Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Famous American, chorus leader, showman, glee club pioneer, golf tournament host, and entrepreneur--all that, and he taught America how to sing Fred Waring held together a major musical organization for sixty-seven years. He was a man at ease on stage but reluctant to sit through meetings, a man so earnest in his patriotism that by the 1980s, many considered him an anachronism.
Virginia Waring, his wife of thirty years, chronicles Fred Waring's many achievements and his shortcomings with candor and affection. She traces his life from his childhood in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, through his rise to fame as a bandleader and his development and promotion of the Waring Blendor(R). Along the wa, y she offers invaluable, intimate insights on his concert tours, radio and television programs, leadership of Shawnee Press, and his legacy of pursuing the highest possible standards in music as in life.
The book includes a compact disc with twenty-eight selections recorded by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians over a forty-year period.
Table of Contents
Prologue : the man who taught America how to sing --The Victorian Warings -- Entrepreneur -- Penn State --The brash kid from Tyrone -- Milk trains -- Stairway to fame -- Paris -- Fred loses his shirt -- Ballet, classics and the Roxyettes -- Radio days -- Henry Ford & Co. -- The legalities of interpretation -- The Waring blendor -- Burgeoning empire -- Hollywood -- "A cigarette, sweet music, and you" -- My debut -- For the sake of one singer -- Music workshops --Television -- The Anti-Semitic rumor -- Life with Fred -- Golf -- "On the road again" -- Ike and the famous --Crucible of professionals -- Stroke -- Timing --Phaetons, Zephyrs and Model A Fords -- What glorious music -- Photo album.