Where there any gay Lawrence Welk cast members?

Tom Netherton was (is?) So Very Gay that Lawrence Welk himself could not refrain from making a bitchy observation that Tom was "a big hit, and NOT JUST WIT' THE LADIES." I actually saw this on PBS and the BF and I laughed our asses off. What an evil old cunt Welk was.

Just all the Lennon Sisters.

Tank you, tank you. Now the lovely Bobby and Cissy. To av-Oyd any Con-fus-ion, Cissy is the one wearin' the dress.

Norma Zimmer loved the man-sex. She used to visit gay baths in NYC and cheer on the men, especially those who were engaged in group sex. Actually, she was the only woman who I ever saw at the baths.

If we asked, she would always sing. She always said that she thought Bette Midler was a vulgar slut who only would do anything for money. Norma, unlike Bette, was a true friend of the gays.

Believe me, I often heard Norma crooning as I was being penetrated, even double-penetrated, by many hot guys.

Tom Netherton

Tom Netherton was very handsome in a wholesome kind of way, but his singing defined bland.

I have a copy of his autobiography which I think was written about 30 years ago, and he says that he loves women but that he hadn't found the right girl yet.

I guess we can all do the math.

I knew as a kid that Tom Netherton was a big old 'mo. That perfect laquered hair. The way he moved his mouth when he sang those cheesy songs. He was a total cheeseball PARODY of himself and the clown didn't even know it. He was an SNL skit character. He was just SO in love with the sound of his own treacly voice. He was a sitcom character. Handsome, yes. But THE ultimate example of a cheesy 70's/80's closet case. I have met a hundred of them throughout my life, usually doing musical theatre.

Tom died in 2018, at age 70. Never married.

Tom Netherton used to sweat so much on the show that I'm surprised he didn't get electrocuted by the microphone. He was also the only performer on the show that I ever saw go up on his lyrics (ironically, it was "Young at Heart" which begins, "Fairy tales can come true..." and then he froze and went, "buh-buh-buh-buh." He forgot more lyrics later in the song. Kathie Lee outed him in her autobiography when she wrote about her first husband, who was gay and "lived with a gay performer on the Lawrence Welk Show."

I don't know if there were any other gays on the show, but piano player Bob Ralston was married to the harshest looking Dutch lady you ever saw. He later went to prison for molesting one of his young male piano students, but he's out of prison now and apparently nobody on the show holds it against him, as he frequently appears on Welk reunion specials.

If you watch the PBS rebroadcasts and reunion shows, it's a little sad to see these performers today. They were famous for the brief time they appeared on the show and now have to base their entire careers on their status as a "former Welk star" as they appear on cruise ships, small nightclubs, etc. And they are all trying to find ways to make more money. Ken Delo sells hypnosis tapes and a self-published novel; the Lennons sell dolls; Ava Barber opened a sandwich shop, etc., etc.

Joanne Castle looked like a woman who'd ignore your safe word.

Netherton was very religious. This is a good 3-part interview he did in 2003. He always seemed so plastic on the show, but he comes across as a real person here. The interviewer sucks though.

Netherton is mentioned towards the end of this article about Kathy Lee Gifford’s autobiography.

Was Tom the bleached blond guy? If so, he's the guy who had the affair with Kathie Lee's first husband (the christian record producer).

Has anyone mentioned Tom Netherton yet?

Has anyone yet mentioned he had an affair with Kathie Lee Gifford's first husband?

BEARKING: I heard that Gay Tom Netherton lived with Kathie Lee Gifford's gay first husband!

To compliment the Champagne Lady a Popper’s Gentleman was proposed, but the series was canceled before he could be implemented.

Myron Floren fingered me like an accordion! And I loved every minute of it!

Yes, Tom Netherton pinged to high heaven as soon as I first saw him. There must have been others.

R10 Marry me!

[quote] BEARKING: I heard that Gay Tom Netherton lived with Kathie Lee Gifford's gay first husband!

