Alice Lon
{{Short description|American singer, dancer, and television personality (1926–1981)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alice Lon
| image = Alice Lon 1959.JPG
| caption = Alice Lon in 1959
| alt = Alice Lon in 1959.
| birth_name = Alice Lon Wyche
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|11|23|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Cooper, Texas, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|4|24|1926|11|23|mf=y}}
| death_place = Dallas, Texas, U.S.
| occupation = Vocalist, dancer}}
Alice Lon Wyche (November 23, 1926 – April 24, 1981), known as Alice Lon, was an American singer and dancer on The Lawrence Welk Show during its early years on network television.
Early years
Alice Lon Wyche was born on November 23, 1926, in Cooper, Texas. By age 6, she was taking lessons in piano, singing, and dancing. When she was 10, she was featured as a singer, earning $20 per week on her own radio program in Henderson, Texas. In her teens, she traveled across Texas, performing in a variety of venues. She attended Kilgore College in Texas and was a member of the school's Rangerettes dance team.{{cite news|title=Welk Band's 'Champagne Lady' Is Gifted -- By Everybody|newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2358715/alice_lon/|agency=Santa Cruz Sentinel|date=March 24, 1957|page=5|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = May 5, 2015}} {{Open access}}
Biography
Throughout the big-band era and the years that followed, each of Lawrence Welk's female vocalists was always nicknamed "The Champagne Lady". Lon assumed the title in 1955, during the TV program's first season. Her alto singing voice graced Welk's show weekly until 1959, when she left the show over musical and money issues, although a popular legend developed that she was fired for showing too much leg and for crossing her feet on Welk's desk, something he didn't like.{{cite web|url=http://www.welkgirls.com/alicelon.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220222925/http://www.welkgirls.com/alicelon.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=February 20, 2009 |title=Welk Girls website |publisher=Welkgirls.com |date= |accessdate=2012-08-28}}{{cite news|title=Alice Lon Quits Welk Program|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2358810/the_postcrescent/|agency=The Post-Crescent|date=July 20, 1959|page=26|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = May 5, 2015}} {{Open access}} Viewers missed the popular Alice Lon, and Welk received many messages in the American Broadcasting Company mailbox demanding that she be rehired. Welk tried to bring her back, but she refused and was ultimately replaced in 1960 by Norma Zimmer. Lawrence and Lon eventually reconciled personally, but never worked together professionally again.
On Welk's show, Lon was known for wearing particularly full skirts with colorful petticoats designed by her mother, Lois Wyche, as she told TV Guide. She gave instructions in the article on how viewers might make their own petticoats.{{cite web|url=http://www.pettipond.com/lon.htm |title=Alice Lon profile |publisher=Pettipond.com |date=1956-05-26 |accessdate=2012-08-28}}
She recorded an album for Coral Records titled It's Alice with orchestra directed by George Cates, the musical supervisor for Welk's show. The liner notes provide the following: "Miss Lon, first introduced by Welk as "Alice from Dallas", began singing, dancing and playing the piano at six. By the time she was ten, the precocious young singer was appearing on her own sponsored radio show.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}
In her teens she began touring her native Texas playing theaters, veterans' hospitals and army camps until she was signed by Interstate Theaters in Dallas. Appearing on the Interstate circuit, she also starred on its weekly radio show, "Showtime", emanating from the Palace Theater in Dallas. While touring for Interstate, she was invited to appear on the Don McNeill's famous radio show The Breakfast Club in Chicago, an engagement that was to be the first of a great many radio and TV appearances in that area.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}
Family
Lon was married to Bob Waterman, with whom she had three sons, Bobby, Clint and Larry.{{cite news|last1=McManus|first1=Margaret|title='Champagne Lady' Turns Her Eyes to Broadway|newspaper=The San Bernardino County Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2358305/the_san_bernardino_county_sun/|agency=The San Bernardino County Sun|date=November 30, 1957|page=34|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = May 5, 2015}} {{Open access}} After she and Waterman divorced, she married George Bowling.{{cite news|title=Welk hostess Alice Bowling burial today|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19810427&id=IKglAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wfMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4447,1850116&hl=en|accessdate=6 May 2015|agency=The Miami News|date=April 27, 1981|page=4A}}
On the night of June 13, 1955, Lon and her family were victims of a violent robbery in their North Hollywood, California home.{{Citation needed |date=November 2022}}
Death
She died April 24, 1981, at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. The cause of death was scleroderma, an autoimmune disease.{{dead link|date=December 2018}}
References
External links
- {{youTube|1=9-iRWdudT3w?t{{=}}200|2=A Dance with Lawrence Welk & Alice Lon}}
- {{cite web |url= https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alice+lon+lawrence+welk |title= Alice Lon and Lawrence Welk |website= YouTube }}
- {{cite web |url= http://www.pettipond.com/laterimages/tv/welk_lon_1955/welk_lon_0755.htm |format= Video screen captures |title= Alice Lon on The Lawrence Welk Show |date= 1955 |website= Petticoat Pond }}
- {{cite web |url= http://www.pettipond.com/laterimages/tv/welk&alicelon/quits_welk.jpg |format= Photocopy |publisher= AP News |date= 1959 |title= Alice Quits Welk |quote= Welk said the trouble began because she inadvertently displayed 'too much knee'... I have always opposed anything the least bit immoral }}
- {{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1959/07/19/archives/alice-lon-leaves-welk.html |title= Alice Lon Leaves Welk |date= July 19, 1959 |work= Archives |url-access= subscription |publisher= NY Times }}
- {{cite web |url= http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/lawrencewelk/lawrencewelk.htm |title= The Lawrence Welk Show |website= Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) |first= Debra |last= Lemieux |series= Archive |url-status= dead |archive-date= Jan 12, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080112225746/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/lawrencewelk/lawrencewelk.htm }}
- {{cite book |url= http://www.bookrags.com/Lawrence_Welk |title= Encyclopedia of World Biography on Lawrence Welk, and Research article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture |url-access= subscription |quote= Everything you need to understand or teach Lawrence Welk }}
- {{cite web |url= http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/welk.htm |website= Television Heaven |title= The Lawrence Welk Show |series= Review |first= Mike |last= Spadoni |date= 2005 |url-status= dead |archive-date= Aug 13, 2007 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070813234757/http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/welk.htm }}
- {{Find a Grave|6676630}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lon, Alice}}
Category:People from Cooper, Texas
Category:American women television personalities
Category:Deaths from scleroderma
Category:20th-century American singers