Lawrence Welk Show
 
Pete Fountain, Clarinet (1957-1959)
Famous Jazz Player Got His Big Break On Lawrence Welk Show

Pete FountainPete Fountain is better known for his jazz nightclub in New Orleans than he is for his performances on the Lawrence Welk Show. However, it was on the Welk Show where he got his start in show business in 1957, playing alongside jazz trumpeter, Al Hirt.    

Fountain was born in New Orleans in 1930. At age nine, he began playing the clarinet based on the advice of a doctor who thought it might help him with a respiratory ailment. At age 12, he began studying the clarinet and at the age 18, was a stand-in replacement for his idol, Irving Fazola, at a strip club on the night of Fazola's death. After graduating from Warren Easton High School in 1948, Fountain became a member of the Junior Dixieland Band and this was followed by a stint with Phil Zito and an important association with the Basin Street Six (1950-54) with whom the clarinetist made his first recordings.  
In 1955, Fountain joined the Dukes of Dixieland. His big breakthrough came when he was featured playing a featured Dixieland number or two on each episode of The Lawrence Welk Show beginning in 1957 alongside his good friend Al "Jumbo" Hirt. Hirt and Fountain had actually worked together for the same pest control company prior to joining on with the Welk Show. After playing the song "Silver Bells" during a Christmas show with an improvised jazz style that Welk disapproved of, Fountain decided to leave the Welk Show, declaring that "champagne and bourbon don't mix. Jazz is jazz and square is square and never the twain shall meet." Don Bonee, who had played with Ray Noble and Jack Teagarden in the 40's and 50's, replaced Fountain in 1959. Mahlon Clark replaced Don Bonnee at Clarinet in 1962.

Fountain bought the French Quarter Inn on Bourbon Street in 1960, performing there with his trio before opening Pete’s Place with a 10-piece band, again on Bourbon, eight years later. In 1977, he relocated his club to the Hilton Riverside hotel, playing four nights a week with his swing combo until 2003. He also continued to use a number of fellow Welk performers to arrange and perform in his albums, including Art Depew and Frank Scott.

Fountain suffered pneumonia in April 2013 which caused him to cancel some performances and he died in August 2016 at the age of 86. 
Pete Fountain Performs "High Society"