Lawrence Welk

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Lawrence Welk hosted a long-running syndicated musical program, featuring easy listening "champagne" music, complete with bubbles. Occasionally, an African-American was allowed on the show to tap dance.

Welk hailed from North Dakota, the son of a farmer and the former mistress of King Ludwig IV of Bavaria. He got his start in music as the bandleader for The Deutchlanders, famed for playing at Bund meetings during World War II. Welk stopped playing political rallies in 1944, and went underground until the nascent ABC hired him.

Welk's syndicated show ran well into the 1970s, ending only when he was found impaled on his own baton in 1979. A coroner's inquest ruled the death a suicide.