Square Deal

“What do you call 10 accordions at the bottom of the ocean?

“A good start.”

(For more accordion humor, check out https://www.cs.cmu.edu/ afs/cs/user/ phoebe/mosaic/ accordion.html).

Myron Floren, the veteran accordionist best known for his days as the creative backbone of the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, takes the jokes in stride. In fact, the perpetually smiling 77-year-old bandleader has at least one of his own:

“Did you hear about the guy who didn’t want to leave his accordion in the back of his car while he ran into the store?” he asks. “He was afraid it’d get stolen. Well, one day he decided to risk it. When he returned to his car, his windows were smashed, and there were three more accordions in the back seat.”

It may be an easy target, but Floren’s ‘40s-era music is popular enough to keep him performing 150 concerts per year, including a “Stars of Lawrence Welk” holiday show at Cal State Long Beach on Saturday afternoon.

Weekly reruns of “The Lawrence Welk Show” are a hit on local PBS affiliate KOCE-TV Saturdays at 8 p.m. It averages 40,000 viewers per episode, making it one of the Huntington Beach-based station’s top five programs for the past 10 years, said programming director Roberta Smith. (Circle the date, folks--Floren will host a New Year’s Eve episode on Dec. 27.)

“I’m seeing more and more young people showing an interest. . . . It’s not just old-timers like myself,” Floren said by phone from his home in Rancho Palos Verdes. “Sure, it’s a case of nostalgia for the older folks. But we see kids who play in their high school bands coming out as well. I think a lot of ‘em are tired of the same sounds of today’s popular music.”

To loyal followers, there’s no mystery behind the enduring appeal of this easy-listening, “champagne style” of music, with such standards as “Roll Out the Barrel” and “How Great Thou Art.”

“Welk and his orchestra tapped into the essential wholesomeness in people, and they played to that,” suggested Faithe Deffner, president of the 17,000-member American Accordion Assn. “Lawrence came from a poor farming family in North Dakota, and he wanted a family show with no low-cut dresses or high-cut hemlines. Maybe he was square, but instead of titillation, he offered personal charm and warmth. Ironically, square has become hip these days. Look at Tony Bennett.”

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Floren, a South Dakota native, grew up in a close-knit, hard-working farming community. He fell in love with music at the impressionable age of 6 while watching a neighbor play the accordion.

“All the neighboring families would get together on Saturday nights, roll back the rugs and do a little dancing,” Floren recalled. “The thing that intrigued me was this one neighbor who played a little button-box accordion. He played Scandanavian and German waltzes and polkas, and I just sat there watching him . . . completely fascinated.

“My dad bought me my first accordion when I was 7. It was from Sears Roebuck and cost $19.95. I loved that thing. I still have it.”

Floren attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, where he wanted to major in music. But first he learned a lesson in economics.

“The piano rental was $25 a semester, and I simply didn’t have it,” explained Floren, who taught music part time to help pay room and board. “So I had to settle for an English major and a minor in music.”

Floren later joined a USO unit that entertained American troops in Europe during World War II. Upon his return, he formed a hillbilly group called the Buckeye Four, which lasted until he became a member of the Lawrence Welk Orchestra.

Floren vividly remembers that March day in 1950.

“I was living in St. Louis at the time, and Lawrence came through town to play [at] a local ballroom,” Floren said. “I was there with my wife celebrating her birthday. I had met him a few times in the Dakotas, so during his set, Lawrence invited me onstage to play the accordion. I had played two or three numbers, and then I lost sight of him. So finally, he came out from under the piano waving a white flag. At the intermission, he offered me a job.”

Floren served as the band’s manager and Welk’s assistant band director until Welk retired in 1982. Of many great memories with the Welk orchestra, he says one stands out.

“We played to a crowd of 21,000 people at Madison Square Garden in the late ‘70s, and you could feel the electricity in the air,” he recalled. “Lawrence and I were looking out at this crowd from the stage, and he leans over to me and says, ‘Isn’t it wonderful what can happen in this country to a couple of farmers from the Dakotas?’ ”

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Now residing in Southern California with Berdyne--his one-time student and wife of 52 years-- Floren is a father of five and grandfather of seven. As much as he’d like to spend more time with his family, he isn’t ready to retire. Seems the squeeze box’s sound has quite a hold on him.

“It’s like when you hear a good talk or sermon, it soaks in, and after awhile . . . you just feel better,” he said. “I mean, it gets to you. It’s like the rush you feel playing golf right after making a hole-in-one.”

* The “Stars of Lawrence Welk Show,” featuring Myron Floren and his orchestra, pianist Bob Ralston and singers Tom Netherton and Sandi Griffiths, plays Saturday at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center, 6200 Atherton St., Long Beach. 3 p.m. $20. (818) 785-8885.