TLDR: Roberta Linn was the actual first Champagne Lady on The Lawrence Welk Show, years before Alice Lon or Norma Zimmer ever held the title. Her real life included an Emmy win, a genuine Rat Pack-era Las Vegas career, and enough drama that she eventually wrote an entire memoir about it.
Roberta Linn was born April 30, 1931, in Gravity, Iowa, to a farmer’s daughter and a minor league baseball player, and built a genuine career as a child actress before she ever sang a note for Lawrence Welk.
She appeared in Little Miss Marker and several Our Gang comedies, sharing a changing room at one point with Shirley Temple, and worked alongside stars including Cary Grant and Clark Gable.
She Lied About Her Age to Join the War Effort
At just thirteen, Linn fabricated her true age to enlist in the Women’s Army Corps, entertaining troops during World War II years before most performers her actual age had even started their careers.
As film roles for former child actors grew scarce, she pivoted into singing, building real experience with big bands before Welk ever entered the picture.
She Was the First Champagne Lady, Full Stop
Linn performed with Welk’s group from 1949 to 1954, replacing Helen Ramsay and performing alongside fellow Champagne Ladies Lois Best, Norma Zimmer, and Jayne Walton.
She became Welk’s first television Champagne Lady specifically, appearing on magazine covers nationwide, and won a 1955 Emmy for Best Female Entertainer for the role.
She Built a Real Rat Pack-Era Career in Vegas
Linn became a regular solo performer on the Las Vegas Strip beginning in 1955 at The New Frontier, later performing with her husband, Freddie Bell of Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, at the Sahara Hotel starting in 1961.
She continued performing in Las Vegas for 18 straight years across venues including the Stardust, Riviera, Dunes, Caesars, Desert Inn, and the Sands, deep in the Great American Songbook era.
Her Vegas years included a genuine brush with organized crime, having dated a mob-connected Palm Springs hotel owner despite her stated high moral standards, a relationship that reportedly ended when he lost her in a card game gone wrong.
A Health Crisis Nearly Ended Everything in 1958
Despite her professional success, Linn’s health took a severe turn in 1958, when she fell into a medicine-induced coma. She recovered and continued performing afterward, later crediting her faith for the recovery.
She Eventually Told Her Own Story
Linn published a memoir, Champagne Lady, in 2007, later reissued as Lawrence Welk’s First Television Champagne Lady Roberta Linn, chronicling her career from Hollywood’s golden age through Vegas and beyond, including a stretch selling timeshares for the same organization she’d once sung for.
Roberta Linn, Frequently Asked Questions
Was Roberta Linn the first Champagne Lady on Lawrence Welk?
Yes, she was Welk’s first television Champagne Lady, performing with his group from 1949 to 1954, years before Alice Lon or Norma Zimmer held the title.
Did Roberta Linn win an award for her role on the show?
Yes, she won a 1955 Emmy Award for Best Female Entertainer.
What did Roberta Linn do after leaving Lawrence Welk’s show?
She built an 18-year career as a Las Vegas Strip performer, including performing with her husband Freddie Bell and the Bellboys at the Sahara Hotel, and later published a memoir about her life titled Champagne Lady.
