(Lawrence Welk) Ah-1 and 2 and... [rhythmic drums play] (woman) When he walked into a room, it electrified.

He was that born showman.

(man) Nobody liked him but the public!

And that's why he was on for 70 years.

(woman) He would sell out an arena.

They would sell the seats behind the stage.

(man) No one could have dreamed a misfit child from a homestead in North Dakota could've accomplished what he accomplished [pop!]

(woman) He was always till his dying day a North Dakota farmboy, [Lawrence Welk orchestra plays in bright rhythm] ♪ (male announcer) From Hollywood it's the Lawrence Welk Show!

[orchestra plays a fanfare] ♪ Now your host, Lawrence Welk!

Thank you so much!

Thank you Bob!

(male narrator) For decades, Lawrence Welk, the charismatic bandleader with a distinct accent, charmed audiences with his big-band music and wholesome entertainment.

Welk's path to the bright lights of Hollywood was shaped by the values he learned growing up in a poor immigrant family on a modest farm in rural North Dakota.

However, Lawrence Welk's story would not have been possible without the perseverance of the generations before him-- relatives who faced hardship and turmoil in war-ravaged lands, all driven by the hope of a better future for their children.

(Shirley Fredricks) Because the Turks had withdrawn from Ukraine about in 1780, there were no farmers there.

So Catherine the Great opened it up for farming to Central European farmers.

my grandparents on both sides of my family were among those who answered that call.

They were promised that they would never be drafted into the armed forces, they could keep their religion-- they lost some of those privileges.

Ludwig and Christina Welk were 4th generation Germans from Russia living in the Odessa region of modern day Ukraine.

In 1892 they had had a child, but severe famine struck southern Russia and Ukraine, killed about 1/2-million people.

Among those were their first child Johann.

At that time, large numbers of Germans from Russia were deciding to immigrate to other places in the world, especially the Northern Plains.

And Ludwig and Christina already had relatives who had moved to Eureka, South Dakota, and they decided that they would join them.

Ludwig and Christina Welk would've left south Russian in 1893 by rail and taken the train up to Bremen, Germany where they would've caught a ship to New York, and from New York they would've traveled by rail to Eureka, South Dakota.

(Lance Richey) Ludwig worked around town with his brother-in-law while he scouted for land in what's modern-day southern North Dakota.

And finally in the summer of 1893 he loaded up his wife and their newborn son, John, and they headed north to what's modern-day Strasburg.

(male narrator) In the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, a law that granted free federal land to citizens including women and immigrants to promote settlement in the American West.

While land ownership offered families the promise of economic opportunity and stability, life on the frontier was demanding, requiring relentless hard work and perseverance.

The Homestead Act allowed for anyone who settled and cultivated a piece of land to get the 160 acres of land.

So he originally got a plot of land about 3 miles west of modern-day Strasburg.

(Gerald A. Klein) There wasn't a tree in site, so it would have been just a sea of grass.

They would've probably had to turn their wagon over and sleep under it for shelter for the first few weeks that they were here.

Pretty early on they would start to scratch together some sort of adobe brick house, and eventually create a more substantial structure.

(Lance Richey) They had 7 more children, 4 boys, 4 girls.

Lawrence is the 6th child and the 3rd son.

He was born on the modern day Welk homestead just outside of Strasburg on March 11th, 1903.

They were a farm family.

They made everything pretty much for themselves on the farm, raised about 40 acres of crops, had a private garden, he blacksmithed, they drew their own water from Baumgartner Lake.

They began planting trees, extending their farming-- pretty rough-and-ready existence out there on the plains a little over 100 years ago.

In Russia the people all lived in their village and went out to work in their fields, but under the provisions of the Homestead Act they had to live on their farms to prove them up.

So there was a certain amount of isolation and loneliness.

Part of their solution to the isolation was, there would be 4 different homesteaders, each with a quarter of land and they would place their homes in the inner corner so that they were at least close to each other.

There was a fair amount of visiting that happened, but there was an awful lot of work that had to be done, so the visiting times and the fun times were fewer and far between.

It was not an easy life.

In fact, it was a hard life.

And they had to make do with a lot of things.

You grew what you had, you milked a few cows you had a few pigs, you had some chickens you ate them, you had a garden-- that's about it.

(Shirley Fredricks) The boys slept in they upstairs on the second floor where there was no heat often in winter.

And he talked about the fact they had a basin of water.

The water in every morning was frozen, and they had to break the ice to be able to wash their faces.

(Lance Richey) Working in the summer out in the fields under the sun-- it could be pretty brutal.

But it built character, it built stamina.

Lawrence learned how to work hard on the farm.

He always said that having grown up working the fields, working in the barn, doing all the manual labor really made his hard work slightly effortless for him.

He knew what is was like to put in 12 hours of labor every day, 7 days a week.

It built an inner strength both physically and emotionally.

