I recall my father talking a television show, "The Polka Parade." He had mentioned the show aired several years ago. He really enjoyed watching the program. Of course, he was very pleased with the show's Polka theme. I looked on Utube and saw a blurred portion of the show. It was in black & white. The host was Dick Sinclair. I don't know if he was Polish...
Has anyone here ever watched any of the Polka Parade televison programs previously? (Or even heard of the t.v. show for that matter?)
I have been around for a long time, but I never heard of that show. But back in the 50's when Polka music was at its height,there was a lot of polka music on TV. One that I remember was (STASH).. How can we old timers forget names like, Maly Wladziu, Marion Lush, Pan Franek. Stash ,Bulunda.. As the years go by we hear less and less of that music
Not here in California where it seems that every other car stereo is blasting polka music, albeit of the banda variety with Spanish lyrics. The story behind polka music's popularity with Mexican-Americans is that decades ago when traditional ranchero bands used to follow the migrant Mexican farm workers up into Texas, for the harvest, some of them attended the dance halls of Texas's Central and Eastern European residents where they discovered polka music and incorporated it into their own musical repetoire.
Beckski, what I have written regarding banda music being a form of polka is true, and upon further investigation it appears that it was actually Polish and German immigration into the Mexican state of Sinaloa, where banda originated, that explains how this Mexican polka music came to be, instead of the explanation I gave above. The following is from the Wikipedia article on banda:
Most Banda music is very clearly a dialect of polka and will seem familiar and appealing to fans of polka or traditional German and Polish music.
Banda is among the the most popular genres of music on the radio in California and thus the polka music is indeed thriving in our golden state and elsewhere in America.
Our family watched Polka Parade every Sunday night in the 50s. We lived in California - the show was sponsored by Farmer John and hosted by Dick Sinclair.
Thanks so much for the information Polka Fan. I'm so glad someone else has heard of the show. Even better, you had actuallywatched the show. I had read online that Dick Sinclair was the host. I had no idea Farmer John was a sponsor. I know they have a huge company located in Vernon, California.
I heard of the Dick Sinclair's Polka Parade,i used to watch it with my grand parents on Sunday evenings,and listen to it on the radio.In the early 1960's.
i used to watch it with my grand parents on Sunday evenings,and listen to it on the radio
Sounds like you have some cherished memories of watching the Polka Parade. I didn't know there was a radio show too. I only remember my father reminiscing about the television show :)
Of course I remember "Polka Parade": it was the Sunday afternoon followup to "Lawrence Welk." The show started off with a rousing rendition of "Tavern in the Town," then the polka dancers (girls in polka dots!) started whirling in front of the camera. I remember the "Farmer John" statue - one was of a boy and the other a pig (I think). Too bad few videos exist of it.
Polka Parade was a creation of my late father Richard T. Walsh, and his good friend and host, Dick Sinclair. The show was indeed on Sunday nights, and it was sponsored by Farmer John (Clougherty family) and Tidy House. I remember as a kid watching Brian Farnan, Frank Marocco and the other talented entertainers performing live. It was a great show, and it brings back great memories.
I remember that show!...We lived in L.A at the time and we even got tickets for a show My dad passed away yesterday so I am looking for any additional info to share that memory with my younger siblings.
Sure I well remember Polka Parade, and I was in that band part time during those years, I played drums on that show part time. Bob Armstrong was the musical director of that show, and Tom Kennedy also did a lot of the advertising for Farmer John on that show as well.
Tom Walsh Hi Tom, I am Cindy, Frank Marocco's oldest daughter. I loved your comments - I had no idea that your father was the creator of Polka Parade. I vaguely remember that name but I cannot remember details, my father must have mentioned Richard Walsh, Rich? Dick? sometime in my past. My father passed away this year at 81 years old. I am recently on a quest to find the Christmas recording of Polka Parade when they invited the families to perform with the band and cast members. You are so right when you say there are special memories there. It was so much fun. They recorded the show on Monday to be shown the following Sunday. Brian Farnan - I sure remember him, Jad Paul, Phil Gray, Walter Ekhardt - really special people.
On PBS television the stations air old episodes, of the Lawrence Welk programs. Lots of Polka music to listen to.
On PBS television the stations air old episodes, of the Lawrence Welk programs. Lots of Polka music to listen to. Oh.,,,how I looooooved LW as girl..! I wanted to be in those lovely flowing dresses and sing. i love Polka music becuase my mum and dad
"good nite! Sleep Tight! Auf weiderscheeeein!.................."