🐻 👑

I'm sure Paul Lynde, Rock Hudson, Liberace, and Robert Reed all had Tom Netherton.

Netherton found religion while in the military. He truly couldn’t find the right girl—-he once was on “The Dating Game”.

The Champagne Lady's nick name was The Cunnilingual Gal.

I always wondered about Aladdin, as well as Arthur Duncan, who is still alive and about him little info can be found regarding his personal life.

Dooneese Maharelle

Netherton never gave bjs because he hated when anybody touched his hair.

Pass around bottom, that one.

R25, that the only Wiig character I like. Otherwise I can't stand her.

Castle's first album "Accordion in Hi-Fi" is on the net.

She actually looked normal. Of course this was before the Welk stylists got ahold of her.

Kathie Lee Gifford outed Tom Netherton.

The one who was in the Mouseketeers before Lawrence Welk- he was SUPER GAY

Bobbie Burgess the dancer.

[quote] The one who was in the Mouseketeers before Lawrence Welk- he was SUPER GAY

My Bobby is NOT gay!

And there was Bill Page from the early years. He played something like 11 reeds. I remember seeing him do a waterskiing spread in a movie magazine and he was so hot with a beautiful hairy chest and belly.

Jo Ann Castle was a HUGE mess ... literally.

Besides the drinking, the drugs, the weight gain, she protected a husband's pedophilia and may have had something to do with burning down her club for insurance purposes.

Guy & Ralna. I'm thinking double lavender marriage.

I wondered about the Otwell Twins.

[quote]Just all the Lennon Sisters.

weren't they mobster's molls? or what that the mcguires?

Welk didn't care if you were gay, black or a satanist, as long as you didn't fuck up his show and stop the money from rollin' in

[quote] Norma Zimmer loved the man-sex. She used to visit gay baths in NYC and cheer on the men, especially those who were engaged in group sex.

She shouldn't have been permitted to be there.

R29 , that blog stinks of some kind of eldergay DLer having fun with dead vintage celebrities. It doesn't discount obviously what happened, but it makes me uncomfortable knowing that these 'innocent' shows had a lot of bad shit going on behind the scenes. The more innocuous, the more suspicious. My parents, in their sixties, tell me they find the LW show creepy. And it looks like I know why now.

[quote] weren't they mobster's molls? or what that the mcguires?

Phyllis McGuire.

The Otwell twins look like more retarded Osmonds. Jimmy almost looks smart compared to them.

When I was a kid. I thought Lawrence Welk was gay. In sort of a Mr Rogers confusing way.

In the early days, someone pulled Lawrence aside and told him to stop acting like Liberace.

Grab the Kleenex, gurls

Netherton on why he never married, “It is better to have loved and lost than be married and bossed!”

So he's the bossy bottom?

[quote]I often heard Norma crooning as I was being penetrated, even double-penetrated, by many hot guys.

Then you were doing it wrong.

That’s quite the clip of Tom at R45.

"He touched me."

I can't believe it took so long for Bobby Burgess to be mentioned.

If you watch the PBS rebroadcasts and reunion shows, it's a little sad to see these performers today. They were famous for the brief time they appeared on the show and now have to base their entire careers on their status as a "former Welk star" as they appear on cruise ships, small nightclubs, etc. And they are all trying to find ways to make more money. Ken Delo sells hypnosis tapes and a self-published novel; the Lennons sell dolls; Ava Barber opened a sandwich shop, etc., etc.

I have watched some of the PBS shows hosted by Mary Lou Metzger and she NEVER stops smiling, eithert when she's hosting, or interviewing her fellow former Welk stars. She also had this perma-smile on the show, but it's more expected when performing (many of the perfromers did - like Arthur Duncan, Bobby and Cissie, or Norma Z. and Jimmie R.). It may go unnoticed, but if you think about it (or try it), it's very difficult to smile continually for minutes on end.

