tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post1620390984219332554..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: One toke over the lineBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-47670775889923246622017-07-18T14:44:37.698-07:002017-07-18T14:44:37.698-07:00Smiling tap dancer Bobby Burgess devoted a chapter...Smiling tap dancer Bobby Burgess devoted a chapter in his autobiography to "Welkisms," one of which was something like, "And now we welcome this year's Wisconsin State Queen to come on the stage to cut the cheese."Greg Ehrbarhttp://www.gregehrbar.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-26282002659299280952017-07-18T11:27:23.171-07:002017-07-18T11:27:23.171-07:00Thank you for posting this. It was a wonderful sur...Thank you for posting this. It was a wonderful surprise.scottmcnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-84611869883351555452017-07-17T16:27:05.409-07:002017-07-17T16:27:05.409-07:00Baaaad craziness.
Lloyd - just looked up that Bla...Baaaad craziness.<br /><br />Lloyd - just looked up that <i>Black and White Minstrel Show</i> thing on Wikipedia. Amusing to see the British thought up <i>Bamboozled</i> forty years before Spike Lee did. ;)Joel Strewthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06212183358531629735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20693562577085533112017-07-17T09:32:10.671-07:002017-07-17T09:32:10.671-07:00This clip has been around since the debut of YouTu...This clip has been around since the debut of YouTube. I keep track of the demographics of the Welk Show.<br /><br />Welk would be 114 years old this year. His primary audience would be 124 years old. The secondary audience would be 104 years old (none are known to exist) the tertiary audience would be 84.<br /><br />So who is contributing to PBS to keep these shows on the air? Albert Giesbrechthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17742338183833125104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-13945965351225774252017-07-17T09:00:19.209-07:002017-07-17T09:00:19.209-07:00I've seen clips from the Lawrence Welk show of...I've seen clips from the Lawrence Welk show of some very impressive tap dancing, but the dancers have these huge frozen smiles on their faces. It's really unsettling.Andrewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-21485608225566849932017-07-17T08:07:24.508-07:002017-07-17T08:07:24.508-07:00If I've got the timeline right, this was after...If I've got the timeline right, this was after Welk left ABC and went indie - which means <i>nobody</i> was "in charge".<br />The one who came closest was Matty Rosenhaus, who ran the pharma company that was bankrolling Welk's syndie operation.<br />You may draw whatever inferences you like.<br /><br />My own Big Laff:<br />The "boy singer" here was Dick Dale, not to be confused with the famous surf guitarist.<br />Welk's Dick Dale started out with the Six Fat Dutchmen.<br />Go where you like from there ...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05527404061764217504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-80821272577293796792017-07-16T18:59:12.244-07:002017-07-16T18:59:12.244-07:00Well, they did a good job on the song, but I can&#...Well, they did a good job on the song, but I can't imagine how somebody in charge didn't say "What are you doing a drug song for"?<br />Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00760229533287495672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-71854255518247725022017-07-16T18:31:34.692-07:002017-07-16T18:31:34.692-07:00When a friend of mine first saw this, he immediate...When a friend of mine first saw this, he immediately started to imagine what was REALLY going on behind the scenes, prompting me to scribble out "Fear and Loathing in the Aragon Ballroom"... it wasn't pretty. :)Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07159294212873576818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-24639172653206890532017-07-16T17:14:43.347-07:002017-07-16T17:14:43.347-07:00I knew the producer of the Welk show, and he was a...I knew the producer of the Welk show, and he was a pretty hip guy. In the early days of L.A. television he operated Jim Hawthorne's subjective TV camera, Eggbert. I'm pretty sure he knew what that song was about.Mitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-64106391709706169652017-07-16T13:11:34.599-07:002017-07-16T13:11:34.599-07:00This is even better than Pat Boone covering Little...This is even better than Pat Boone covering Little Richard.Buttermilk Skyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07430011403223875192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-31512912577722517712017-07-16T01:38:08.304-07:002017-07-16T01:38:08.304-07:00Seeing as this is sort of about a possible misunde...Seeing as this is sort of about a possible misunderstanding of the song lyrics.....Way back in 1974 when First Class had a hit with "Beach Baby" it came on the radio so I turned the song up. My old man became upset and started yelling about how they could get away with "playing this filth on the radio". I was like "What in the world are you talking about? This song is about a guy calling a girl his "beach baby. There's nothing dirty about it". He said "Oh.....I thought he was singing "Bitch Baby". I think I stopped laughing about the end of 1975.YEKIMIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01921751875397071034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-20096314992310049692017-07-15T23:41:31.087-07:002017-07-15T23:41:31.087-07:00I think it was in the mid-to-late '60s that L...I think it was in the mid-to-late '60s that Lawrence Welk gave an interview to <i>TV Guide</i> (one of many he gave over the years).<br />During its course, Welk mentioned how he was in pretty good physical shape for someone his age, which would have been early 60s at that time.<br />Welk reminisced about his early band days on the road, and noted that he had outlived many of his bandmates:<br /> " ... some of those boys were smoking ... <i>weed</i> ..."<br />The quote is approximate.<br /><br />I suppose the point would be that Lawrence Welk was hardly the elderly "babe in the woods" that many of his detractors wanted him to be.<br />If he was "out of touch" with modern vices , it was most likely from choice.<br />If, in turn, the members of his band kept some vices of their own away from his knowledge - well, that was their business, wasn't it?<br /><br />By the way, that story about "World War Eye" -<br />Urban legend.<br />It never happened.<br />But some stories just take on lives of their own ...