Check out my Lawrence Welk rookie card

Growing up, I have the distinct memory of being at my grandmother's house on many Sunday afternoons when the TV would get turned to PBS and reruns of the Lawrence Welk Show would be on. 

The variety show focused on musical performances that were mainly pre-recorded. In general, it was so wholesome and portrays a world of the 1960s and 70s that seems absurd today in many ways. 

Saturday Night Live honored the show many times through the years through their series of skits about the Maharelle Sisters...from the Finger Lakes.

Flipping through a stack of postcards and odd-sized cards at The National Sports Card Collectors Convention a couple years ago, I came upon this card which brought me back to those quiet Sundays. 

A young Lawrence Welk, band leader and accordionist was featured on a postcard put out by  Mutoscope Cards. The cards were issued in 1945 by an offshoot of the International Mutoscope Reel Company which had machines that were one of the first ways to watch movies. 

As opposed to the Exhibits picture cards, these Mutoscope cards are proper postcards with a postage stamp area and address/message area marked on the back. 

One of the other cards sets produced by Mutoscope was a set of "Glamour Girls" which at the time in the 1940s was pretty risqué.. 

I didn't find any of those cards at The National but I did find some other cards from the Big Band set, including cards of Count Basie, Glen Miller and Benny Goodman. I pulled out some of the bigger names but the set also includes band leaders that are familiar to only the more knowledgeable jazz fans.