Salute to Irving Berlin

Here's a nice shot of Mr. Welk dancing with Cissy King from last Saturday's Irving Berlin episode.

Speaking of that episode, originally aired in the spring of 1973....the Maestro and his musical family pays an hour-long tribute to the Great American Songwriter Irving Berlin, whom at that time would turn 85 on May 11th. It was a fun episode, Guy & Ralna with a nice rendition of "Easter Parade"...I assume that in '73....Easter Sunday was not too far away.

A bunch of Berlin standards were sung....the show opened with "There's No Business Like Show Business", "Say It Isn't So" sung by Tanya, "I Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" by the orchestra and "Lets Go Face The Music And Dance" danced by Cissy and Bobby just to name a few....and of course, the big finale with Norma Zimmer and the chorus singing "God Bless America".

In Mary Lou Metzger's interview segment, she talked to Cissy King and it was a lively and fun chat....very reflective of Cissy's personality. She mostly touched up on how she started dancing at age three, competing in ballroom dance competitions, how she got started on the Welk show and her activities afterwards such as being a choreographer for the Six Flags stage shows and her involvement in teaching up and comers to dance.

I was suprised that there was no mention of her involvement in the Broadway play "Always Patsy", that would have been an exciting topic to cover, but I guess they were short on time.