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The Lawrence Welk Show made its national TV debut 59 years ago today, on July 2, 1955. Welk continued to produce new programs for syndication until his semi-retirement in 1982. A longtime boozer, Castle then turned to drugs in her later years overdosing on prescription pills several times, and suffering a stroke from a combination of alcohol, Percocet and other drugs in 2009. Welk retired in 1982 at the age of 79, but The Lawrence Welk Show lives on in syndication. Several of his trademark phrases"Wunnerful, Wunnerful" and "Ah, One-uh an-uh Two-uh"became part of the national lexicon. But by 1971 sponsors felt, in the words of the New York Times, that the shows audience was too old, too rural and too sedate. Welk was sure there were still enough folks at home who loved his music. He remarked, Theres something you learn by hardship, by a little fear.. Watching the early episodes of The Lawrence Welk Showbefore the series was overwhelmed by the cheesy musical skits that dominate the program in the public imaginationis watching a culture struggling to hold onto itself in the face of a coming youth movement. Summer End: 789. By the mid-1930s, Welk moved the orchestra's base of operations to Omaha, Nebraska. In November, 1928, he recorded for Gennett and in 1931, he recorded for Paramount. I think my usefulness lies in evaluating somebody else's ideas and adapting them. During the 1960s and 1970s, for example, the show played music that was originally by The Beatles, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, The Everly Brothers and Paul Williams and others, but in a style his older viewers would like. 4 Are Lawrence Welk Jr and Tanya still married? ." Family. In 1938 the orchestra garnered major performance exposure for a concert at the St. Paul Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where, according to a legend perpetuated by Welk, the group's music earned the descriptive "Champagne Music" from a listener who pronounced that the orchestra's music was "effervescent, like champagne. After 1971, it became a syndicated production, running into the early Welk held onto his thick accent throughout his life, making him the easy butt of jokes on the show, all of which he took in stride. Although many of Welks early businesses failed, he could still be shrewd off the dance floor. Encyclopedia.com. Welk, Lawrence, with Bernice McGeehan, Ah-One, Ah-Two: Life with My Musical Family, G. K. Hall, 1975. From 1956 to 1959, it was also known as The Dodge Dancing Party, because Welk was also hosting another show called Top Tunes and New Talent on Mondays.