King Family Revisited

Last night I met Cam Clarke, son of the great Alyce King. Here's a rerun of a post from Easter 2009.When I was a kid I was obsessed with The King Family.The King Family was this humongous group of clean-cut, mostly-blond, well-dressed white folk who sang cover versions of songs made famous by other people. These were mostly showtunes, spirituals and patriotic songs like Climb Every Mountain, He's Got the Whole in His Hands and America the Beautiful. Sometimes they all dressed alike and sometimes they even dressed like royalty!

The King Sisters (Donna, Yvonne, Louise and Alyce) and their extended musical family had their own ABC prime-time variety series from 1965-66. It was sort of like THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW if Lawrence had fathered everyone.

In all, some thirty-seven members of the King family, ranging in age from seven months to 79 years, were featured on the show. I wanted to be one.

A short-lived 1969 revival, also on ABC, focused on the younger, hipper King Cousins. Don't they look cool? Back in 1969, channel 11 in LA ran a special Thanksgiving themed hour featuring the King Family - right after an hour of THE BARBARA McNAIR SHOW! Man, sometimes I wish I had a time machine. Actually, I do - it's called PBS.
After this blog post original ran in April 2009 I received several emails and comments from people who also grew up watching the King Family. additionally, a producer of a King Family Christmas special for PBS contacted me.  Visit their officiall website here for more info about the talented clan. Also the DVDs of the shows and specials are available through Cam Clarke, son of Alyce King. Visit his website for more info.