DICK DALE
BIOGRAPHY
Regular viewers of “The Lawrence Welk Show” would be quick to agree that
handsome Iowan, Dick Dale, was one of the best baritone voices not only on the
Welk Show, but perhaps on television. Dick’s fellow musicians on the Welk Show
would be just as quick to add that his rich saxophone sound was the foundation
that anchored one of the better woodwind sections in the music business.
Dick Dale, saxophonist and featured baritone vocalist, first joined Lawrence
Welk’s Champagne Music Makers in 1951 at the famous Trianon Ballroom in
Chicago.
Welk and Dick Dale met when their paths crossed in Iowa, where Welk’s band
was on a tour of ballrooms. Lawrence asked Dick to play and sing a little, and
then asked him to keep in touch, in the event an opening might occur in the reed
section. But, it was Lawrence who kept in touch with Dick, calling him three
months later to join the group in Chicago.
Dick was born in Algona, Iowa where his dad was foreman for a large meat
packing plant. The family consisted of Dick, a sister Vivian, and a brother Bud
who was killed in action during World War II.
Dick started playing music in the 8th grade, played with a group in high school
called The Rhythm Club won a music contest after graduating from high school
and started his career.
After graduation, he played with a local band called Lynn Kerns Band in
Fairmont, Minnesota. In October, 1944, Dick joined the Navy and went to radio
school in Indianapolis.
After discharge from the service, Dick rejoined the Lynn Kerns Band. After a
while he joined Amby Meyers, who gave him his first opportunity to sing. Then
Dick joined Al Menke and His Band, and this is where he became acquainted
with Lawrence Welk, who was playing a one nighter at the Cobblestone Ballroom
in Storm Lake, Iowa.
His next meeting with Lawrence was in Fairmont, Minnesota, and at that time
Lawrence gave Dick a chance to play and sing a little. In 1951, shortly after he
joined the Welk Orchestra, they were booked into the Aragon Ballorrom in
Venice, California. The booking included broadcasting Welk’s music from the
Aragon over KTLA in Los Angeles, each weekend throughout the six week
booking. The reaction to the debut of Welk and His Champagne Music Makers
was immediate and they were signed for nationwide TV each Saturday night on
the ABC network. In 1987 the show went public television where it is aired on
276 stations nationally and is celebrating more than 50 years on TV.