By the way why shouldn't these people have money-making side hustles? Even big stars with plenty of money open restaurants, etc. Just saw Taylor Swift doing a CapitolOne credit card commercial. I thought, "with her money?"

Sorry this part should have been the quote:

[quote]If you watch the PBS rebroadcasts and reunion shows, it's a little sad to see these performers today. They were famous for the brief time they appeared on the show and now have to base their entire careers on their status as a "former Welk star" as they appear on cruise ships, small nightclubs, etc. And they are all trying to find ways to make more money. Ken Delo sells hypnosis tapes and a self-published novel; the Lennons sell dolls; Ava Barber opened a sandwich shop, etc., etc.

[quote]"He touched me."

Inappropriately?

That traveling shot of the backs of the band showed more rugs than you could find at a discount flooring place.

Welk was a cheapskate (as well as very wealthy from real estate). The performers were paid scale and always had to tour and take what they could. Some, like Lynn Anderson (or the fired Pete Fountain), became stars, but the others were always working show folks and sad gigs are a lot of what they do. A college friend toured with some Welk offshoot and he supports himself playing weddings and parties, and acting as an agent for people who are even more obscure--organizing music for events where he may or may not play. This someone with a degree in piano and composition, but very Welk-like musical tastes. That's surviving in show business.

Despite the Welk band having a reputation for being competent musicians, some of the arrangements were horrible and some renditions weren't great. Out of boredom and to avoid working on my dissertation, I subjected myself to a Welk rerun that was a salute to Duke Ellington---beyond some easy crowd pleasers like "Take the A-Train", the music clunky and sometimes bordered on tone deaf in the way it was arranged.

Back then the network shows started at 7pm and the Welk show started at 7pm on Saturday Nights, afaik. (Later, it was sydicated, when ABC dropped the show. And was still usually shown at that time.) We had elderly neighbors (probably in their 60s, to me they were elderly) who loved the show, and my dad and sometimes my mom used to go over and watch the show with them on Saturday night, have a drink, then come home and watch All In The Family.

The absolute worst arrangements on the show were by George Cates.....all of his music began with 4 measures of the theme.....rambled around for three minutes.....and then ended with the same 4 measures.

You can check all the sheet music out here.

Oh, sorry.....I guess it's just by title.....

This thread is old and sad 😔

R58 Didn't George Cates at least lead the orchestra in some classic big band arrangements (i. e. recreations of some of the famous numbers by big bands like Dorsey, Shaw, etc.)? It was one of the few things on the show I enjoyed.

R58...I'd forgotten that a lot of their arrangements atated and ended in the same way--that must have been how they set the mood for the soporific "champagne" sound. You can't do that with "Take the A Train", wnich explains why they didn't butcher it.

R57- They came to their senses by watching All In The Family.

By the way the character of Archie Bunker would have like a White Protestant show like the Lawrence Welk Show.

There used to be a web site in the late 1990s to early 2000s called Television Without Pity, and it had a subforum for each show. The one for the Lawrence Welk Show was filled with great tidbits and insider gossip. The group of performers from the show who are still around today refer to themselves informally as the "Lawrence Welk Musical Family." In one of the threads (I think it was a thread about Tom Netherton) someone posted, "Everyone in the Lawrence Welk Musical Family knows that Tom is gay and no one cares."

Bobby Burgess is now 81 and has been married to the same woman for 52 years, has 4 children and is a grandfather.

My mom thought I looked like Tom Nethterton when I was a teenager. I was flattered then, but maybe she thought I had gayface.

R63 My parents were not fans of the Welk show, they used to laugh a bit at the dancing couples that were shown from time to time. My dad strictly went next door to watch the show as a ritual with the older neighbors. It was a little farm and they sat in the basement around a pot-bellied stove (in the winter, anyway) watching the show and having a snort. My mom (no fan of it) told me I could learn a lot of songs if I watched the show, and she was right about that. I used to tape it (audio) and did learn many old songs that way.

And he's still doing the same steps he did in "Cooking With Minnie Mouse."

