A Guide to the Best of Southern California : EXCURSIONS : A Conducting Tour

Champagne music makes some people lightheaded. But not the fans who pile off tour buses to admire Lawrence Welk’s first accordion, which has come to rest, along with other memorabilia and photographs chronicling his life, in the dim lobby of Escondido’s Lawrence Welk Resort Theatre. They enjoy his arrangements of folk songs and ballads. And they delight in rubbing shoulders with the life-size wooden cutout of a smiling Welk in white tie and tails. Or with the bronze statue of the bandleader, who is 88 and lives in Santa Monica, just outside the entrance to the small museum.

Its exhibits track his career, from small-town North Dakota wedding accordionist to regional big-band leader to national TV star; Welk and his growing troupe of singers (how ‘bout those Semonski Sisters) and dancers entertained viewers for 27 years, from 1955 to 1982.

In one corner, beyond the giant crystal champagne glass created as a centerpiece for Welk’s 25th anniversary show, is a wall studded with blowups of his wife, Fern, his children and grandchildren. Another holds gold records and plaques of appreciation for good deeds. Evidence of a wunnerful life.

Lawrence Welk Resort Theatre, 8860 Lawrence Welk Drive, Escondido; (800) 932-9355.