Customer Reviews

Wunnerful, Wunnerful! The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk

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Wunnerful, Wunnerful! The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk by Lawrence Welk with Bernice McGeehan

This excellent book made me a Lawrence Welk fan. Until I read his autobiography I considered Welk's music more suited to my mother's taste. I have changed my mind. I picked up my copy at a yard sale and bought it mainly because it had the signature of the author scrawled across the title page. I like biographies and autobiographies, and when I settled down to read this one, I was well rewarded for my treasure hunt. Threaded throughout this book are examples of integrity and thoughtfulness that show Lawrence Welk to be an outstanding showman, a hard worker, a devoted family man, a man of faith, and basically a decent human being. His humility in the face of success and his concern for his musical family made him someone to be admired. From the first $400 accordion that cost him four years work on his parents' farm to the fleet of Rolls Royces that graced his final years, it was a long, hard road. His thick accent became his trademark, along with his "Champagne Music" that entertained so many of his fans. But his fans were more than just fans, they were his friends. That is unusual in the world of entertainment, but then he was an unusual man, and this is an unusual book. I recommend it highly.

For the Welk-fan, this book with Welk family photos is terrific. At very least, its a conversation piece for a younger generation. If you remember saturday night watching Lawrence when Dodge or Geritol was his sponser - this is for you!

Today I finished reading Wunnerful, Wunnerful! The Autobiography of Lawrence Welk by Lawrence Welk with Bernice McGeehan. I am a huge fan of "The Lawrence Welk Show", and have been for about twenty years, when I turned on a Christmas rerun and was hooked by the bouncy music. I watch classic rerun episodes every weekend on PBS and I am proud owner of about a dozen CD's by the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, plus others by members of the Welk musical family, including the Lennon Sisters and pianist Jo Ann Castle.

Welk wrote this book at the height of his popularity in 1971. He had by then had a ten-year string of hits on the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the number one "Calcutta" in 1961. Throughout this autobio Welk bemoans his lack of proficient English as he claims to have spoken only German at home and in school. While many immigrant families spoke the language of the old country at home, and even in school where Welk's teachers themselves had English as a second language, I doubt his claim that he didn't learn English until the age of 21--this is a Welk myth that I think even he has been misled to believe. Nevertheless I doubt that Welk had much part in actually writing this autobio. It was a rapid read which carried more like a very long interview session with the coauthor McGeehan.

Lawrence Welk was a religious man who lived his life according to Catholic principles. He had profound faith and seemed almost naïve in his trust in people. He was not afraid to tell of the many times people took advantage of him as he was building his career, and even after he had "made it" in Hollywood. In spite of these run-ins with scammers and rip-off artists, Welk never lost his faith in people and he could only joke about lessons he had learned the hard way.

Welk addresses some items of show gossip (take it from me, a Welk fan would want to know the truth behind these things) such as the real reasons why Champagne Lady Alice Lon left, and why the Lennon Sisters left the show under supposedly acrimonious circumstances.

Wunnerful has plenty of history of the American midwest musical scene, and Welk has a great memory for capturing every detail of the old dance palaces of the 1930's and 40's. I can hear him right now playing the accordion as he dances around the stage. Music was Welk's first passion and his love for it is easily translated to the written page.

My mother is 92 and a advide fan of Lawrence Welk. She thoughly
enjoyed the Wunnerful, wunnerful book.

Item as described and received in a timely manner... an excellent buying experience!

I really enjoyed reading this book. Having been a Lawrence Welk fan for years it was so good to read the story behind the man. I recommend this for any fan of this musical genius!

An easy read with a window into a simpler better time in the USA. Truely an example of the American dream.

Pleased to find this book as a gift for a Lawrence Welk fan. It arrived on time as promised. The seller described the condition of the book spot on. I would buy from this seller again.

I can't stand Lawrence Welk! However it is a very interesting read! The guy made a fortune doing that show! Very Good condition for a 40 year old book!

I watched the Lawrence Welk show on Saturday evenings growing up in the seventies, after the show had already gone into syndication, but it wasn't until the nineties that I took an interest in Welk's writings as well as the reruns on PBS. The book is very honest in most places and definitely portrays Welk as a driven individual dedicated first and foremost to entertaining his audience as opposed to brainwashing them as is the case since the 60's with both the so called entertainment and post secondary educational industries. Welk is portrayed as a hardworking and dedicated businessman who is also portrayed as a very ethical individual. How true this may have been is open to interpretation, since no one becomes worth over 100 million by being a nice guy all the time. Some of his social reforms explained in his later works are not very realistic since his was a rather myopic view of the oligarchial - excuse me, capitalistic - system in control of America. Stil, I enjoyed this book as well as his other books. They are very entertaining and informative in terms of the entertainment and television business. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the entertainment industry and anyone interested in clean family entertainment, which is certainly becoming rare these days.