Lou van Burg

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Lou van Burg (1968)

Lou van Burg (born August 25, 1917 in The Hague , Netherlands ; † April 26, 1986 in Munich ; real name Louis "Loetje" van Weerdenburg ; nicknames "Mister Wunnebar" and "Uncle Lou") was a Dutch-German singer, show master and entertainers .

Career

Lou van Burg began his career as an entertainer in the early 1950s as a singer and dancer in various Parisian nightclubs (including the Lido and Olympia ). During this time, records were already being produced in French and Dutch. When the Polydor discovered him in 1954 , they published Nicolo, Nicolo, Nicolino, his first track in Germany, which immediately became a hit. In 1956 he was on German television in the program Today we go to Maxim .

International career

For American television, van Burg played in several TV series that were produced in Europe in the early 1950s. 1954 followed another appearance as an actor in the German cinema production Clivia .

When his first own television show Every Second One Schilling , broadcast by ORF , started in 1959 , it immediately became a great success. Thereupon the German television took over the show. The game show was adapted for Dutch television in 1960 under the title Een kwartje per seconde and - also with van Burg as quiz master - produced in parallel. Both versions ended in 1961.

In 1962, the WDR production Sing mit mir - spiel mit mir , a program in which pieces of music had to be guessed at, followed. After 14 broadcasts, however, this series was canceled prematurely, despite its success, due to irregularities. It turned out that one candidate who stood out for her unusual guessing luck was the niece of an assistant on the shows.

Although Lou van Burg was initially banned from television, the tabloids continued to report extensively on him. A major German tabloid in Brussels found his wife Juliane, who Lou van Burg had left in 1961 to live with the Belgian singer Angèle Durand , who also became his manager.

The 1963 hit film Sing, but don't play with me , in which Lou van Burg played a leading role, makes reference to the show.

Career at ZDF

After hesitant negotiations with ZDF , Lou van Burg presented the TV show Der goldene Schuss from 1964 with great success . His Menjou mustache and the exclamation Wunnebar (for wonderful ), with which he honored the good performance of candidates, were trademarks. The game show and he became known for the way in which he greeted his audience: This was always done with the words "Hello friends" to which the audience replied in chorus "Hello Lou" . With the Golden Shot in particular, he developed into one of the most well-known emceeurs and show masters in German-speaking countries.

On August 25, 1967, Lou van Burg was to open the color television program in Germany on his 50th birthday with the 25th edition of Der goldene Schuss . But it didn't come to that: on July 11, 1967, the broadcaster ended the collaboration after his partner and manager Angèle Durand reported to the BILD newspaper and several magazines that he had a relationship with his assistant Marianne Krems and that she was already pregnant. The show was then taken over by Vico Torriani . The ZDF director Karl Holzamer said that it was not the private life, but the publication in all tabloid media that was decisive. Later, the ZDF and Lou van Burg agreed on compensation of 120,000 DM . Lou van Burg divorced his wife Juliane after 20 years of marriage and married Marianne Krems - the couple had two children together.

Wim Thoelke wrote about this in his book Stars, Colleagues and Crooks - a kind of autobiography , that the widespread story that ZDF had thrown out van Burg is not true, especially since he had no contract with ZDF. Rather, the Swiss company Schmid Productions produced the series on behalf of ZDF. This company also produced musicals and therefore included long excerpts, even 40 minutes of them in The Golden Shot , for which ZDF also had to pay for the equipment. The viewers and the ZDF were dissatisfied, whereupon, in order to save the situation, they separated from van Burg under the pretext of the affair.

Live performances and engagement

For the next nine years Lou van Burg had to concentrate on his part-time job as a conférencier at the Althoff Circus , performing in shopping centers, marquees, amusement parks and on butter trips . So he traveled with day-trippers across the North Sea under the motto With Uncle Lou to Heligoland . In addition, he appeared free of charge in orphanages, prisons and psychiatric clinics without making this public.

Comeback as a television star

From 1976 to 1983 he hosted again for ZDF: 1976 to 1983 the show Varieté, Varieté , in which international artists, magicians, comedians and other variety acts appeared, 1976 We make music , the first of seven evergreen programs. The positive reactions from the audience were so enormous that the other TV galas Play me an old tune (1977), Sing with me, dance with me (1978), Sing me the song again (1979), It will never be like this again his (1980) ' As beautiful as today', so it must 'stay (1981) and Everything goes better with music (1982) with van Burg followed. It was characteristic of these evergreen programs that he presented his musical guests with singing. Each of these shows had its own benefit LP with the newly arranged recordings of the programs.

In addition to his own programs, he also appeared as a guest on other programs, for example in 1977 in the show Musik ist Trumpf by Peter Frankenfeld , where he held a medley with Jacqueline Boyer , Ralf Bendix and his former partner Angèle Durand under the motto Pigalle Party of titles related to Paris.

In 1983 a less successful version of The Golden Shot was reissued with him under the title Game with Onkel Lou on ZDF.

