This Day in Pop Culture for February 25

1982: No More Bubbles

Known for his “champagne music” and accordion playing, bandleader Lawrence Welk began performing on TV in 1951. The Lawrence Welk Show aired as a local program for KTLA in Los Angeles. On July 2, 1955, the show aired nationally on ABC. At that time, the show was called Dodge Dancing Party. The show proved so popular, ABC began airing it twice a week in 1956. The second show was called Lawrence Welk Presents Top Tunes and New Talent and later, Lawrence Welk’s Plymouth Show.

Later cut down to just one show per week, The Lawrence Welk Show was the first in TV history to air in stereophonic sound and in September 1965, it appeared in color.

The show rarely featured musical guests and relied mostly for its own “musical family” which included the “Champagne Lady” Norma Zimmer, The Lennon Sisters, honky-tonk piano player Jo Ann Castle, former Mouseketeer and dancer, Bobby Burgess (and his dance partner, Cissy King) and Arthur Duncan, TV’s first African American tap dancer.

In 1971, ABC pulled the plug on The Lawrence Welk Show, but it continued on in syndication through this day in 1982. It was just as well. Welk was 79 years old by then. Even so, the show lived on. Reruns of the show, packaged with short stories from some of the show’s performers, aired as Memories with Lawrence Welk airing on PBS on September 11, 1982.

On October 4, 2008, Fred Armisen portrayed Welk for a spoof of the show on Saturday Night Live. With Kristen Wiig playing “tiny hands” Dooneese Maharelle, the sketch was so popular, it was brought back many times on the show.

1957: Buddy

Buddy Holly and the Crickets record “That’ll Be the Day”.

1938: Mickey

Walt Disney releases the animated short, Boat Builders.

1950: Imogene & Sid

NBC Premieres Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar & Imogene Coca.

2004: ‘The Passion of the Christ

Mel Gibson wasn’t as polarizing in 2004 as he is today. His controversial film, The Passion of the Christ premiered across the country on this day starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus during the last 12 hours of his life here on earth. The film’s story was taken from the four gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) as well as some devotional writings by Anne Catherine.

To make the story more authentic, Gibson had the film’s dialogue set entirely in Aramaic and Latin with subtitles shown on the screen. It was rated “R” for extreme violence that some felt was unnecessary. However, it became the highest grossing R-rated film in the US and the highest grossing non-English language film of all time. A year later, the film was re-released as The Passion Recut which cut out five minutes of the harshest violence removed.

Gibson began work on the sequel, The Resurrection of the Christ as far back as 2016. Caviezel was expected to reprise his role, but CGI would be used to de-age the actor. However, Jesus will now be played by Jaakko Ohtonen due to the expense of special effects. The movie will be cut in two parts. Part One is expected to open in theaters on March 26, 2027 (Good Friday) and Part Two opening on May 6, 2027 (Ascension Day).

1919: The Dreaded Gas Tax Begins. Thanks Oregon

Although we rely on gas taxes to improve our roads, nobody likes them and we didn’t have any from the invention of the car to this day in 1919. On that fateful day, Oregon signed up to be the first state to charge a 1 cent per gallon tax on gasoline. Today the percentage is significantly more.