He was just able to work incredibly long hours without growing psychologically tired.

Every other sibling was made for rural North Dakota farm life, they all stuck to it and made a wonderful living out of it.

Lawrence just didn't dream of being a farmer.

He wasn't good at blacksmithing.

He didn't have a natural aptitude for all the tasks that make up farming.

(Shirley Fredricks) No one was least likely to have the skills that a farmer needed.

My dad didn't understand machinery at all.

and was a disaster around a house, let alone the farm.

(male narrator) Lawrence Welk carried many elements of his cultural upbringing with him throughout his life.

His mother, Christina, instilled in her children a deep Catholic faith, a commitment to honesty, and a strong sense of service to others.

In communities like Strasburg, where German was the primary language, his heritage remained a constant presence.

Though Welk was shy and socially awkward as a child, he formed one powerful connection early on-- a deep and lasting love for music.

(Shirley Fredricks) During those long winter nights, they had to entertain themselves Everyone in both my mother and father's family, all of their siblings played instruments.

They sang, they were all talented.

The music was possible, born into our family tree.

My mother and my father had music in them.

My mother was a very good singer and also an exceptionally good dancer.

My mother was as good a dancer as any of the girls that I danced with on the show.

(Lance Richey) Music was way that they passed down their cultural traditions, it's the way they entertained themselves-- dancing, song, playing the accordion playing the piano-- these were just an integral part of what the cultural life was, it's how the community bound itself together.

When Lawrence was 11 years old, he had a bout of appendicitis and had to be rushed to Bismarck.

For several weeks he lingered on the edge of death.

For about a year he had to stay at home and recover-- couldn't go to school, couldn't work on the farm, and his mother set him up in the living room on a cot.

In the living room was the family organ and his father's accordion.

While Lawrence laid there those months, he really thought about, I've had a second chance at life-- what do I want to do with my life?

And he would lay there and dream about making music.

When he got a little better, he would sit at the organ and play on the keys.

That was a turning moment in Lawrence's life.

By the time he was able to go back to school he said I would've been a year older and a foot taller than the other kids and I just couldn't stand to go back to class and stick out like that.

So he asked to stay home and farm, and his father said stay on the farm and farm.

(Lawrence Welk) It wasn't too difficult to talk your parents into not going to school if you were willing to work.

And that's exactly what I did-- I stayed on the farm and worked and kept my music going which I wanted more than anything else.

He didn't know how to play the accordion, but he did know that he was in love with music, and he had found a dream.

It was one of those formative childhood moments that you can't predict.

During that time he would practice on his father's accordion, and that's when he set his mind on becoming a musician.

It took him another 9 years before he could leave home and try and make his mark in the world.

And it was a good thing that I stayed there because while I stayed on the farm I still kept playing all the time, and when my brothers and sisters said Lawrence, we can't stand it anymore, I would go out and play for the animals.

When he was about 17 he begged his father buy me an accordion, and I'll stay home for 4 years, and I'll give you all the money I make playing dances and weddings.

And his father sent all $400 for a new accordion.

Originally Lawrence enjoyed just making music.

It was a passion for him.

Then he began playing barn dances where he would make extra money.

He worked for 4 years handing over every penny he made to his father, and Lawrence paid him back.

Didn't just pay it back financially, but he paid him back by the discipline, and he said, dad, I can make a living at this.

His father was unimpressed.

He told Lawrence music's a hobby, farming is a living.

You're going to go into environments that may challenge your faith.

Lawrence told him, I can hold onto my faith and still be a musician.

And on his 21st birthday, he rode into town, hopped on the train, and headed off to make a living as a musician.

(male narrator) Welk's departure from Strasburg, North Dakota led him to Aberdeen, South Dakota and despite his limited musical talent, experience, and inability to read sheet music, Welk was determined to begin his life as a working musician.

He performed with various local bands, but none proved to be the right fit.

Hoping for a better opportunity, he moved to Bismarck, North Dakota and took a job selling pianos, yet it quickly became clear that sales was not his calling either.

Welk's path began to change in 1925 when he met George T. Kelly at a county fair.

Kelly, a seasoned performer, introduced him to the world of show business and invited him to join his group, The Peerless Entertainers.

Under Kelly's mentorship, Welk gained valuable experience, and just 2 years later, he launched his own band, the Hotsy Totsy Boys.

I'm here today on account of the 2 years I had a chance to spend with George T. Kelly playing in all the little towns here in North Dakota.

I think without the 2 years I spent with him I might've never made it.

He was a tremendous showman.

(Lance Richey) He started forming bands, hiring musicians, and he would piece together bands just of whoever he could hire who could play along with him.

And they could only play the songs that he knew because he couldn't read sheet music.

So he had to learn all the songs by ear.

He was always known as a polka bandleader, but really it wasn't polka that he loved so much, he just loved music.

He would play polkas if his audience wanted polkas.

