Valley Shows Catering to Over-45 Crowd : ‘Stars of the Welk Show’ comes to the Alex Theatre while a CSUN series promises Jim Bailey, Ann Blyth and John Raitt.

If you believe what you read and hear--especially from news sources--pop music is a primarily young person’s game. Chalk it up to the youth-orientation of the media and the pop-culture machine.

But in the San Fernando Valley, entertainment options for older audiences are surprisingly plentiful of late.

Friday night at the Alex Theatre, as part of the big band series there, the “Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show” will tap into the fan base of Welkies. Although the show went off the air with the bandleader’s retirement in 1982, the long-running TV program has gained a formidable afterlife via reruns on PBS.

Meanwhile, promoter Keith Evans has been directing the Show of the Month series for three years, braving various degrees of adversity. The spring series, taking place in the newly finished Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge, was to have started with vocalist Georgia Gibbs this weekend, but she canceled because of illness.

The series continues on Feb. 17 and 18 with female impersonator Jim Bailey doing Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, and also includes Anthony Newley in March, Ann Blyth, John Raitt, Bill Hayes and Constance Towers in April, the folkloric dance troupe Tamburitzans in May and Peter Nero in June. These aren’t entertainers you’d find written up in Rolling Stone or Spin, needless to say, but there is an eager, and mostly mature, audience that is all ears.

“The whole idea was to bring top entertainment into the community, and primarily, although not exclusively, focusing on the over-45 audience,” said Evans of his decision to market to a more mature crowd.

“I’ve felt for a long time that this audience has been ignored by programmers who say they’re not interested in anything over-40, demographics notwithstanding. Soon, 50% of the population will be 50 and over.

“Our whole idea has always been to cater to the older audience, to pick entertainers who would be perfect for that crowd. Nobody has done this in over 25 years, in the Valley, for this community, for this audience.”

Part of that audience, no doubt, makes up the demographic that keeps the “The Lawrence Welk Show” alive and well. Friday’s show will feature dance-happy Bobby Burgess and Elaine Balden, singers Tom Netherton and Ralna English, and clarinetist Henry Cuesta leading a band full of Welk vets.

Burgess, originally from Long Beach, remembers being a fan of the Welk show as a teenager in the ‘50s, when it was a local program on KTLA. Burgess already had a strong taste of fame as a Mouseketeer on the “Mickey Mouse Club.” After winning a dance contest, Burgess, with his first dance partner Barbara Boylan, became part of the “The Lawrence Welk Show” as it became a national sensation.

“I got on in ’61 and rode it until it went off the air in ’82. It was always popular,” Burgess said. Furthering the Welk family connection, Burgess married Welk show accordionist Myron Floren’s daughter, Kristie. The couple, who live in the Hollywood Hills with their four children, will celebrate their 25th anniversary this Valentine’s Day.

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How does it feel to have played a role in two legendary cultural organizations?

“I went from one family institution to another, from Walt Disney to Lawrence Welk. I feel like I should go to Vegas and be a Chippendale dancer or something,” he said, laughing.

Burgess said that the Welk gig was “fulfilling, creatively, because Lawrence would give me a theme and two weeks later, I’d come up with the dance, the music and the sets, and pretty much tell the director what I wanted him to do with the camera. I always enjoyed the job. It was sad when it went off the air, but Lawrence was 75. He promised his wife he’d retire at 65, but he stayed an extra 10 years. That was his life.”

Welk died in 1992, but he lives on in reruns and as a legend among the senior set.

Show of the Month producer Evans, a former professional singer and now concert promoter, is an energetic sort, willing to battle the odds to make his series fly. The Show of the Month series first kicked off humbly in the fall of 1993, in the old student union of Cal State Northridge.

Making do was the byword. “It was also used as a basketball court,” Evans said. “The acoustics were lousy, and they didn’t even have permanent seats in there. But, back in 1993, we were looking for a home. We brought in everything--lighting, sound, piano. People came.”

They came in droves to hear Eddie Fisher. Then a setback occurred. “We just got the series rolling and the audience coming and appreciating what we were doing, when the earthquake hit. It devastated the university.”

Evans moved the operation to the Academy Plaza Theater in North Hollywood, the screening room for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. “It took us a year to educate the audience as to where we were.” Despite solid head counts, Evans estimates that the tenure at that venue has cost him $50,000.

Thus far, the roster of artists in the series has included Florence Henderson, Stan Freeman, Frankie Laine, Phyllis Diller, Jim Nabors and Joni James. A void was, if not filled, at least addressed.

Evans said he is pleased with his new, improved quarters. The state-of-the-art theater suits his needs, and is a vast improvement over the old campus venue. “It’s intimate and up-close. The very last row is 50 feet from the stage,” he said.

“They can count the wrinkles on the faces of the stars.”

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DETAILS

“Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show”

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday.

* WHERE: The Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

* HOW MUCH: Tickets $22.50 and $27.50.

* CALL: (800) 233-3123.

Show of the Month series

* WHAT AND WHEN: Series kicks off with Jim Bailey, who performs as Judy Garland at 7 p.m. Feb. 17, and as Barbra Streisand at 3 and 7 p.m. Feb. 18.

* WHERE: Performing Arts Center, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge.

* HOW MUCH: Tickets $26.50.

* CALL: (818) 785-8885.