Credit: Courtesy of Fred Waring's America Collection, The Pennsylvania State University
While an undergraduate at Penn State, Fred Waring in 1918 formed a dance band he called a "Banjazztra," whose fast rhythms, harmonies, and showmanship won them a steady stream of engagements at fraternity parties, proms, and local dances. In 1922, Waring left the engineering program at Penn State to pursue a career as the leader of what soon became one of the 1920s' most popular bands.