He would play jazz if his audience wanted jazz.

He would play big band if his audience wanted big band.

He would play whatever his audience wanted 'cause more than the music itself, he liked pleasing his audience.

Lawrence was determined that he would never come back a failure, and that meant learning what people wanted to hear and giving the people what they want.

He had been out on his own for 7 years making a career as a musician, and wound up in Yankton, South Dakota in 1927.

In a blizzard he stopped to spend the night.

And while his band slept in the morning, he ran over to the new radio station in town, WNAX, and he asked if they wanted someone to perform on air.

By the time he went off the air that morning they were getting phone calls.

The radio station offered for him to stay and come back again later in the day and the next day.

That turned into a week.

After a couple of weeks he got a permanent contract to appear on the radio station.

Because he was on the only radio station in the region, Lawrence actually became a big star in South Dakota, Northeast Nebraska, and Iowa on WNAX.

And while he was there, he met a young nursing student named Fern Renner.

She was training to be a nurse, and had gone to Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Yankton, South Dakota.

Her friends in the dorm talked about a really cute bandleader who played on the radio.

They talked her into coming down, and when Lawrence saw her, he fell head over heels in love with Fern.

She did not fall head over heels in love with him, he had to pursue her for several months before she'd even agree to go on a date with him.

Fern and Lawrence married in April 1931 in Sioux City Iowa.

A year later, they had their first child, Shirley.

When Lawrence had a family to support he literally would travel from town to town, take jobs in hotels, and the hotel may simply say, we'll give you a room and let you eat in the cafeteria in return for performing for our customers.

He was never afraid to take a risk, to care for his musicians, to care for his family-- he took a lot of personal responsibility that his family and his employees relied on him.

So he worked as hard as he needed to to see that they got what they deserved.

I have a great feeling of wanting to be righteous with the people I'm responsible for, and I love what I'm doing so very very much.

(Lance Richey) He had a very spiritual understanding of his career.

At one time in his life he had a bus accident with his musicians, and some of them were injured, he was very guilt stricken-- my musicians could've been killed, am I doing the right thing?

He went and talked to his priest, and his priest said, this is the way that you serve God, this is the way that you carry out the purpose you have in life.

Once he was told that, he was at peace again.

I think it's a very farm way of thinking of life.

You're put in a place to give glory to God by the way that you use the gifts that you're given to serve him and to serve others.

And that's what Lawrence felt he was doing as a musician.

(male narrator) Welk recognized that while music was a wonderful career, long-term success required a strong business mindset.

He realized the importance of visibility-- if people recognized his name, they'd be more likely to attend his performances.

By taking an active role in every aspect of his brand, Welk was able to build a lasting presence and diversify his income through multiple ventures.

(Lance Richey) Early in his career he would produce branded merchandise-- everything from pens and pencils to chewing gum to children's toys.

You'd constantly run across his name, and when he came back to town, you'd come and see him.

(Shirley Fredricks) He was a very creative, spontaneous person.

Anytime he had an idea, and it was several times a day, he would say to my mother, "I just had a wonderful idea!"

He thought they were all wonderful.

That's why established so many businesses.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) He was a chicken farmer.

But he would be on the road with his music, and he'd say, "Just stop by and get a chicken"-- not buy a chicken-- just stop by and get a chicken.

He had a cafe, a diner, he had squeeze burgers, he had accordion fries, but show business is what he wanted.

[the Lawrence Welk Orchestra plays in bright tone & rhythm] In 1938 he was playing the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and a radio man heard Lawrence's music, and he got to Lawrence that night and said, you know, your music really sounds like champagne.

Lawrence heard that, and from then on it became the champagne music of Lawrence Welk.

[Pop!]

[orchestra plays the intro to "Singin' in the Rain"] ♪ I'm singin' in the rain" ♪ ♪ Just singin' in the rain ♪ (Lance Richey) Starting in the 1930s Lawrence had a series of female singers.

He called them his champagne lady.

They would be the featured female vocalist on the show.

He picked them to capture the kind of relationship with the audience that he thought was appropriate for that era.

Roberta Linn, Alice Lon, Norma Zimmer They could charm an audience, they matched his style of music, but they also conveyed his sensibility-- an appropriate mix of beauty, modesty, all-American wholesomeness.

To be a Champagne Lady was to in some ways be the poster for who Lawrence was.

(male narrator) As the Welk family grew with the arrival of another daughter, Donna and a son Larry Jr., Lawrence Welk made a pivotal move to Chicago at the height of the Big-Band Era.

There, he secured a position at the Trianon Ballroom on the city's South Side, eventually becoming its house bandleader.

Throughout the 1940s, Welk emerged as a prominent figure in Midwestern dance music, earning widespread recognition for his performances.

We lived in Chicago because he knew that it was equidistant between both coasts.

But more importantly, it was close to the Midwest.

and to the South where he had much of his work.

