Waring's Pennsylvanians - Lila (1928) video free download

Fredrick Malcolm Waring was born in Tyrone, Pennsylvania on June 9, 1900 to Jesse Calderwood and Frank Waring. During his teenage years, Fred, his brother Tom, and their friend Poley McClintock founded the Waring-McClintock Snap Orchestra, which evolved into Fred Waring's Banjo Orchestra. The band often played at fraternity parties, proms, and dances, and achieved local success. He attended Penn State University, where he studied architectural engineering. He also aspired to be in the Penn State Glee Club, but he was rejected with every audition due to "college politics" and tension between him and the glee club's director, Dr. Clarence Robinson. His Banjo Orchestra eventually became so successful that he decided to abandon his education in order to tour with the band, which eventually became known as Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. From 1923 until late 1932, "Waring's Pennsylvanians" were among Victor Records best-selling bands. In late 1932, he abruptly quit recording, although his band continued to perform on radio.

He married his college sweetheart, Dorothy McAteer, in 1923, but divorced in 1929. He remarried in 1933 to Evalyn Nair and had three children, but in 1954 they divorced.

During World War II, Waring and his ensemble appeared at war bond rallies and entertained the troops at training camps. In 1943, Waring acquired the Buckwood Inn in Shawnee on Delaware, Pennsylvania, and renamed the resort the Shawnee Inn. To promote the Inn, Waring centered his musical activities at the Inn itself. He created, rehearsed and broadcast his radio programs from the stage of the Shawnee Inn throughout the 1950s. Waring expanded into television in 1949, with "The Fred Waring Show" on CBS. The program ran from June 1948 to May 1954 and received several awards for Best Musical Program.

In the 1960s and 1970s, popular musical tastes turned from choral music, but Waring changed with the times, introducing his "Young Pennsylvanians", a group of fresh-faced, long-haired, bell-bottomed performers who sang old favorites and choral arrangements of contemporary songs, and remained popular up until Waring's death on July 29, 1984.

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