Anyone remember the Here's Lucy episode where Viv had a crush on Lawrence Welk? Weird.

[quote] Where there

There right over there

69 replies and no one has mentioned piano player Bob Ralston?

R70 he's a pedophile.

Welk pronounced "piano" as "piannah."

Did that mean he was gay, or just Norwegian?

Nobody could blow like Bill Page.

R40, I’m in my sixties, and I didn’t think it was creepy, just square and laughable*. Even my parents – born in the 1920s – though LW was corny. The show was aimed more at my grandparents’ generation (born around the turn of the century). They loved it, although my grandmother mocked everyone on the show. Then again, she mocked most people. She would have fit right at in the DL.

*That’s what I thought as a teenager in the ‘70s. Today, I find the older LW shows, the B&W ones from the 1960s, to be charming, and the tunes are nice.

Welk fans felt possessive of his playesr and singers, much like soap fans. The Lennon Sisters regularly made it into the Enquirer, and occasionally others did, too.

The early, black-and-white episodes of the Lawrence Welk Show were like watching a live big band concert where dancing was allowed. Some truly great music there, if you like that genre of music.

When color TV became prevalent, the show changed into more of a television production than a concert, with colorful sets and colorful costumes to take advantage of color broadcasting. However, Welk insisted on taping the show straight through without interruptions, leaving only the required minute of blank tape every so often for commercial breaks. Welk felt that this gave the performers pressure to be on top of their game, and gave the show a more "live feel" and an exciting feel than if it had been heavily edited.

R77, the early shows were much better. Here's one from 1963 (or 1964 - some of the comments say it's from February, 1964) with all the regulars of the time, including Arthur Duncan, who must have been one of the few black performers on TV at the time.

Bobby Burgess is paired with Barbara Boylan; I remember that duo from early childhood, watching LW at my grandparents' house. I think I was intrigued by the alliteration. Norma Zimmer, Jim Roberts, Myron Floren, Jo Ann Castle, Joe Feeney - they're all here.

The ads are fun, too, including the usual sponsors Geritol (no more iron poor blood!), "non-habit-forming" Sominex - well, I guess it was safer than the Seconal everybody seemed to be popping like candy in those days - and Serutan ("Serutan spelled backward is natures"). I especially liked the ad where a hot young guy appears to be having an orgasm just from applying Aqua Velva.

It's a fun watch.

Well, I Spy (co-starring Bill Cosby) was a couple of years in the future (1965), as well as Ivan Dixon on Hogan's Heroes the same year. Star Trek with Uhura was '66. Then Gail Fisher on Mannix in '67 and Diahann Caroll as Julia in 68. Before that there were some great black charaters but they were usually servants (albeit not very servile) like Rochester on Jack Benny, and Louise Beavers then Amanda Randolph as the maid on Danny Thomas.

Geritol of course was fined a huge amount of money by the FTC for false claims and taken off the market.

R78 The show you linked to doesn't seem all that different from the later color shows. There are sets and costumes, corny characters, etc., etc. Granted there was no soft rtock, 70s-style country, etc. because that didn't exist yet.

R80, they weren't trying to be hip or appeal to younger viewers. They knew their audience - very unhip people even in 1963 - and that was that. In the '70s, while I don't think anyone seriously thought they would capture a young audience, they were trying to keep up with fashions that had left them behind. It was painful to watch. All the music they played/sang in 1963 was appropriate for the LW format because there was still lots of popular music for grownups. By the '70s, popular music was totally youth-oriented, so when LW's people tried to do recent hits, they sounded ridiculous.

Also, the fashions and hairstyles of the early '60s are just so much more appealing, especially on the men.

[quote] they weren't trying to be hip or appeal to younger viewers.

Well, R81, I'm not sure they were ever trying to be hip. But my feeling was there were a lot of younger performers on the show in the 70s and they probably strongly suggested that the sho,w do some of the music THEY wanted to perform. And middle America had definitely embraced country and artists like Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash had mainstream hits. I don't think the show was necessarily trying to appeal to young people, just younger people. Like, in their 40s.

