Movie Summary

The 1925 hit, COLLEGIATE, is being played by Waring’s Pennsylvanians on Victor 78 rpm # 19648….recorded April 4, 1925. One of the enduring images of the 1920s is of the college boy in a raccoon coat, out for some jazz kicks with a hip flask and a flapper on his arm. Waring’s Pennsylvanians popularized this type of image through their music, stage shows, and film appearances. The band was formed in 1918 at Pennsylvania State University by the brothers Fred and Tom Waring, and their friends Freddy Buck and Poley McClintock. They first billed themselves as the Waring-McClintock Snap Orchestra and then became Waring’s Banjo Orchestra before adopting the name of Waring’s Pennsylvanians in 1922. In 1923 they had a big hit with the record Sleep and the song continued to be the band’s theme song for many years to come. The Pennsylvanians were very popular at colleges and often played fraternity parties, proms, and local dances early in their career and then graduated to playing at movie theatres and vaudeville houses across the United States becoming one of the sought after acts in show business. In 1925 Waring’s Pennsylvanians had a huge hit with Collegiate and it remains their best-known song. The tune is a wonderful little time capsule of college life in the 1920s. By the end of the 1920s they were one of the most popular musical acts in the country and they starred in an early sound film called “Syncopation” in 1929. In the 1930s they were one of the hottest acts on radio …