George Cates

Here's a nice shot of Lawrence Welk's musical supervisior George Cates, doing one of the things he does best.

Born and raised in the Big Apple (New York...not Des Moines, LOL); George was hired by the Maestro in 1951 and certainly was able to put his own swing to that Champagne Music. As a fine music executive in his own right, he played a huge role in the recording studio....producing many of the Welk Orchestra's albums for Coral, Dot and later Ranwood Records.

In 1973, George stepped out in front of the camera to conduct many of the band's instrumental numbers....and never looked back!

He passed on from natural causes in 2002, aged 91 years.