he and his band were named the No. Welk's sometimes fumbling stage manner and his heavy Germanic accent endeared him to his fans. If you make mistakes, the audience feels you're human.' So I said, 'Sure, go ahead.' Therefore we weren't as rehearsed or stilted as other band shows. 'I didn't know about those things - or that we should have smoothed things out. 'The TV started one night when a local television station came to us at the Aragon and said, 'Do you mind if we pick you up tonight,'' Welk recalled at one time. In 1951 the orchestra was signed for a six-week engagement at the Aragon Ballroom at Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, Calif. The station was the group's headquarters for the next six years as they did one-night stands through the Midwest and eventually long-term engagements in Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Boston and Pittsburgh.ĭuring the 1940s Welk and his band played regularly at the Trianon Ballroom in Chicago.
He formed his first orchestra in Aberdeen, S.D., and played on radio station WNAX in Yankton, S.D. He promised to remain on the farm until he was 21 if his father would buy him a new $400 accordion, and to turn over to his father every penny he made until the debt was repaid.Īt 21, he launched his musical career, an accordion soloist who couldn't read music and never had a formal lesson. Welk was born on March 11, 1903, on a farm near Strasburg, N.D., one of eight children of immigrants who left the Alsace-Lorraine region of what is now northern France in 1878.īy the time he was 13, he was playing at community dances and church socials on an heirloom accordion his father brought from the old country. His audiences of middle-aged and older viewers took his performers to heart - especially a quartet of fresh-faced young women named the Lennon Sisters he introduced on his Christmas Eve, 1955, show.