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05527404061764217504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-61313224222934828472017-07-15T22:34:38.795-07:002017-07-15T22:34:38.795-07:00"And-a now, I ask the director to take a clos..."And-a now, I ask the director to take a closeup of the entire band while Myron plays a song. Myron, you go over there while I go over here & beat off the band."thevidiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12675078560145080204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-27316769650607470282017-07-15T20:19:16.409-07:002017-07-15T20:19:16.409-07:00Since the Welk band included a good number of alum...Since the Welk band included a good number of alumni from the touring big bands, I'm sure most of them knew exactly what the toke was. Heck, who knows, maybe Larry himself toked a few. JoeyHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12710864245535772665noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-60677033145079348142017-07-15T17:55:21.814-07:002017-07-15T17:55:21.814-07:00I grew up in the UK, where the BBC aired, up to th...I grew up in the UK, where the BBC aired, up to the mid-late '70s, a programme whose musical content was not dissimilar from that on the Welk show. The BBC series, however, was titled 'The Black & White Minstrel Show' and featured performers in blackface. Unimaginable in the US, but then we have a far less contentious racial history than you. And it was a growing belief that the blackface thing was no longer acceptable that led to the show's cancellation. Well, that and old age. The series had been on some twenty years by then.Lloydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-31542452104422571092017-07-15T15:33:23.441-07:002017-07-15T15:33:23.441-07:00I watched as a kid, remembering it as being cornba...I watched as a kid, remembering it as being cornball but 100% old songs. No guest stars, no sketches, no plug patter. And the end, where Lawrence would dance with old ladies from the audience as other old ladies pushed and shoved for their chance.<br /><br />One vivid memory: A quartet in cheesy bird costumes walking around a giant egg while singing "Red Red Robin". Suddenly the top pops off the egg and a woman in a worse bird costume appears. Taking most of the egg with her, she wobbles over to a piano and does the song in double-speed ragtime. Because her beak wasn't quite in place, you could see her automatically grinning like a fool whenever she faced the camera.<br /><br />Also remember "Sing Along With Mitch". Saw him live on tour at San Jose Civic Auditorium, where they livened up the visual presentation with hats, tambourines, and energetic hula dancers.DBensonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01144515471557731622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-40759810889549181132017-07-15T10:43:56.537-07:002017-07-15T10:43:56.537-07:00Ken, a Friday question: You seem to embrace all so...Ken, a Friday question: You seem to embrace all sorts of new experiences, and as you may know, next month will be a total solar eclipse that cuts a swath all the way across the country from the coast of South Carolina to Oregon. It seems like it ought to pop up as a reference in some of the fall sitcoms; every town in its path seems to be planning parties and science fairs, though I believe the largest city in its path will be Nashville. It's amazing to look at all the precise detail we know about where and how longer, etc., and remember A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. Do you have plans to see it? And if you were writing a fall episode would you take advantage of it somehow?<br /><br />wgWendy M. Grossmanhttp://www.pelicancrossing.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-9071011750982092992017-07-15T10:15:50.469-07:002017-07-15T10:15:50.469-07:00:Lawrence Welk actually had one rock group, actual...:Lawrence Welk actually had one rock group, actually a surf group, on his show- in 1963 the Chantays played Pipeline. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-68142921931873498312017-07-15T09:59:19.312-07:002017-07-15T09:59:19.312-07:00Welk was willing to endeavor to keep up...especial...Welk was willing to endeavor to keep up...especially during the time he was paired with this show on Saturdays:<br /><br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXaY3hJDLyw<br /><br />Paul Ducanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-48253736432588219252017-07-15T09:42:28.528-07:002017-07-15T09:42:28.528-07:00I especially love how the singers are dressed like...I especially love how the singers are dressed like they're going to an ice cream social in the 1890's.<br /><br />Lawrence Welk was the only TV show I remember my grandmother (born in 1891) watching.Alan Cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-11290630249527723442017-07-15T09:33:08.521-07:002017-07-15T09:33:08.521-07:00Funny stuff, but I have to pause a bit to understa...Funny stuff, but I have to pause a bit to understand that the appreciation my parents had for Lawrence Welk's music has to be considered in light of the times. When my folks watched and enjoyed the weekly show, it had been approximately only 15 years since WWII ended. Somehow the benign music of the North Dakota bandleader helped them forget for a moment the chaos of the war that saw more 60 million die, relatives included. Barefoot Billy Alohahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04586870309250699505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-52071318333130361112017-07-15T09:01:02.568-07:002017-07-15T09:01:02.568-07:00Lest anyone think the performers were not hip to t...Lest anyone think the performers were not hip to the lyrics, the show was taped in Hollywood.Tednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-64235095714362010612017-07-15T08:45:19.219-07:002017-07-15T08:45:19.219-07:00What is funny about how he speaks is that he was b...What is funny about how he speaks is that he was born in North Dakota.<br /><br />Welk was born in the German-speaking community of Strasburg, North Dakota.[2] He was sixth of the eight children of Ludwig and Christiana (née Schwahn) Welk, Roman Catholics ethnic Germans who immigrated in 1892 from Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine).[3][4 I am guessing that the family and the other members of the community spoke German. Guessing they named the city after the German city of Strasburg. By the second generation most people are pretty assimilated and lose the accents. sanfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06580867647162091670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-21674219973371726442017-07-15T08:28:08.507-07:002017-07-15T08:28:08.507-07:00I wonder how Welk's crew might have re-interpr...I wonder how Welk's crew might have re-interpreted a song like "Don't Fear the Reaper."Rashad Khannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-42009149953038544212017-07-15T08:26:47.327-07:002017-07-15T08:26:47.327-07:00Casey Kasem, on a couple occasions, relayed the st...<i>Casey Kasem, on a couple occasions, relayed the story AT40 got from Brewer & Shipley that "toke" was short for "token"; coinage for a train ride.</i><br /><br />“Plausible” deniability. Who would say “one token over the line”?Hank Gillettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17328364486555780403noreply@blogger.com