(Lance Richey) His band was heard over WGN, sold records across the country.

He was probably what you call a B-list artist, not quite the top of the big-band scene, but he was making a very good living, and he was well-established enough with midwestern audiences that even as big band scene began to die down in the late 1940s, he managed to still hold onto his audience and really connected with the farmers.

The small-town listeners who would hear him over the radio.

He loved to play the small towns around the Midwest because that's where he came from.

I think the secret to his success throughout his entire career was that people across the country, people in small towns, people who weren't in the big cities knew that Lawrence was one of them.

And they knew that his values were their values.

[The Lawrence Welk Orchestra plays in bright rhythm] By the early 1950s the big band era was coming to a close.

Dance halls were starting to struggle as TV became a popular medium, and in the Midwest it seemed like he was starting to lose traction.

Lawrence was really faced with the decision about whether he was going to continue in the music business (Lawrence) I worked anyplace where they would have me, but in Chicago I used to play the Trianon Ballroom.

We were there for 9 years, I never got a raise, I never improved myself very much, and I figured I'd have to go to New York City or the West Coast.

[orchestra plays a fanfare] ♪ ♪ (Lance Richey) So he headed out to California and decided the West Coast is where I'm going to make my last stand.

This is where the action is going to be.

He made his big break in California in 1951 playing at the Aragon Ballroom which was in Venice, just outside of Santa Monica.

It was actually built on piers over the ocean.

While you danced, you could hear the waves breaking under the dance floor.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) At that time KTLA was taping some of the big bands at the Aragon ballroom.

They also decided to tape the week that he was going to be there.

Lawrence didn't know anything about this though.

He was just going to play the ballroom for about 3 or 4 weeks to see what kind of an audience he might have Well, that night they happen to pick to tape the Lawrence Welk show.

[orchestra plays] The phone started to ring so much, and KTLA Channel 5, they thought, oh, maybe we should be doing a show from the Aragon Ballroom with Lawrence Welk.

And he quickly realized that being on television gave him exposure that you could never get from live performances.

He knew if he could catch that wave, he could have a second career on television.

[orchestra plays a fanfare] (man) From Hollywood, the one, the only-- Lawrence Welk and his champagne music!

(Lawrence) It was one of the best moves I've ever made because television is so powerful, it's such a tremendous medium for our business, that the minute I hit television, I felt I had it made.

It was an hour-long broadcast of a live performance by the band, he would introduce his performers, the camera would move about.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) From '51 on he got a tremendous amount of following in Southern California.

Everybody wanted to come down to dance because they were going to be on television.

Of course, because he'd played the Midwest for over 20 years, they all wanted to come to Southern California to see the Lawrence Welk show.

(male narrator) In 1955 ABC approached Welk about doing a 13-week run of summer replacement shows.

while the networks regular fall programming was on hiatus.

At first, Welk was hesitant.

His modest confidence, thick German accent, and self-doubt made him uncertain about appearing on national television.

U However, once he recognized the financial potential and the opportunity for greater exposure, he realized this was the next step toward achieving his dream.

(Lance Richey) This show was very affordable.

Fortunately, Lawrence was a frugal man.

The cost per viewer to make it was lower that almost any other show on television.

And it was always basically the same show.

It was the orchestra playing, singers singing, occasionally a dance number to musical accompaniment, and Lawrence in-between the pieces introducing and welcoming the audience.

It was really a simple formula, but people loved it.

Lawrence's main target was the mother.

He knew that the mother decided what would be on the TV in the evening, the father would follow along, and the children would watch whatever the parents were watching.

So he made sure that the music he played and the fashions that were shown would be appropriate for attracting mothers in the audience, (Mary Lou Metzger) Lawrence personally loved anything he could dance to.

He loved things with a beat.

What made it on was totally what the audience liked.

There was always a polka, there was always a waltz, big band music.

(Lawrence) I have lived a life, not for myself, but for the other people.

And when I go out and entertain, I don't think of myself, I think of what can I play to make those people happy that came to see me?

(Lance Richey) If you listen to his music over the decades, he actually had a huge musical evolution, but it was always 2 steps behind the rest of the culture.

Once something was part of the mainstream, once something was safe and recognizable, he would pick it up and play it for his audience.

(Bobby Burgess) One time he called us in, and he said okay, I want you to do a nice waltz, and I want you to be all dressed in white with the mirror ball, and no soft steps, no lifts or anything.

I just want you to dance around and around.

I said, but Mr. Welk people will think we're not very good dancers, we just do basic steps.

He said just try it, and let's see.

That next week we got more fan mail than we ever got in any of our dances because he knew his audience.

They could feel like they were out there dancing with us or put themselves back when he was going through the Midwest playing all those ballrooms.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) Fan mail was very very important to Lawrence.

It gave him the pulse of what that show was.

We received probably 5000 to 6000 pieces of fan mail a month.

