Lawrence Welk TV Treasures

Jack Imel

When Jack Imel was four-years-old, his mother signed him up for tap dance lessons. "She noticed that whenever I heard music, I started moving to the rhythm." Jack loved the lessons and by the age of nine had become so good he was asked to audition at radio station WOWO in nearby Fort Wayne, Indiana. "Well," said the station manager after watching Jack's performance, "you're a great little dancer all right, but people can't see you so I'm afraid we'll have to turn you down."

"I was very disappointed," said Jack recalling the incident, "and didn't say much as we began driving home. But after a while my mom said, "You know I think you should play a musical instrument when you dance, one that you can play standing up. Then people could hear you playing and dancing at the same time." Jack didn't know it, but his mother had just hit on a brilliant idea that would shape his entire career.

A few days later, she decided that a marimba would be the right instrument, and soon a marimba arrived at the Imel house. Jack's mom taped the notes to "Bye Bye Blues" on the keys and young Jack set to work to learn the melody.

Then came his first professional appearance with the new act. Dressed in a satin outfit, his brown eyes sparkling, Jack debuted before the Moose Club in his hometown of Portland, Indiana. He got so much applause for dancing and playing "Bye Bye Blues" that he played an encore of "Bye Bye Blues." His audience demanded four encores that day and he obliged every time with "Bye Bye Blues."

All through grammar and high school, Jack appeared professionally at clubs, concerts and theaters in and around Portland. As he was finishing high school, Horace Heidt toured through the area and to Jack's astonishment hired him for the band. "He already had a blind marimba player and a tap dancer with two wooden legs so I didn't think I had a chance!" Jack toured with the band for a year and a half, but the Korean War came along about that time and he joined the Navy. He spent six months in the Navy School of Music and considered staying in the Navy as a career, but near the end of his tour of duty he was assigned to San Diego. San Diego is not too far from Los Angeles so, on a whim and with just two weeks to go, he mailed an audition record to Lawrence Welk. Almost immediately he received a call from Les Kaufman, Welk's public relations man, inviting him to the Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica for an audition.

Clad in his sailor suit, Jack arrived at the ballroom to find Lawrence dressed casually and eating a jar of baby food. "Go ahead young man," he waved and Jack nervously set up his marimba. Lawrence continued to munch, but his eyes widened when Jack tore into his act, and when he leapt over the marimba at the conclusion, Lawrence laughed with delight and immediately invited him to join the Show. "I was so thrilled I very nearly floated back to San Diego" recalled Jack, "and I immediately phoned my parents and friends in Portland to be sure and watch the Show."

When Jack arrived at the studio the following Saturday for the live show, his elation began to disappear. Nobody said one word about his joining the show. Everyone was polite but neither Lawrence nor anyone on the staff indicated in any way that he was hired. So when Jack made his appearance that night, and Lawrence, beaming widely asked him to join the Show, his look of surprise and joy were authentic. "They had deliberately not said anything so that I would be surprised. I just was so happy," he says, recalling that momentous night. "The Welk show was the most popular in the country and I couldn't believe I was now part of it."

Jack was featured every week in numbers he already knew, but after awhile he began to get panicky. "I was concerned about learning and perfecting a new song on the marimba every week. I knew three chords on the ukulele to "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," so one week I worked on that for the Show." When he came to the studio, Lawrence asked where his marimba was. "Oh, I have a new number I think you'll like," said Jack airily. Lawrence, Jim Hobson and George Cates all gathered round and listened as Jack played his 3 chords on the ukulele. "When I finished, Lawrence waggled a finger and called me over. "Jack," he said "how long do you think my Show would stay on the air if we played numbers like that?" Go back to your marimba. Learn new songs. Practice 5, 6 hours a day if you have to. But learn a new song every week." Jack took his advice to heart and the ukulele went back in the closet.

"Lawrence was so brilliant in so many ways," says Jack, "so wise. After I'd been on the show about 3 months he called me in and showed me the hundreds of letters the Show had received saying I was 'conceited' that I was 'a show off.' I was crushed but Lawrence said, "I think I know what the problem is. All our soloists come out of the band, and I think people resent that you come on alone. I think we should make you part of the band." Since the marimba was not designed to fit the Welk orchestra, Jack's first "instrument" was a kitchen stool, which he played as if it were a drum. He also played the bells, triangle, and other novelty instruments. Gradually, the criticism died down and viewers accepted Jack wholeheartedly.

When he first came on the Show, Jack also sang and danced with the Lennons, Jo Ann Castle and in later years with Mary Lou Metzger. Along with Bobby Burgess, he was the one who got to wear the animal costumes on the show. Jack, who is one of the funniest members of the Welk group can move you to tears of laughter with his memories of dancing in a heavy gorilla costume or playing the back end of a horse. This is one funny man.

It was when Arthur Duncan was hired, that alarm bells first rang in Jack's hear. "I knew I had to come up with something with two of us tap dancing on the Show." He began to create production ideas, which were so good he eventually became associate producer to Jim Hobson. Later, Lawrence also turned the road tours over to him. In every city, Jack would set up Lawrence's dressing room, complete with his stage clothes, shoes, socks, tie, a hankie for his pocket and an extra baton. The costumes were also racked up in dressing rooms, name tagged and in the order they would be used. Along with Barney Liddell and Johnny Klein, he also set up all the band instruments and sheet music. His meticulous directions and staging proved to be flawless. Lawrence often commented on what a superlative job Jack did on the tours.

Jack's helpmate through all these years, his wife Norma, was a pretty little girl named Norma Denny whom he met in the seventh grade. They were high school sweethearts and married before Jack went in the Navy. Norma often accompanies Jack on cruise ship bookings, and he occasionally takes one of the grandkids along too.

Today his career is flying higher than ever. He appears regularly on major cruise ships with the act his mother dreamed up so many years ago, and makes concert appearances on land.

Everyone on the show calls him "Ace." When asked why, he grins. "I got that name in the Navy. We all called each other "Ace" in those days, and when I first joined the Welk Show I didn't know anybody's name so I called everybody Ace."

It seems a fitting name for this multi-talented man who can sing, dance, choreograph, produce, direct, play the marimba, and if called upon, probably still jump over it. With Jack Imel, anything is possible.