My Favorites in the Musical Family
then and now
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Mr. Welk always called the people on his program his Musical Family, and
he meant it. Some of them were with him for twenty years and more. When you
watch every Saturday for so long, they become a little bit your family too.
Here are my favorites. Under each one I have put down what I thought of
them then, when the programs were new, and what I think now, watching them
again in Loretta's front room with forty years more on me.
Myron Floren
the accordion |
He grew up on a farm in northeastern South Dakota, a Norwegian boy, and
joined the band in 1950. He was Mr. Welk's assistant conductor for many
years, and he could play the accordion faster than I could follow with my
eyes. His Lady of Spain was famous.
Then: Ralph liked him best of anybody, because Ralph had tried to learn
the accordion as a boy and given it up, and he said watching Myron was like
watching a man do the impossible with a smile on.
Now: I notice how happy he always looks. Every single time. You cannot
pretend that for thirty years.
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Norma Zimmer
the Champagne Lady |
She was the Champagne Lady from 1960 until the program ended in 1982. She
had a lovely clear soprano and always wore a beautiful gown, and at the end of
many programs Mr. Welk would dance with her, a slow waltz, very proper.
Then: I copied one of her hairstyles in 1962, and Ralph did not notice,
and I did not speak to him for most of a day.
Now: She is still the one I think of first when I think of the program.
She sang like she was singing to you and nobody else.
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The Lennon Sisters
Dianne, Peggy, Kathy and Janet |
Four sisters from a big Catholic family in Venice, California, who first
sang on the program at Christmas in 1955. Janet was the littlest, just a
child. Their harmonies were so close you could not tell where one voice
stopped and the next began. They stayed with the program until 1968.
Then: Every mother in America wanted her girls to be the Lennon Sisters.
I was no different. Loretta was too old by then and could not carry a tune
in a bucket, and I told her so, and I am sorry now.
Now: I love to watch the old Christmas programs, the four of them in
matching dresses singing the carols. I watch Janet grow up from one program
to the next.
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Jo Ann Castle
the honky-tonk piano |
She played ragtime and honky-tonk piano in the sixties, and she did not so
much play that piano as wrestle it, and win. Always a big smile.
Then: I thought she was a little loud, I will admit it. I was a farm
wife in my late forties and I liked the waltzes.
Now: I have changed my mind completely. She is the most fun of anyone,
and when she comes on I turn the set up.
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Bobby Burgess
the dancer |
He had been one of the children on the Mickey Mouse Club, and he came to
the program in 1961 with his dancing partner Barbara Boylan, and later he
danced with Cissy King. Jitterbugs, waltzes, the cha-cha, everything.
Then: Ralph and I tried to do one of their routines in the kitchen one
Saturday night and knocked a chair over. We did not try again.
Now: As someone who danced, I watch his feet. He never takes a lazy
step. His partners always looked like they were floating.
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And a few more
I cannot leave out Joe Feeney, the Irish tenor, who could make a
whole room of Germans from Russia cry with Danny Boy. Or Arthur
Duncan, the tap dancer, who made it look so easy that Benjamin tried it
on the kitchen tile and Loretta made him stop. And of course the whole band,
the trumpets and the clarinets and the fiddles, who never got their names
said often enough.
If you have a favorite I have not mentioned, please write and tell me
about them. I know I have left out a great many good people. My memory is
very good for 1936 and not so good for last Tuesday.
Sincerely,
Gwendolyn
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Last updated Saturday, September 25, 1999
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