Radio

As early as the 1950s, van Burg presented for Radio Luxemburg in his home country. At the end of the 1970s, the then program director Frank Elstner brought him to the German radio program of Radio Luxembourg , where he presented the show Family Day with Uncle Lou live from the then Traumland Park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen on Sundays at lunchtime (12 noon to 2 p.m.) from 1979 . This show was only broadcast on the radio, but RTL used it internally to develop and practice live television broadcasts. 1981 to 1984 he also presented the radio show Casino-Parade live from the wine village in Düsseldorf.

theatre

In 1985 van Burg u. a. at the side of Gerda-Maria Jürgens , Helmut Ketels and Josef Meinertzhagen through an engagement at the Millowitsch Theater in Cologne in the crime comedy "Schloß Rabeneck" by Hans Gmür .

family

He lived with his wife Juliane until 1961. After the split, the singer Angèle Durand was his partner and manager. In 1969 he married Marianne Krems, who brought her daughter Angie (* 1964) into the marriage. Krems and van Burg had their daughters Yasmine (* 1968) and Stephanie. Angie and Yasmine are also active as singers.

In 1986 Lou van Burg died at the age of 68 of complications from leukemia from which he had suffered for many years. He was buried in the New South Cemetery in Munich. In 2012 the grave was abandoned ; since then the tombstone has been in the garden of his daughter's house. As an inscription it bears Lou van Burg's nickname: Uncle Lou .

Filmography

movie theater

Television (selection)

  • 1952 and 1953: Foreign Intrigue (US TV series, shot in Europe, 4 episodes)
  • 1954 and 1955: Sherlock Holmes (US TV series, shot in France, 2 episodes)
  • 1956: General Electric Summer Originals: The Green Parrot (US TV series, 1 episode)
  • 1971: Glückspilze (TV movie)
  • 1982: Kottan Investigated - Kidnapping (TV series)
  • 1985: Stars don't fall from the sky (TV movie)

Television shows

  • 1959 - 1961: one shilling every second
  • 1960 - 1961: Een kwartje per seconde
  • 1961 - 1962: Sing with me, play with me
  • 1964 - 1967: The golden shot
  • 1976 - 1983: Variety show, variety show
  • 1977: Music is Trumps (Medley Pigalle Party ) with Jacqueline Boyer , Ralf Bendix and Angèle Durand
  • 1983: Playing with Uncle Lou

Evergreen shows

  • 1976: We make music
  • 1977: Play me an old tune
  • 1978: Sing with me, dance with me
  • 1979: Sing me the song again
  • 1980: It will never be like that again
  • 1981: As beautiful as it is today, it should stay that way
  • 1982: Everything goes better with music

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Nicolo Nicolo Nicolino
  DE 29 09/01/1954 (4 weeks)
All sorts of things
  DE 14th 09/01/1954 (12 weeks)
I would like to spoil you so much (with Barbara Kist)
  DE 24 03/01/1960 (16 weeks)
friends for life
  DE 8th 07/01/1960 (20 weeks)
Caterina
  DE 7th 07/01/1962 (4 weeks)

Singles (selection)

  • 1954: Nicolo, Nicolo, Nicolino
  • 1960: Friends for Life (Down by the Riverside) / mother-in-law song
  • 1962: Caterina
  • The songbook of love
  • Dear little conductress
  • There is only one Paris
  • In Paris
  • Hello the girls from Paris
  • The Poor People of Paris
  • Oh, Mr. Entertainer
  • I am a happy clown

Albums (selection)

  • 1982: Everything goes better with music - Mr. Wunnebar sings the most beautiful melodies from his evergreen shows (EMI)
  • 2015: Friends for Life - 50 Great Achievements (Musictales (Universal Music))

literature

  • Lou van Weerdenburg: Lou van Burg tells: From the life of a television star. Kranich-Verlag: Berlin-Zehlendorf 1961.

Awards

  • 1962 and 1963: Bravo Otto in bronze from the youth magazine BRAVO in the male TV star category

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article Lou van Burg in: Bardong, Matthias / Demmler, Hermann / Pfarr, Christian (eds.) (1992/1993): The Lexicon of German Schlager. Schott / Piper (Music Series, Volume 8208). ISBN 3-7957-8208-2 (Schott) / ISBN 3-492-18208-9 (Piper).
  2. ↑ Der Spiegel 32/1967: The Lou van Burg case
  3. ↑ steffi-line.de: Lou van Burg
  4. ↑ Der Spiegel 32/1967: The Lou van Burg case
  5. ↑ Der Spiegel 32/1967: The Lou van Burg case
  6. ^ WDR deadline: August 25, 1917 - Showmaster Lou van Burg is born: The flown Dutchman
  7. ↑ derwesten.de: TV story: Lou van Burg was "wunnebar" on television
  8. ↑ Artist biography at NLDiscografie.nl
  9. ↑ Artist biography on Ontario Records
  10. ↑ RP online: The tombstone for "Uncle Lou" is in Holthausen
  11. ↑ RP online: The tombstone for "Uncle Lou" is in Holthausen
  12. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Lou van Burg
  13. ↑ Chart sources: DE1 DE2
  14. ^ The winners of the 1962 OTTO election. Accessed October 1, 2014 .
  15. ^ The winners of the 1963 OTTO election. Accessed October 1, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Castle, Lou van
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weerdenburg, Loetje van (maiden name); Mister Wunnebar, Uncle Lou (nicknames)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch-German show master and entertainer
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH The Hague , Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1986
Place of death Munich , Federal Republic of Germany