Jo Ann Castle

Drug addict? DL, tell me more.

She was fired from the Welk show a couple times, and was a big boozer and pill-popper, up until she died I think. She also admitted to covering for her husband who molested some teen boys, saying she was brainwashed by him. She's a DL dream.

Here, she tears the house down with Swanee.

oops

Oh, god, I love this magnificent bitch.

[quote]Despite a lengthy diagnosis of alcoholism and drug addiction by physicians and other health care providers, Castle continued to binge drink and self-medicate and suffered cerebral strokes in mid-2000's following heavy drinking and drug abuse. Castle subsequently overdosed on Oxycontin, Hydrocodone and Xanax and was later found in possession of more than 500 narcotic painkillers.

So sad.

What other damned souls appeared on what was assumed to be the Squeaky Clean Family Entertainment Lawrence Welk Show?

The Lennon Sisters' father was gunned down by a fan/stalker from Colorado in 1969.

Bob Ralston, the organist, was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 1984 but was sentenced to just five years' probation. He still performs and is on good terms with the old cast.

No thanks. Castle enabled child abuse.

[quote] Castle's children were taken from her by their father after law enforcement was alerted to child abuse and child molestation. Castle admitted to law enforcement that she provided perjured testimony to bail boyfriend out of jail. Castle suborned eight more years of child molestation until she divorced in 1987, telling a San Diego Union-Tribute reporter she had been "brainwashed" by Holloway. "I was a mess and I hated myself," she explained, "consuming enough booze and food to weigh 300 lbs."

Definitely an "I'm dancing as fast as I can" vibe to the video at R2.

She did this number while she was pregnant. Lawrence Welk thought pregnant women were unseemly and made them either wear caftans/muumuus and stupid costumes or stand behind props like potted plants.

My goodness, r8...

[quote]Ralston was arrested in 1984 for the molestation of a 13-year-old boy that he met in Times Square and brought to California. When police raided his home, pornographic slides were discovered of at least 13 other boys. Ralston eventually pled guilty to one felony count of committing a lewd act with a child under age 14. In a plea bargain with the District Attorney's Office, three other lewd conduct charges involving two other boys were dismissed. Los Angeles police detective Steve Hales stated outside the courtroom, "'In all my years working with sexually exploited children, that was the most inappropriate sentence on a pedophile I've ever seen." Ralson was sentenced to 5 years probation and no contact with children.

It’s a culture that allows me to understand, though definitely disagree with, the rampage of the Manson family.

a John Waters film bio is way overdue.

[quote]Here, she tears the house down with Swanee.

I'm surprised Welk didn't put her in blackface.

She's still alive!!

Born September 3, 1939 (age 83)

She could even rock the accordion

She plays frenzied.

She could bang the hell out of those ivories and I loved watching her mug for the camera!

I’d give my left nut to play the piano like Jo Ann.

“She look-a like a Man!”

She was really the highlight of the show during the years she appeared. I was sorry to see that her private life was such a mess.

OP OMG that queen on the banjo and the other one on the tambourine are just phenomenal

These videos are amazing. I’d like to know a lot more about this lady. It’s like that old film The Mighty Wind.

[quote]OP OMG that queen on the banjo and the other one on the tambourine are just phenomenal

They look like they belong in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T!

I agree only John Waters could put her life story on film. Any serious film by a serious director would be too tragic to endure.

Boogie...

So Jennifer Coolidge's Old Navy commercial is basically an audition to play this mess in a biopic.

She is fantastic

Was she unhappy because she was a lesbian?

R12- He looks like that AIDS activist who died of AIDS in 1993-Michael Callen.

Since Sunset Boulevard isn’t happening anytime soon, perhaps a biopic could be G’s ticket to Oscar gold!

G as alcoholic, strung out, piano-pounding Joan Castle would be Oscah gold! Who do we want to play Lawrence Welk?

