In 1951, Welk settled in Los Angeles, California. From 1944 to 1945, Welk led his orchestra in many motion picture "Soundies," considered to be the early pioneers of music videos, and the band had its own syndicated radio program, sponsored by Miller High Life Beer.
His orchestra also performed frequently at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City during the late 1940s. In the early 1940s, the band began a regular 10-year stint at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, regularly drawing crowds of nearly 7,000. The term "Champagne Music" was derived from an engagement at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, when a dancer referred to his band's sound as "light and bubbly as champagne." The band performed in many places across the country, particularly in the Chicago area. In 1927, he graduated from the MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota.ĭuring the 1930s, Welk led a traveling big band, specializing in dance tunes and "sweet" music. His band was also the station band for popular radio station, WNAX, in Yankton, South Dakota. These bands included the Hotsy Totsy Boys and later the Honolulu Fruit Gum Orchestra. He led big band engagements in North Dakota and eastern South Dakota. Kelly bands, before starting his own orchestra. During the 1920s, he first performed with the Lincoln Boulds and George T. On his twenty-first birthday, Welk, having fulfilled his promise to his father, left the family farm to pursue a career in music. When he was asked about his ancestry, he replied always with "Alsace-Lorraine, Germany" this is explained in his autobiography, entitled "Wunnerful, Wunnerful!"
To the day he died, he spoke with a noticeable German accent. Welk didn't learn English until he was 21 because he always spoke German at home. He made a promise to his father that he would continue to work on the farm until he turned twenty-one in exchange, he would work on the farm and any money he made working elsewhere, whether doing formwork or putting on a show, would go to his family. Never intent on being a farmer, Welk became interested in a career in music, convincing his father to purchase a mail-order accordion for $400. The first year they lived there, they spent the cold South Dakota winter underneath an upturned wagon covered in sod. The family lived on a homestead outside of town, which today still stands as a tourist attraction. Lawrence was born in Strasburg, North Dakota, as one of nine children to Catholic, German-speaking immigrants from the French portion of Alsace-Lorraine, via Odessa, Ukraine. His style came to be known to his large number of radio, television, and live-performance fans as "champagne music." He is a 1961 inductee of North Dakota's Roughrider Award. Lawrence Welk (Ma– May 17, 1992) was a musician, accordion player, bandleader, and television impresario, hosting "The Lawrence Welk Show" from 1951 to 1982.
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