Can you name a television show that has run longer than 30 years consistently? Its not easy. Granted there are soap operas and news shows that have been around forever but variety shows? There are none. If there were as many options for viewing as there are now back in 1955 this post would never have been written.
Lawrence Welk was a band leader. That alone is a dead profession. Not quite a conductor and not in the band he lead the band… so to speak and from 1955 through 1971 he showed up in your living room every week with easy listening music and light humor, and bubbles.
Bubbles were his kick and to this day are symbolic of his show in every parody (Saturday Night Live does a stellar one). Welk from North Dakota is left to seek fame and fortune and his little town got the distinction of being a tourist stop. Just not a very big one.
Strasburg, ND historical society purchased the homestead from Welk’s nieces, Evelyn Schwab, 84, and Edna Schwab, 80. The property in the southern part of the state has been listed for sale for more than a year, with an asking price of $125,000. A final sale price hasn’t been negotiated.
“Twenty years ago, we would never have thought of selling it,” Evelyn Schwab said. “The time has come now.”
The Schwabs have given tours of the farmstead since it was restored with private funds in the early 1990s. Welk donated about $140,000 for the restoration before his death in 1992 at age 89. The home on the outskirts of the town of about 400 people, many of whom still converse in German, features a life-size cutout of an accordion-wielding Welk to greet guests. The homestead includes a barn, summer kitchen, granary, buggy house, blacksmith shop and outhouse. The historical society envisions the property as a tourist destination to tout the importance of agriculture and the region’s German-Russian heritage
$125, 000.00?? That’s an awful lot of property for a tiny cost and a couple hundred tourists a year. Weird scene. Then again it’s North Dakota- perhaps that’s pricy there but you wouldn’t be able to purchase a 1 bedroom condo in the hood in my state for that payout.