Take Your Girlie To The Movies

The gang is out at the local movie palace for the latest Hollywood blockbuster...

And the Academy Awards are this weekend, so here's the Music Makers from 1970 with "Take Your Girlie To the Movies"

Take Your Girlie To The Movies

May I have the envelope please.....

Hollywood has the Academy Awards tonight, but around here we have the Welky Awards to honor the best in Champagne Music.

Tanya will read the winners of this year's Welkies

The Welky for Best Impression of a Beverly Hillbillies character is....

Andra Willis as Irene Ryan's Granny!

The next Welky is for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Animal Costume...

....and the winner is Jack Imel, for playing the drums to "Talk To The Animals" while dressed as an elephant!

The next Welky is for Best Celebrity Guest Appearance on the Welk Show, and the award goes to....

 
.....the legendary Jack Benny with his monologue on the '71 Academy Awards episode!

The next Welky is for Most Colorful Wardrobe Design, and this year's proud winners are....

Cissy and Bobby with their Citrus Disco Wear from their "Love Will Keep Us Together" dance number!

Next is the Welky for Best Original Honky Tony Piano Design, and we are proud to announce that the honor goes to....

The Leis from Waikiki Piano! And accepting on it's behalf is Jo Ann Castle.

And finally, we present the Welky for Outstanding Group Musical Number which is no contest at all....

The Welky goes to the "I Want To Be Happy" chorus line of tap dancers!

In addition to accepting their award, they'll do an encore....

Take a bow!

And we congratulate all the winners tonight, see you next year! 

May I have the envelope please.....

Oscar Night!

This week, the Music Makers salute the Academy Award winning original songs....

Guy & Ralna sings "Buttons & Bows", the Oscar winner for 1948

Myron Floren with the 1960 winner "Never On Sunday".....

Sandi & Sally with "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" that won in 1969.

Tanya sings "For All We Know" which won in '71.....

And here's Jack Benny with the Maestro....wonder if he did win an Oscar?

As for tonight's ceremonies.....who will win Best Song? Will it be either "Jai Ho" or "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire? Or will it be "Down To Earth" from WALL-E?

The envelope please.....

Oscar Night!

An Academy Awards haiku

I would like to thank the academy for the honor of being nominated.....

It's Oscar's big night

Let's roll out the red carpet

Lights, Camera, Action!

An Academy Awards haiku

Oh Thank You Very Much

On the 1971 Academy Awards show, this is how the episode ended on public television, Joe Feeney and the cast singing "Born Free"

But there's a number after that in the original broadcast that got cut to make time for the interview segement.

Thanks to the efforts of YouTube and a dedicated Welk fan, we now get to see the original closing number!

It's titled "Thank You Very Much"....and we thank you, very much.

Oh Thank You Very Much

What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life

Here's one of my favorite Ken Delo solo numbers, his rendition of "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life" from the movie "The Happy Ending" featured from the Welk show's 1970 Academy Awards episode.

What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life

It's Oscar's Night....

No....not this Oscar, we're talking Academy Awards here

And that is also the topic of this week's Lawrence Welk Show on public television, the same weekend of this blogmaster's birthday (which is today).

God I feel old.....

This show originally aired in April 1971, a few highlights from the show include Guy Hovis in the solo spot singing the theme song from "High Noon".

Here's Myron Floren and the boys playing "Never On Sunday"....a little Escondido brass to jazz up your day I might add.

And here's comic legend Jack Benny appearing as tonight's special guest, trying to play the violin.

Finally, here's Tanya Falan in the solo spot with "For All We Know", which of course one of many hit songs by the Carpenters....and a Oscar contender for Best Song.

And speaking of Tanya, she was Mary Lou's guest in the interview segment as well.

Very fine show indeed....according to my PBS station's broadcast guide, next three weeks are in pledge mode, good news is that the Welk shows prempted are all repeats I've seen many times before.

Take care now, while I go have some birthday cake.

It's Oscar's Night....

Academy Awards....Oscar's Biggest Night

It's Oscar Night! What better way to celebrate Champagne Style than to watch this week's offering "Academy Awards" from April 3, 1971, lets join the rest of the gang for some fun with Oscar!

The show opens with "High Hopes" featuring the music makers, then Guy Hovis comes out as a deputy from the Old West...singing "Do Not Forsake Me" from the film "High Noon", then he's joined by Ralna for "Buttons and Bows", both do a great job with that song.

As you can see....the set is not on fire (do not call the fire department), it's just Cissy and Bobby dancing to the theme from "Love Story" with Bob Ralston at the piano...and the effects and dancing were visually stunning! There were plenty of instrumental numbers by the orchestra, such as "Never On Sunday" with Myron Floren on the squeezebox and "Georgy Girl" tinged with alot of brass from both the trombone and trumpet sections.

I wonder that's how Cheech and Chong got the idea to name one of their albums "Up In Smoke?"

Halfway throught the show, the Maestro brings out his special guest star...the legendary Jack Benny for a monologue that is best described as Benny-esque, with "cheap" jokes and a violin solo....but sadly, no references to his upcoming "39th birthday".

"Oh Rochester....I'm rocking this joint tonight!"

After ten minutes of Mister Benny, things return to being the Welk show with great numbers such as Arthur Duncan dancing to "The Continental", Tanya Falan's torch solo of "For All We Know" and Clay Hart's rendition of "Jean".

We also hear from Norma Zimmer and Jimmy Roberts with "Three Coins In A Fountain" and later Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (It's really Sandi & Sally, not Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick) with the popular B.J Thomas hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head". The show concludes with a medley of Disney songs, such as "Wish Upon A Star", "Chim-Chim Cher-ee" and "Zippedy Doo Dah" ending up with a stirring finale by Joe Feeney with "Born Free" to put a kabosh on this Oscars/Jack Benny show.

I also find out that there was another number, "Thank You Very Much" that was cut from the show...I'm very interested in how that number went.

This week, it's Tanya Falan (or Tanya Welk Roberts) being interviewed by Mary Lou. She talked about how as a kid, she played "Mansion" instead of "House" plus how she started singing, first at Disneyland as leader of "Tanya and the Mustangs" which later led her to being on Lawrence Welk's show. She also talked about her kids, her family, the fun she had on the show...such as not remembering the words to "Matchmaker", and when she went out as a solo act.

Hope you enjoyed this week's show, and tonights Academy Award show! Next week is the big one....the debut of "Lawrence Welk's Television Treasures!"

And by the way, here's Tanya singing "Matchmaker"....see for yourself!

Academy Awards....Oscar's Biggest Night