We did a synopsis of what they wanted to request.

If there were negative comments about anything, Lawrence wanted see that personally, and he would give us an answer personally to that because he didn't want somebody to not feel that they were doing their job.

He wanted it to have a personal appeal.

We sent out 260,000 Christmas cards up until about 1970.

Fans received tremendous amounts of thank-you's always.

Lawrence got so many ties, all sorts of Christmas gifts, but everything was always thank-you'ed.

He thanked every columnist that wrote a story about him.

He thanked every radio station that would write something, any television station that he did an interview with, he thanked them.

He was very very generous to his fans.

He did for many years a fan club picnic.

He would stand for hours and serve food.

He would have his whole chef outfit on.

Sometimes 3000 people would come to a fan club picnic.

(Bobby Burgess) They were loyal fans that liked to watch the show every week.

It was a special show that they made sure that they sat down on Saturday or Sunday nights and enjoyed watching us.

Pretty much we played ourselves.

We were just on TV as who we really were.

We still get lots of fan letters today just exchanging Christmas cards and that kind of thing.

(Mary Lou Metzger) Lawrence didn't like the word fan, he said they're my people.

So many of these wonderful people have become second family that come to visit and you meet when they're in town.

(Lance Richey) Lawrence's musical family was the collection of musicians and singers who appeared on the show every week.

Lawrence sought to hire the most talented musicians that he could because he wanted his audience to have well-executed performances of songs that they liked.

In the 1950s, '60s, and '70s Lawrence probably had one of the most technically talented bands anywhere in Hollywood.

They were not A-list celebrities, they were people that he often recruited while he was touring the country playing towns and villages around the nation.

If you worked for Lawrence, you made union scale.

And it was part of his frugal North Dakota personality, but it was also very good management.

He knew that people weren't coming to see this star or that star-- they were coming to see the whole show.

He had no contracts which is really an interesting part of being on the Lawrence Welk show.

He was just telling you that he liked your work and if you stayed on time and brought him successful product, he would keep you forever.

(Lance Richey) If you worked for Lawrence, you knew that you were going to be working every week, you could pay your bills.

Lawrence was a generous employer.

He established a retirement plan and a profit-sharing plan for his employees so that many of them who might've left the industry bankrupt after a career were able to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

(Mary Lou Metzger) I always thought Lawrence was the best boss I could've had.

Because he was kind, he was funny, which a lot of people don't know about him.

♪ She... ♪ Hold it, hold it just one minute boys.

Hold up for just 1 minute.

[audience laughter] (Mary Lou) And he was demanding.

I had grown up in theater where you checked your props-- you were prepared.

And I loved that, I felt right at home with that.

He appreciated when you went a little above and beyond.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Lennon Sisters.

♪ He can turn the tide ♪ ♪ And calm the angry... ♪ The Lennon Sisters appeared on Lawrence's show for the first time on Christmas Eve 1955.

Diane Lennon was actually a classmate of Larry, Lawrence's son.

And Larry kept telling his father there's this great singing group that I go to school with-- you've got to hear them.

When he heard them he recognized this is a special group.

They stayed with Lawrence for 13 years.

He really made them the stars that they are.

[playing a fast-paced polka] ♪ Myron Floren was his accordionist and was 100 times better than he was.

Lawrence said that's why I hired him.

I would never hire someone who only plays as well as I do.

He was a South Dakota farm boy, and he had seen the accordion and music as his way off the farm as well.

He shared Lawrence's religious instability.

Lawrence hired Myron in 1949 and it paid off many times over for both men.

♪ Here's a picture when she was my sweet Mary ♪ We did all kinds of specials that were celebrating big holidays of Christmas and even Halloween and Armistice Day.

We all celebrated all those American holidays, plus every week we had a theme usually.

[playing the intro to "Jingle Bells"] (Margaret Heron Letterman) The Christmas show was our number one show.

We usually had around 60, 70 children.

And Santa Claus was there, of course, and every child got a gift.

He had his own children, his own grandchildren.

My family and my sister's family, my brother's family all came on the Christmas show as did the families of all the other musicians.

We had to dress in Christmas colors.

Lawrence loved it, it was just a special time for him because otherwise he didn't always get to see his own family too much.

They got to perform.

One of his granddaughters performed a couple times.

He loved that, that was great.

♪ Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!

♪ [loud applause] Isn't that nice!

Isn't that nice!

(male narrator) Welk often struggled to balance the demands of his show with his personal and family life.

His strong German-Russian work ethic drove him to pour long hours into rehearsals and business meetings, but that same dedication left little time for family activities or personal connection.

He was very busy, I mean, he was always working, and thinking of ideas and production numbers and production meetings that he was in and all working with his staff.

He got into the office at 7:30, always was on the phone, was doing whatever had to be taken care of that day.

Even in his late 70s he would be up early and he would work late at night.

He was an 80 hour a week worker.

