For Welk, Geritol Led to a Long Life on TV

In 1955, Goldenson found another prime-time prospect on ABC’s Los Angeles affiliate, KABC-TV.

Lawrence Welk, another of our early shows, was phenomenally successful in a way that has never been duplicated. He and his band established themselves performing live at the LaMonica Ball Room in Santa Monica. Our Los Angeles station, KABC-TV, put him on the air locally at 9 Saturday night. In the summer of 1955 we picked this up for the network.

The Dodge people saw this show, fell in love with it, and asked to sponsor it as “Lawrence Welk’s Dodge Dancing Party.” So we created a second network program, starting in the fall of 1956. “Lawrence Welk’s Top Tunes and New Talent,” aired at 9:30 Monday night. That show ran through the fall of 1957.

I don’t believe there’s ever been another individual with musical variety shows on a network two nights a week.

It couldn’t go on forever, of course. In the middle of 1960 Dodge suddenly decided they wanted a change. The program had outlived Dodge’s interests in it. Welk was very upset. He had been with them so long that he felt like they’d taken away his life.

Then I got a call from Matty Rosenhaus of J.B. Williams Co., the makers of Geritol. He said he’d asked Welk if Geritol could sponsor his show, and Welk turned him down. Welk said he didn’t know the product, and he wasn’t going to allow himself to promote anything he didn’t have confidence in. I haven’t heard that kind of television talk in a long time.

I called Welk. I said, “I want to come out and see you. Matty Rosenhaus is a very upright man. I’ve known him for years, and I think you should consider accepting his product.”

Matty flew out from New York, and the three of us spent several hours together. Matty brought some samples and showed him that Geritol was mostly vitamins, including iron. The very worst thing you could say about it was that it was like chicken soup--it couldn’t hurt you. But more important, Welk had a chance to see Matty wasn’t a phony.

In the end Welk said he was assured Matty was of good character and that Geritol was perfectly proper. We shook hands on a deal.

From the time J.B. Williams began sponsoring part of “The Lawrence Welk Show,” Geritol became a household word. When we changed our network strategy to go after younger audiences, we took Welk off the air, in 1971, even though he had 16 years of solid ratings. Welk went into syndication for another dozen years. Geritol sponsored him till the end.