Polish and German immigration into the Mexican state of Sinaloa,
My bohemian basque from portugal and half my Boheme family from Brasil came up thru Mexico. We added mariachis when 2 cousins married in Mexico in 1930 as we made our way from Brasil-Venezeula to US TX & Calif. Because my voice was pleasant before teenhood I was drug along with cousins. Specially for birthday serenades. I used to play Arpa in our Sone and when necessary a guitarron or 4 string tenor. I have my mothers 12 string but the wide neck makee fretting apinful for my small hands. I can practice a song or two but not adept. Many of my moms generation played squeeze box or accordian. heh
I fondly remember as a child watching Dick Sinclair's Polka Parade on KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles. Seems it aired on Sunday evenings—could be mistaken about that—and was sponsored by Farmer John meat products. I remember watching it in the 1960s and possibly very early '70s. I haven't found much about it on the Internet.
Hi Cindy, I hope you find that Christmas show of Polka Parade-mid 1960's because I was on TV with the other families singing Christmas songs. My late father Richard "Dick" Walsh, who produce that program had us sing "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and I had to sing the opening of it.....naming all the Reindeers "there was comet and cupid and donner and blitezen"......when I was 5, or 6 years old......I was young. It was wild being on TV but I didn't think much of it, just had fun. I guess my dad wanted to impress the TV station's owner...Gene Autrey- who wrote that song.
God Bless you for remembering Polka Parade. If you find a video of those shows, Let me know.
My parents drove from San Diego to the KTLA Studios to be in the live studio audience of Polka Parade. I was just a little kid. I remember meeting Dick Sinclair and seeing Tom Kennedy. Kennedy was doing the Farmer John spots during the show. He later went onto to host several network game shows in the 80's. This would have been the early 60's. That was the first time I was in a television studio. Maybe the first time for my parents too. Don't know if that influenced me, but I've been in the local television business for nearly 40 years.
He's actually my grandpa. And he's not polish. Scottish is what he is and he still does the broadcast every Sunday and it plays on one of the 900s channels.
Yes, I remember my Dad watching it on TV in the early 60's. I was about 8 or 9 years old but it did air here in San Diego in the 60's. I think it was on in the afternoon either Saturday or Sunday.
Sinclair, Richard "Dick": Polka radio DJ and former host of the "Polka Parade" television program (1956-1973) on KTLA Los Angeles. Born Salt Lake City, UT April 14, 1925. Of Scottish ancestry.
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT Dick Sinclair took his first job at radio at a station in Butte, MT shortly after graduating high school . He decided to return to Salt Lake to attend college at the University of Utah where he also was on campus radio station KSL. Drafted into the Army in 1943, he was an announcer on the Armed Forces Radio Service and was sent to the Pacific theatre where did disc jockey work on the islands of Noumea in New Caledonia, Espiritu Santo, Guadalcanal, Munda and Bougainville (known as the "The Mosquito Network").
Discharged in January 1946, he returned to the University of Utah and after graduation took a job at KIEV radio in Los Angeles in 1951. It was here that his long career as a polka music DJ began. In 1952 at a time when many advertisers were pulling out of radio in favor of television advertising, Dick Sinclair started playing polka music over the radio in Southern California. As he tells it;
"The radio networks were falling apart. Blocks of time would open up that needed to be filled ... they said, 'You're on Friday nights.' We didn't know what to play, so we played polka records ... I knew nothing about polka."
Within four weeks of spinning his first polka platters the station had received over 4000 letters and his program "Dick Sinclair's Polka Party" was expanded to three and a half full hours of polka music every Saturday. After four years at KIEV he took a position at KFI (1954) and brought the Polka Party with him. Dick Sinclair was on the air at KFI until 1968 when he returned to KIEV (until 2000) and spent an additional two years (2001-2002) at KRLA. He is now semi retired and living in Palm Desert, CA but continues his weekly polka radio show.
For many years Sinclair has also featured his Polka Party on satellite radio and is currently on the air every Saturday and Sunday over CRN Digital Talk Radio which can also heard over the Internet. At the age of 90 (2015) Dick Sinclair has had one of the longest running polka radio shows in the history of polka music broadcasting, with over 60 years of promoting and playing polka music of all nationalities.
With the popularity of his radio broadcasts, Sinclair was asked to produce and host a new polka television program for KTLA Channel 5. The "Polka Parade" premiered in December 1955 as a one hour polka variety show on Sundays from 6 to 7PM. The program was sponsored for many years by the Clougherty Meat Packing Company, the makers of "Farmer John" sausage, and soon became the leading television program on the West Coast for polka entertainment.
Good information about Dick Sinclair & Polka Parade. My father, Howard "Razzberry" Reynolds was with the show in the 50s & 60s. My mom, brother, and I got to see dad on the show on Sunday nights. I started a page @ Facebook for Polka Parade: facebook.com/groups/polkaparade/