Even when times were slow, because he didn't really know anything but work.

(Mary Lou Metzger) Traveling with Lawrence Welk was a thing onto itself.

The schedule was brutal.

Most of them were either 10, 12 day tours, and each day was a different city.

And depending on the size of the arena or auditorium we were playing, we would do one or two shows a day.

If you would see Lawrence at a concert he was quite a bit more lively than you would see him on a television show.

(Bobby Burgess) Lawrence always played off of the audience because he loved his audience.

He usually inserted a dance number from the people in the audience, so he'd go out and actually mingle with them and talk to them.

They made him feel very important because they were all fighting to dance with him because was a good dancer.

Lawrence would come off a 10-day tour more alive and revitalized.

We were dragging everything!

[laughs] [orchestral fanfare] (Ralph Edwards) And this is your life Lawrence Welk.

Through the universal language of music you've brought untold happiness into the lives of millions.

Good night, and God bless you.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) Lawrence was definitely not part of any Hollywood scene.

He and Mrs. Welk did not attend anything like the Oscars or the Emmys or anything like that.

He didn't understand what all the hoopla was for some of the stars.

He didn't realize that he was a star even though he had stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

(Lance Richey) Critics were brutal to Lawrence.

Most critics are aiming to please a more urbane and sophisticated class of readers, they didn't have much respect for what Lawrence was doing.

They thought that his show was hokey, not very intellectual, the music was old-fashioned, and Lawrence would've said you're right on every account.

But that's what I'm trying to do.

They simply had a different vision of what television ought to be.

Lawrence thought television was there to entertain the viewer.

Too many critics thought television was there to improve the viewers.

Lawrence did become a cultural punchline in many ways.

He had a funny accent.

In the 1950s Stan Freberg recorded a comedy record, "Wun'erful, Wun'erful" that make fun of Lawrence's accent and made fun of the performers on his TV show.

I said your music is wonderful!

Jack, I'm afraid I don't... Oh, of course, of course I'm sorry.

I meant to say your music is wannaful wannaful.

[audience laughter] Thank you.

You know, everybody mispronounces that word.

Lawrence never minded anybody ever making fun of him, especially his "Wonderful, wonderful."

He would say it's just more publicity for me.

So he was a little bit of a cultural punchline, and he didn't really care because he knew that his core audience loved him.

(male narrator) In true pioneer spirit, Lawrence Welk became a savvy entrepreneur by founding Teleklew Productions.

This venture enabled him to expand both his income and his interests, one of which was real estate.

In addition to his business in property, he also built successful music publishing and recording divisions.

(Lance Richey) Starting in the late 1950s he entered the music publishing business.

He began acquiring songbooks and owning the rights to catalogs of songs.

When he performed them on his TV show he paid himself the royalties.

By the time that he retired, the Welk Music Group was one of the largest music publishing companies in the country.

Lawrence also began a growing real estate empire in Southern California that included commercial real estate.

He built an enormous bank tower overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica.

In 1964 Lawrence bought a small mobile home park in Escondido California.

Over the coming 2 decades he expanded it to include a 9 hole golf course, hundreds of condominiums, and it became the heart of a resort empire that reached to Mexico, Colorado, and Branson until it was sold to the Marriott group for almost $400 million.

I think at the end of his career his real estate holdings were by far the most valuable part of his portfolio, and also the longest lasting part.

When Lawrence died in 1992 his net worth was over $100 million.

Lawrence said at one time, I don't know much about business, but I know how to hire good business people.

And he built a large business empire of trusted confidants who had the expertise that he lacked.

And he trusted them to do their job, and it made him a very wealthy man.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) Teleklew productions did expand through the years.

When Lawrence moved from Chicago in 1951 to California, he brought Ed Spaulding to California and Ed became executive vice president.

Then when Ed passed away, Ted Lennon, the uncle of the Lennon Sisters who was vice president, became executive vice president.

Ted Lennon was one of the persons that was really behind most of the real estate development and the Escondido property, Santa Monica properties.

Lawrence did not realize the vast empire that he built.

He just wanted to make sure that we had money to pay the bills.

He didn't realize what he had accomplished, what he had given back to the public.

He never believed that he was any more than a person from Strasburg, North Dakota.

(male narrator) By 1971, Lawrence Welk's ratings on ABC had begun to decline, with the show gradually slipping out of the top 20 over the previous 2 years.

Then came the unthinkable-- ABC made the decision to cancel The Lawrence Welk Show.

(Mary Lou Metzger) When the Lawrence Welk show was canceled from the ABC network, it was a strange situation.

Because the way Lawrence found out, he was on the golf course, and someone from the press came up and asked him, "How do you feel about your show being canceled."

And that was the first he'd heard He had not had the courtesy of a phone call, of a heads up-- nothing.

For us, it was more like a game of telephone.

Once one person found out, it sort of made the rounds.