As for the 60s, the Lennon Sisters were in fact popular with teens and young adults so the show did appeal to that audience somewhat. But I get your points, you're not wrong.

There were only 3 networks then and many families only had one TV, which is why so many of us saw shows like this, even as kids or teens, while today it's all so much more specialized.

Saying Tom Netherton is gay is like saying the Pope is Catholic.

Man, that 1963 program... such a time-capsule!

America was close to 20 years out of WWII, the generation of depression/war "babies" were now middle-age and their Boomer children were not yet the rebels they would become within 5 years. Think about that - in 5 years we'd be in Chicago at the Democratic convention, Woodstock would be held in New York state, the massive civil rights and social programs of LBJ would be passed by Congress, there would be massive anti-Vietnam protests, and so much more.

The TV show is in b&w, JFK was still alive, the nation was quietly building it presence in Vietnam, the threat of a nuclear war loomed all around, the Beatles have not been shown on the Sullivan program, and there's Welk, presenting a lovely hour of music with an audience of well-dressed white folk, dancing away.

Fascinating. Oh, and yea, some of the members of Welk's orchestra and cast were sucking cock in their off-hours... I just don't know who.

Welk did seek to include new talent even early on. He had a second show--never saw it, only read about it---that was somesort of new talent showcase. It may have run as a summer replacement for a few years, but some membres of the "musical family" came from there. There was more obvious outreach to something resembling younger viewers in the 70s (the famous "One Toke Over the Line" number). but that may have been George Cates' doing. Earlier in the show's run he had to talk Welk into performing "Calcutta" (a cover of a German cha-cha) that became a #1 hit and was vastly more contemporary than the usual schlock. I wouldn't be surprised if the addition of country and country-ish artists was Cates' doing.

In 1963 my parents (born in the '20s, grew up in the Depression and my dad was in WWII) were 34 and 36, not middle aged yet.

Blah, blah, blah R87... MY father was born in 1921. By the end of 1963 he was 42 - and that was middle-age; at. the. time.

It no longer is, but I was born when parents were 35 (Mom) and 40 (Dad). He could not believe that he would be in his mid-40s with a child in kindergarten.

R88, 42 is still middle-aged. Failure to realize this is one of the most distasteful things about my Boomer generation, and I wish subsequent generations wouldn't repeat the delusion.

R82, I get what you're saying. Naturally, the LW show in the '70s featured people wearing the clothes and hairstyles of the time and playing some contemporary music. Otherwise, it would have seemed like a costume party. I was speaking from the POV of the present, looking back, and I guess that, to me, the popular culture (even the LW for-old-folks version) of the early '60s is so obviously superior to the popular culture of the '70s (which I lived through as a teenager and young adult) that the LW's color shows are borderline unwatchable. I went through all that awful crap once; no need to relieve it! I realize a younger person today might find it fun or interesting.

You mean we had STRAIGHT ones!???

I just love The Maharelle Sisters on SNL!

R1 You really believe Welk meant that comment as you interpreted it?

[quote] He (Ralston) later went to prison for molesting one of his young male piano students, but he's out of prison now and apparently nobody on the show holds it against him, as he frequently appears on Welk reunion specials.

R9 The shocking thing was Ralston did NOT get prison. He was sentenced to five years of probation with conditions. This despite the fact that detectives had evidence that he'd molested over 20 other boys.

At the time, the lead detective said; 'In all my years working with sexually exploited children, that was the most inappropriate sentence on a pedophile I've ever seen,' Hales said outside the courtroom. 'The judge clearly showed he has no idea how a pedophile works and what a pedophile does.'

Norma Zimmer wore suede chaps in private life; do the musical math, OP! 😉

The gayest had to be the guy blowing Bubbles. Or maybe the guy named Bubbles that was getting blown.

Did anyone here fuck him?