Film Overview

Merv Conn is the 'King of the Strolling Accordionists!' From to the White House to your cousin's Bar Mitzvah, he has spent over 70 years entertaining Washington, DC. THE LEGEND OF MERV CONN premiered to a sold-out crowd at the AFI Theater on February 18, 2007, in honor of Merv's 87th Birthday and now officially proclaimed as 'Merv Conn Day!' This DVD tribute continues the celebration, with almost two hours of Merv, including the AFI Birthday gala featuring the World's First Ever 21-Accordion Salute! Plus Merv gives a lesson to Bernie Schenkler at the American Accordion Musicological Society Accordion Festival 2006. Also, many other extras and outtakes.

From 'Those Darn Accordions' Blog:
You must, I repeat MUST, call the producer and get your local art house theater to play The Legend of Merv Conn. The documentary includes a hilarious, running interview with our D.C. hero, who is constantly attached to his squeezebox, even when he's doing such innocuous things as fishing for ice cream in a freezer. You hear all the great strolling songs -- just a handful of the thousands upon thousands he keeps on lists in his pocket at all times. The best surprise is virtually unprecedented footage of him playing God Bless America inside the super-secret bunker of the landmark Masonic lodge. It's a stroll down memory lane that will leave you hoping that Merv's tens of thousands of students keep the accordion alive until a new generation of people who have never heard of Lawrence Welk is born.