R33 Lawrence Welk may be played by Crispin Glover

Billy Porter will be playing Welk.

Viola Davis will be Norma Zimmer.

She was no Jo Ann Pflug, that's for sure!

I’m really enjoying these videos. I had not ever seen the performer and I’m sad she struggled with addiction (that can happen to anyone I think).

Watching her perform (and listening) is a joy. Her huge expressive face and the period styling of her outfits are pretty magical. Is she jacked up on something while grinning at the camera? I don’t care. I think she’s awesome and strange and beautiful. Imagine being a kid in her circle, and having her perform at an informal function. What a cool memory. I’d like these videos remastered right away. Watching them feels like being in a time machine.

I hope someone captures an oral history of her work and life. It would be so interesting to know more about her and that era & genre of media. Maybe a university press will publish a volume of research about it. That’s how I learned about some types of filmmakers like Paul Morrisey and others.

R23 Is that fellow on the banjo actually playing it? I can’t tell because of the resolution of the video footage.

I’d describe those costumes as unfortunate, but these performers are all pretty attractive, to my eye. What a strange era of nonfiction media. It’s almost like a rural or country homolog to Soul Train or The Ed Sullivan show’s presentation of rock and pop icons.

Castle was fun, but any good pianist can see how many notes she missed in every performance.

Jo Ann Castle is ok, but dollar for dollar, nobody represents what The Lawrence Welk show was to middle America more than deeply, deeply closeted homosexual Tom Netherton.

That key bangin' slag wasn't good enough to clean my dirty panties when were on The Lawrence Welk Show. Mind you, she could mix a damn good martini.

Eat dirt and die, TRASH!

Fantastic and those 2 guys were cute

If Christopher Guest ever decided to make another mockumentary, the Welk show is ripe for parody. Catherine O'Hara would be fantastic as a thinly veiled Jo Ann Castle.

Sorry asshole. I do not celebrate drug addicts or dead drug addicts

Amazing talent, actually

Who is today's Jo Ann Castle?

Tom Netherton singing "He Touched Me".

Tom Netherton broke up Kathie Lee's first marriage to Paul Johnson. He and Johnson became involved.

I had a fling with Tom in the 1980's and remained a good friend until his passing several years ago. A very nice man who felt compelled to conceal his homosexuality because of his association with the Welk Show and the fame from that show that followed him the rest of his life.

She had a severely retarded son and sent him off to a camp called Filling Homes that opened in 1959 just south of Napoleon, Ohio. She did visit but I think he died there. Not sure how well known this was, but in the area it is was big news as Lawrence Welk was a Lutheran God.

This convinced she was a music genius.

[quote]She had a severely retarded son and sent him off to a camp called Filling Homes that opened in 1959 just south of Napoleon, Ohio. She did visit but I think he died there. Not sure how well known this was, but in the area it is was big news as Lawrence Welk was a Lutheran God.

The disabled child was her younger daughter.

Grow up r9 is daddy in the room with you?

[quote]Sorry asshole. I do not celebrate drug addicts or dead drug addicts

Don't you have a meeting to go to?

Not enough of Jo Ann's playing on this thread due to the apparent SVU.

Here's another fabulous performance.

Posted 4 days ago. I actually feel sorry for her. Clearly she was one of those one track mind people who were happiest performing.

Hoppy Easter from Joanne!

R49, Well, he didn’t conceal it very well. Even my 85 year old grandmother thought he was light in the loafers.

R28 Actually, that's a brilliant idea! Jennifer could get an Oscar for that role.

R39 Hey, asshole. You wash down 50 benzos with six martinis and see if you can hit every note.

R60, The Lawrence Welk Show was not “live”. It might have taken several takes for her to get it right.

R61 Ha! Like I was ever gonna get it right with all the goofballs I was hepped up on, no matter how many takes they did. That old coot was lucky to get what he did out of me.

She is fantastic - a very troubled person, but talented and a hoot.

Let’s talk a little more Joanne