The Lawrence Welk Show

[Kitty]

I was really impressed by that tenor (not Joe Feeney, but the first one, though I like Joe Feeney, too) I'll have to look back and see what his name was.

I forgot to comment on that one. He totally reminded me of Dennis Day.

[donnie]

I forgot to comment on that one. He totally reminded me of Dennis Day.

Yes!

Here's another good '58 one I've been watching. There's a really weird Plymouth commercial at 17:40 featuring several members of the cast. And that's followed by a trio of three talented young kids. The sound is a little out of sync, though.

The Lawrence Welk Show, Oct. 1, 1958
https://youtu.be/qVz1kIK85-M

[donnie]

This is the most interesting LW show I've seen yet. The '50s were a weird time in a lot of ways, and this one has that wonderful weirdness in full display. And the performances are great! I love that Worry Bird song that leads it off.

The Plymouth commercials are really strange, the one at the beginning, and even more so, the one in the middle.

Lawrence Welk Plymouth Show from 1958, with commercials introducing the '59 Plymouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yakQireMe0Y&list=WL&index=56

[Kitty]

Lawrence Welk Plymouth Show from 1958, with commercials introducing the '59 Plymouth

The Worry Bird for some reason made me think of the 1959 Academy Award winner for the best cartoon, called Moon Bird. The trippy little film was animated to the recording of the creators' sons playing make-believe. Imagine having a recording of your children from when they were very little immortalized in an award winning short!! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U-PVZXR7WM if you'd like to watch it. It's one of my favorites.)

Why are they in the kitchen while singing "In the cool, cool, cool of the evening", and why is she not more concerned that her kitchen is getting destroyed?

During the tap dancing scene where he was supposedly imitating Ray Bolger, the song was familiar to me. It was familiar to me, because nearly 20 years later, Arthur Duncan was tapping to it on Welk's show. Oh, and by the way, the audience always applauds at the same parts. Applause sign, much?

That second commercial for the '59 Plymouth was kind of odd! Aren't those push buttons interesting? And the swivel seats are pretty weird. It's fascinating how they used to focus more on looks than safety in cars back then. I wonder if seat belts were even included?

[Kitty]

The Lawrence Welk Show, Oct. 1, 1958

That's How Much I Love You is a really cute song, but.... there's something weird about them being so little talking about marrying and that kitten part was just not right for little kids to be singing.

[donnie]

The Worry Bird for some reason made me think of the 1959 Academy Award winner for the best cartoon, called Moon Bird. The trippy little film was animated to the recording of the creators' sons playing make-believe. Imagine having a recording of your children from when they were very little immortalized in an award winning short!! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U-PVZXR7WM if you'd like to watch it. It's one of my favorites.)

Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

During the tap dancing scene where he was supposedly imitating Ray Bolger, the song was familiar to me. It was familiar to me, because nearly 20 years later, Arthur Duncan was tapping to it on Welk's show. Oh, and by the way, the audience always applauds at the same parts. Applause sign, much?

Yes, Tea for Two is the quintessential tap-dancing song. I guess it's popular for that because there are a lot of spaces in the music for the tap sounds to come through. And yes, isn't it funny how the audience members always break out into spontaneous Applause all at the same time?

That second commercial for the '59 Plymouth was kind of odd! Aren't those push buttons interesting? And the swivel seats are pretty weird. It's fascinating how they used to focus more on looks than safety in cars back then. I wonder if seat belts were even included?

Kind of odd? I'd never seen anything like those push buttons or swivel seats, either. And that was long before safety belts, not much emphasis on safety, at all. It's amazing how long those things were. My little Corolla could about fit in the trunk. And those fins! That was some bizarre styling.

[Kitty]

Kind of odd? I'd never seen anything like those push buttons or swivel seats, either. And that was long before safety belts, not much emphasis on safety, at all. It's amazing how long those things were. My little Corolla could about fit in the trunk. And those fins! That was some bizarre styling.

They were probably going for futuristic. I wonder what made them think that styles for the common people would be so outlandish?

[donnie]

They were probably going for futuristic. I wonder what made them think that styles for the common people would be so outlandish?

That's an interesting question. I wonder if it had to do with the fascination with space travel and anything that was new and "scientific" in that era (think 50's sci-fi films). At any rate, the weirdness with the fins and all seems to have peaked in '59 and was totally gone two or three years later. (See pic below). I wonder if the average person really liked those styles.

[Kitty]

The Lawrence Welk Show, Oct. 1, 1958

Just finished this.
It was very funny when Lawrence sang part of the song while introducing. I gotta say that he was better than the actual act...

[donnie]

The Lawrence Welk Show, Oct. 1, 1958

Just finished this.
It was very funny when Lawrence sang part of the song while introducing. I gotta say that he was better than the actual act...

Yes. I'd actually not seen that part yet—didn't realize I never finished it. That was Rocky Rockwell—he was a fixture on those early shows, usually doing something along novelty or comic lines.