Not only did the Osmonds come home, they brought Hollywood with them. They would make periodic guest appearances, but remain largely in the background.Īnd they’d be back in Utah to do it - because George Osmond negotiated a deal with ABC that the "Donny & Marie" variety show would be produced in a 100,000-square-foot studio the Osmonds would build in Orem. Instead, their father made a command family decision for them: They would become executive directors for the show that would star their 18-year-old teen idol brother and pretty 16-year-old sister. The boys could have moved on with their own career.
Lawrence welk iii tv#
In 1975, ABC bypassed the brothers entirely, asking Donny and Marie to host their own TV show. The decline for Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay began from within.Įver since they’d first brought Donny and Marie onto the stage to join them, people had been craning their necks to get a better look. He thanked them and proceeded to set apart the entire family as international missionaries, with no expiration date. After dinner, President Kimball stood up and announced that church statisticians had determined the Osmonds were responsible for 26,000 baptisms THAT YEAR. Kimball was there, along with several more general authorities and the presidency of the Relief Society. In 1976, the family was invited to a dinner at church headquarters in Salt Lake City. While none would serve traditional missions - unlike brothers Virl and Tom, who became the LDS Church’s first hearing-impaired full-time missionaries - theirs was a call of significantly longer duration. Nor did they veer from their Mormon roots, or hide their beliefs. On the “Andy Williams” set, they became known as “One Take Osmonds” because of their penchant for perfection. While Olive nurtured (and gave away Books of Mormon), George ran the show. “We’re taking that one out of your vocabulary,” he announced. One time they appeared with Lawrence Welk. or Tony Bennett or Bill Cosby or Jane Wyman. The brothers would go to “work” and there’d be Bob Hope on the set, or Sammy Davis Jr. The family left Ogden and moved to California. 13, 1962, barely five years since their sacrament meeting debut, Alan, Wayne, Merrill and Jay entered America’s living rooms on national television on "The Andy Williams Show."
“You should audition these guys,” he said to Andy Williams. He called his son, who that fall was starting a variety show on NBC. When the show aired, among those watching was a man named Jay Williams, who had also happened to see the Osmonds on TV when they sang at the fights. “Keep it in the act,” he said, and offered the Osmonds a spot on his television show, “Disneyland After Dark.” Performing in front of the creator of Mickey Mouse so unnerved 7-year-old Jay that he knocked off his fake mustache. This time Walt Disney himself wanted to meet them. “How would your boys like to come back next summer and sing at Disneyland?” he asked.Īs soon as school ended in Ogden in 1962, the Osmonds returned. – Marie Osmond on the influence the Osmond Brothers had on the family’s success