His format was simple: easy-listening music, what he referred to as 'champagne. Welk's show went on to last an astonishing 27 years. Although the critics were not impressed, Mr.
An inspiring account of Lawrence Welk's love of music, his desire to succeed, and his heart-warming family life, this is the fascinating story of one man who can look back over the years and say, "WUNNERFUL, WUNNERFUL." Signed by Welk inside the front cover, but I suspect this is printed, judging from the many signed copies for sale here. One of television's most enduring musical series, The Lawrence Welk Show, was first seen on network TV as a summer replacement program in 1955. He credits his success to the opportunities still available in this country, his own determination, and his faith in God. Mr.WeIk discusses his television show and many of the people who have appeared on it, delivers some tart opinions on a variety of subjects, and speaks of his own unshakeable belief that character is the basis for any lasting achievement. Their courtship and marriage make a moving love story. Fern was training to be a doctor when they met.
One girl who definitely "appalled" him was Fern Renner. A thick German accent didn't help, especially when he kept telling a girl who appealed to him that she "appalled" him. He makes no bones about his naivete as a young fellow off the farm. Welk never loses his ability to poke fun at himself. Lawrence tells in his own down-to-earth manner, of the tough Depression and nickel-a-dance days during the twenties, the despair which gripped him when his entire band walked out on him during the thirties - "because you'll never get out of these sticks" - the way he fought back to become a big-name band leader in the forties, and his "overnight" success in the fifties. Along the way there were plenty of disappointments.
Eventually he worked his way up from an audience of one, in a small town near Enid, Oklahoma, to an audience of more than thirty million, who watch him on television every week. Starting with a four-hundred-dollar accordion, given to him by his father in return for four years' work on the farm, Lawrence began his career by entertaining at barn dances and weddings.
Welk's "champagne" music has made him one of the richest, most popular ballroom maestros in the world. Born to immigrant parents in a sod farmhouse near Strasburg, North Dakota, young Lawrence Welk was the "dummer-Esel" of the family, the dreamy one who preferred making music to butchering hogs.