Classic Hifi Care

Somebody has obtained, digitized and posted many old LW programs. This one is particularly good. JoAnn Castle playing accordian. A young couple dancing a polka, teenagers, who would be in their 80's now. Jimmy Roberts best song. Doesn't get much better than this if you remember Saturday night, taking the TV tubes to the hardware store on you bike, testing them to make sure all was well for 7 pm on Saturday night when the world stopped turning for an hour.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8a91SPhJL0

Yep, It played on our little GE console TV then. Mom & Pop loved Lawrence's show.

In later year reruns, funny how such great fidelity was possible with the lowly EV 635 microphones...

D

The grandparents never missed it and since I stayed with them a lot I got to enjoy it too. My mom would watch, but my stepdad liked classical music so not so much for him. I will still watch the reruns on PBS when I think of it.

Bill

I did some research on any members of the Welk organization that might still be alive. All the "major" players are gone, LW, Floren, Dick Dale, Jack Imel, Skeets Herfurt, Neil Levang, Buddy Merrill, Bob Lido, Joe Feeney, Norma Zimmer among others. The ones still alive are Bob Havens who played trombone, he's 96. Johnny Zell who played trumpet, he's 79. JoAnn Castle is 87. Kathy Lennon is 82. Janet Lennon (the baby) is 80.

Sandy, Sally, Mary Lou and Gayle are all still alive. Bobby Burgess is still alive. There are others I haven't researched yet. The oldest member of the band I have found so far is Skeets Herfurt, born in 1911. Welk himself was born in 1903. Barney Ladell may have been older, but I haven't found that yet. Richard Maloof (Mr. Mary Lou Metzger) may also still be alive.

My grandparents liked his show as well. I guess I was a bit young to appreciate it. I usually watched Jackie Gleason.

I have no idea how or why grandma was such an avid LW fan. She didn't own any of his records that I ever knew of. She was thrilled when I started collecting his material in 1959. I hate to think what might have happened if anyone were to even suggest we watch something other than LW on Saturday evening......

And later that night, we switched over to our little Arvin radio for the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

D

In our neck of the woods, later in the evening, we'd watch Creature Features with Sammy Terry on channel 4.

Jackie Gleason was part of my grandparents things to watch along with Sing along with Mitch and Andy Williams too. Basically anything musical.

Bill

Some of the taped Welk programs on YouTube have their Dodge commercials included. Those are some of the only examples of those rustbuckets left to show their trademark garish styling. Definitely a different time.

I watched one the other day that had Larry Hooper advertising Geritol. You are right about Dodge. The only ones left are on those commercials.....

YouTube also has some of the color videos of the Steve Allen shows with their Plymouth commercials from the same period. I'm surprised that Geritol is still being made. I would've thought their customer base would be a shrinking one.

I'm guessing that y'all are discussing late 50s Chrysler products. I've always had a weakness for those Virgil Exner "Forward Look" models. OK, we're ll entitled to our own areas of bad taste. After all, if you guys are watching L. Welk, I can like a '57 Plymouth, or this spectacular '59 model.
Chris Campbell

Looks like Kodachrome preserved them as well as video tape.

My parents had a 1960 Plymouth wagon--the first year for Unibody construction. I was a good durable car. 318 2-bbl., Torqueflite.

Chris Campbell

A Chrysler 318 and Torqueflite was almost impossible to break. Dad had a combine with a 318 in it. The limit to that engine was the gas tank. 10 gallons an hour in full song thru that little Carter 2-barrel carb........