UMS Concert Program, November 16, 1979: The Fred Waring Show --

Season: 101st
Concert: Twenty-seventh
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

rHE UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
The Fred Waring Show
starring
Fred Waring with the Young Pennsylvanians
Friday Evening, November 16, 1979, at 8:30 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
BEST&BEST
Hi Everybody,
Welcome to our all new show for 1979-80. "BEST of the BEST" is a show, not a concert, and tonight we share with you our proven belief that music has a special purpose ... it was written to be enjoyed.
Music must be fun, and our "BEST of the BEST" is just that. Tonight we present our choices for Best songs by the Best writers ... the Best recordings of the greatest stars. The choices were not easy, due to the abundance of fine pop standards, old chestnuts and contemporary hits, but tonight's show will contain many of your all-time favorites.
We hope you enjoy our varied selections. We've put it all together . . . just for you . . . our fans, our friends. My Young Pennsylvanians are ready and waiting to give you their Best, so enjoy!
Thanks For Coming!
Mr. Waring will announce the program from the stage.
MCA Records.
101st Season -Twenty-seventh Concert
Special Concert
Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians
Through six decades Fred Waring has been one of the most prominent and interesting figures in American popular music, contributing to show business via vaudeville, movies, radio, recordings, Broadway, television, and the concert stage. Born in 1900, he made his first stage appearance at the age of five, and as a teenager joined the "Waring-McClintock Snap Orchestra" with drummer Poley McClintock (still touring with the show). The group grew, becoming "Waring's Banjo Orchestra," and, as engagements came pouring in, Mr. Waring put aside his architecture studies at Penn State to adopt entertainment as his career.
In the twenties the name "Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians" was officially adopted, as the band continued to play the top colleges, toured the B. F. Keith, Comerl'ord, and Orpheum vaudeville houses, and played Loews and Paramount Movie Theatres for weeks at a time. They became the rage in Hollywood, starring in the first musical motion picture, "Syncopation," and in their own musicals, and were featured in the first "talkie" shorts. The thirties saw the Pennsylvanians grow to a 55-piece jazz orchestra with an unprecedented six-month run at New York's famous Roxy Theatre. This decade was the beginning of live music spectaculars on network radio, and Waring's ''Pleasure Time" programs are remembered as classic chapters in broadcasting history. During World War II the Pennsylvanians added, to their daily radio show, a steady string of appearances at war bond rallies, their own New York Canteen, and Army camps and Naval training stations. At the war's end, the show resumed its coast-to-coast tours and entered the new realm of television. Believing that there is "no substitute for live entertainment," Mr. Waring became known as "King of the Road" during the 1960s and 70s, touring with his Pennsylvanians some 40,000 miles every year. His musical innovations arc countless, having recently added the contemporary sounds of the "Today's Pennsylvanians Group" and the close harmony and blend of the "Waring Blendors Group" to the road show. His six veteran performers, called the "VFWs"--Veterans of Fred Waring Shows--have given a combined total of 284 years' service to the Pennsylvanians.
Fred Waring has been a pioneer in the recording industry ever since his first record audition for Thomas Edison in the early 1920s. In all, the group has recorded over 1,500 songs and put together over one hundred albums.
Throughout his career, he has been intensely interested in music education, and to foster better choral singing he organized the Fred Waring Music Workshop in 1946. Today he personally super?vises his workshop held each summer on the campus of East Stroudsburg State College in Pennsylvania.
On March 15 of this year, Fred Waring began his 64th year in show business, and in June was named "America's Singing Master" by the Association of Professional Vocal Ensembles. In August, his show "More About Love" (presented in this auditorium just a year ago) was video-taped by the Public Broadcasting Service before a special audience in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The telecast is scheduled for national viewing next month on the PBS network.
Credits
Entire Show Conceived and Directed by Fred Waring
General Manager, Stage Direct orProducer ............................... Ray Sax Schroeder
Press Publicity Director, Assistant Stage Direct orProducer ..................... Rich Taylor
Choral Director and Accompanist ............................................. Len Thomas
Costume Director and Supervision .....................Virginia Waring and Nadine Schroeder
Costume DesignExecution ................................................. Daren Kuckler
Handel's "Messiah"
Friday & Saturday, November 30 & December 1, at 8:30 Sunday Afternoon, December 2, at 2:30
in Hill Auditorium The University Choral Union and U-M Symphony Orchestra
Donald Bryant, Conductor
Elizabeth Parcells, Soprano David Eisler, Tenor
Victorl Grof, Contralto Donald Bell, Bass
Tickets from $2 to $6.
Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" Ballet
This all-time Christmas favorite is performed by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, December 13, 14, IS, at 8:00
Saturday & Sunday, December IS & 16, at 3:00
Power Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets from $5.50 to $9.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
Burton Memorial Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Phones: 665-3717, 764-2538