It was striking!

We thought it was going to be devastating.

(Lance Richey) It's easy to say that ABC canceled him because of his ratings.

Really it was a cultural shift.

By the early 70s, baby boomers were the dominant demographic.

The desire of the networks was to attract a younger, more urban, more sophisticated viewer, and Lawrence was viewed as part of the past, was viewed as out of date.

When his show went off the air, Lawrence felt that was it.

ABC has canceled me-- it's over.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) This was just on a Friday.

That particular Saturday, Matty Rosenhaus who was the owner of the J.B. Williams Company, one of our main sponsors called Lawrence and told him whatever you decide to do, I'm behind you-- I'll back you 100%.

Lawrence called a meeting with the head honcho Sam Lutz, his manager Jim Hobson, our producer/ director George Cates, Don Fedderson, Jack Minor who was a good friend of Lawrence's and had been with Dodge Corporation.

Syndication was just coming on the scene, so Lawrence Welk syndication was formed at that time.

The American people really came to our aid.

They wrote so many letters to ABC and to the TV editors, and to ourselves that the mailman came in for the next 5, 6 weeks with stacks of mail on their back.

They really didn't feel good about taking one of the shows away from them which they enjoyed.

(Lance Richey) And within a week he had made the decision we'll keep making the show ourselves, and we'll find our own TV stations to broadcast it.

We didn't miss a beat.

He didn't miss one show.

It just continued airing, but now it was syndicated.

We taped at ABC, the same studio that we were at when we were on the ABC network.

We had the same crew, the same hairdressers, the same wardrobe, the same makeup.

(Lance Richey) When the show came back on the air in the fall of 1971, it actually has more TV stations broadcasting it than had been broadcasting it that spring when it was carried by ABC.

There was an audience there, and his sponsor new it.

(male interviewer) Things are changing for your programming a little bit, you got your own syndicated network.

How are your feelings on this?

I feel wonderful about it.

I think the American people have really been on my side when they brought this about.

We now have 202 stations and 10 satellite stations, which is 212, and I think that our ratings, I think our show will be better than ever in my career.

(Lance Richey) Lawrence's decision to keep the show alive was in some ways rooted in his own love of success and love of music He enjoyed making the show, but he also had dozens and dozens of employees who relied upon him for a living.

And he felt a deep obligation to them.

(male narrator) Amid the highs and lows of his Hollywood career through successes, setbacks, and countless responsibilities, Lawrence Welk remained deeply connected to his homesteader roots.

Strasburg, North Dakota, held a special place in his heart, and he made it a priority to return often to the town that had always welcomed him with open arms.

The quiet prairie farmstead grounded him, serving as a constant reminder of his humble beginnings and the many blessings that followed.

(female TV interviewer) Lawrence Welk's first comments as he stepped off the plane were how happy he was to be back in North Dakota, and how beautiful the weather was for the occasion.

Happy to be home?

Extremely happy to be home.

And you know what?

It couldn't be nicer!

The climate is so beautiful.

(Gerald A. Klein) Lawrence was always really good about coming back and fitting in and letting people know that he hadn't forgotten where he came from.

(Lance Richey) Outside of Strasburg they put up a sign saying The Home of Lawrence Welk.

So we are 70 years into Strasburg claiming Lawrence as its greatest son.

(man) This is Strasburg's finest hour.

We are truly happy and proud of you, Lawrence.

Of all of the families men in the United States today you are perhaps the only one that publicly acknowledges and speaks about his hometown especially in occasions where the hometown is one of the size of Strasburg.

In the 1960s and 1970s, every year he made a vacation back to Strasburg.

He would come for a few days, he would visit his brothers and sisters, he would go to church, he would play golf in Linton.

He just liked coming home.

He truly had a deep love of North Dakota, had a deep love of his hometown, he was proud to be a North Dakotan.

(woman) What do you get out of the trips coming back home?

Well, I think it's a little bit like anyone else where you have your roots.

I think it's very powerful, and I think by coming back here I have much more gratitude in my heart than I would if I wouldn't come back here.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) Lawrence was very, very good to his hometown, he never forgot about them.

He made sure that they received money for the actual city.

There is a Lawrence Welk Pool still to this day in Strasburg.

He tried to get back there as often as he could to see his brothers and sisters.

Mike was always the closest to him.

My dad was so proud of Lawrence.

When he'd come back to Strasburg, oh my God, it was another Fourth of July!

[laughs] We had a bowling alley at that time, and he'd fix breakfast in there.

Everybody could come and have breakfast.

He'd fry eggs and whatever.

[laughs] I think people in Strasburg always were and still are very proud of the fact that Lawrence came from this culture and this area.

(male narrator) The empire Lawrence Welk built was a reflection of his heritage, his deep passion for music, and his unwavering commitment to serving others.

The decision to retire in 1982 was a difficult one, but as with many beloved traditions, The Lawrence Welk Show found a way to live on, this time through the enduring support of Public Television.

