Lawrence Welk

Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known to his large number of radio, television, and live-performance fans (and critics) as "champagne music".

Early life

Welk was born in the German-speaking community of Strasburg, North Dakota. He was sixth of the eight children of Ludwig and Christiana (Schwahn) Welk, ethnic Germans who emigrated to America in 1892 from Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Lawrence Welk was a first cousin, once removed, of former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer. (Welk's mother and Schweitzer's paternal grandmother were siblings.) Welk's grandparents, Moritz and Magdalena Welk, emigrated in 1808 from Alsace-Lorraine to Ukraine.

The family lived on a homestead, which is now a tourist attraction. Growing up speaking German and English, Welk left school during fourth grade to work full-time on the family farm. They spent the cold North Dakota winter of their first year inside an upturned wagon covered in sod. Welk decided on a career in music and persuaded his father to buy a mail-order accordion for $400 (equivalent to $4,725 in 2016) He promised his father that he would work on the farm until he was 21, in repayment for the accordion. Any money he made elsewhere during that time, doing farmwork or performing, would go to his family.

The Lawrence Welk Show

The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 27½ years via the ABC network, from 1955 to 1971, and first-run syndication from 1971 to 1982. In the years since first-run syndication ended, The Lawrence Welk Show has continued to reach new audiences through repeat episodes, broadcast in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations. These airings incorporate an original program—usually, a color broadcast from 1965 through 1982—in its entirety. In place of the commercials, newer performance and interview clips from the original stars and/or a family member of the performers (in the latter instance, speaking for a well-known Lawrence Welk performer who has since died) are included; these clips are occasionally updated.

Broadcast history

On May 11, 1951, The Lawrence Welk Show began as a local program on KTLA in Los Angeles, the flagship station of the Paramount Television Network and the first television station in California. The original show was broadcast from the since-demolished Aragon Ballroom at Venice Beach.

The Lawrence

The Lawrence, founded 1881, is the third oldest high school newspaper in America and the newspaper of The Lawrenceville School. Published weekly, The Lawrence acts as a forum for the school community, both on and off-campus. It consists of 5 sections: news, opinions, arts, features, and sports. The Lawrence is printed by Princeton Packet Inc. of Princeton, New Jersey.

Honors and awards

The Lawrence has won numerous awards over the years, including the Columbia Journalism Award. In 2014, the Lawrence also won an editorial award from Youth Journalism International for an editorial responding to social media abuse by students.

Notable alumni

See also

Welk

Welk [vɛlk] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sierakowice, within Kartuzy County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) southeast of Sierakowice, 18 km (11 mi) west of Kartuzy, and 46 km (29 mi) west of the regional capital Gdańsk.

For details of the history of the region, see History of Pomerania.

The village has a population of 104.

References

Coordinates: 54°18′50″N 17°55′52″E / 54.31389°N 17.93111°E / 54.31389; 17.93111

Welk (disambiguation)

Welk or WELK can refer to:

People

Places

Other

See also

WELK

WELK is a Hot Adult Contemporary formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Elkins, West Virginia, serving North-Central West Virginia. WELK is owned and operated by West Virginia Radio Corporation.

History

WELK-FM was formerly a Hot Adult Contemporary station known as "K-95 FM". The station reverted to that format in October of 2013.

The call letters WELK originally belonged to a station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which became WDAS in 1932.

References

External links