(Lance Richey) Lawrence retired in 1982, and his syndicated show went off the air.

In 1984 he did a reunion special that was aired on Public Television.

And the ratings were so good that the following year they did a second reunion special.

After that, Oklahoma Educational Television Authority decided there may be a market to syndicate reruns of Lawrence's show.

(male announcer) Now sit back and enjoy the show selected especially for Public Television.

(Lance Richey) And in the mid-1980s, they began running reruns of Lawrence.

That quickly spread to almost every Public Television network nationwide.

It's so wonderful having Lawrence Welk back on television again.

And here he is on Prairie Public Television.

We're going to take a short intermission and talk to you about becoming a member.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) Lawrence was still alive when the show premiered on Public Television in 1987.

He was very very pleased because he loved Public Television.

He and Fern watched Public Television a great deal.

It is so important to all of us to keep Public Television on the air.

(Margaret Heron Letterman) He never truthfully retired.

It was only about the last 2 years of his life that he didn't do some type of a show.

He still would pick up that accordion because he wanted to play.

[playing a melodic song] ♪ (male narrator) On May 17, 1992, Lawrence Welk passed away, surrounded by family and loved ones.

(newsman] One of North Dakota's most famous exports was Lawrence Welk.

He died at age 89.

(male narrator) True to his humble roots, he declined the grand farewells often seen in Hollywood.

Instead he requested a small, private ceremony a simple service befitting the farm boy he had always remained at heart.

A reception followed, where friends and longtime band members gathered to honor a man whose life's work brought joy to millions.

Welk was laid to rest in Culver City, California.

Meanwhile, far from the spotlight, the humble family homestead in Strasburg stood weathered with time, its future uncertain, resting at a quiet crossroads.

The last person to live on this farm was Mike Welk and his kids.

After he moved to town, when he retired, his sons-in-law farmed the land, but nobody else lived here after that.

So the buildings themselves fell into disrepair.

By the early 1990s, they were pretty decrepit.

My husband and I brought our children back to visit with both my mother and my father's family.

And I brought my children to the homestead.

It was old and run down, and it was a sobering experience for my children.

It gave us a sense of how my father lived as a child and a young man.

It gave us a great respect for our immigrants and how they lived as they came to the United States.

That was when a decision was made by the family to try and restore the homestead as a significant part of Lawrence's life and a significant part of the German-Russian experience.

Originally it was done by private funds and with the family, and in the early 1990s the homestead was opened, operated by the family.

And they did so for 20-some years.

Evelyn and I were determined to do this-- we're going to fix that house up no matter what!

And we did, we did!

We fixed it to where it was people could come and see it and enjoy it.

And to this day I'm so glad we did.

I started working out there the day it opened up.

And I worked there for 21 years giving tours, and it was was so fulfilling-- all the people that you meet.

That first year we had 7000 visitors.

I never thought that this little farm here in North Dakota would become a landmark.

It was not until 2015 that the state of North Dakota acquired the homestead and truly began a thorough restoration and establishment of it.

It's important that Ludwig and Christina Welk homestead is a historical site because the Germans from Russia are a key part of the history of the upper plains.

They helped make North Dakota what it is as a state.

Lawrence is an important part of that legacy, but I think the legacy is larger than Lawrence.

And by making the homestead a witness to the hardships they endured to establish themselves in our country, and the way that their culture has filtered into the culture of the plains, future generations can know where North Dakota came from.

[applause] Ah, what a beautiful audience!

Lawrence's biggest accomplishment was the longevity that he had with his audience.

People who were sitting on their grandparents lap listening to Lawrence in the 1950s are still listening to Lawrence.

He loved the music, he loved the people, he loved the America that he felt these songs and this style of music embodied.

And that gave him a bond with the nation that lasts to this day.

Part of being a homesteader is, you don't give up.

In some ways Lawrence is the story of our country in the 20th century.

He started out where the country was at the beginning of the 1900s-- poor, overwhelmingly immigrant, overwhelmingly agricultural.

By the time he died in 1992, the country had transformed itself, and along the way, Lawrence followed that transformation.

But he didn't transform himself.

He stayed who he was-- a North Dakota farm boy.

And I would also like to add my thanks to all of you for being such a wonderful, loyal audience all these years.

Now keep a song in your heart, and may all your memories be happy.

[piano & mandolin play bright folk/country music] [The Lawrence Welk Orchestra plays his theme song] ♪ [pop!]

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (Lawrence Welk's singers; men and women) ♪ Good night!

Sleep tight!

♪ ♪ And pleasant dreams to you.

♪ ♪ Here's a wish and a prayer ♪ ♪ That every dream comes true.

♪ ♪ And now till we ♪ ♪ Meet again ♪ ♪ Adios, au revoir, ♪ ♪ Auf wiedersehen ♪