Frank Winegar

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1901, Frank co-founded his first band at the age of sixteen with a friend, future Victor recording artist Jack Crawford. They provided live entertainment for house parties, country clubs and the Michigan Agricultural College. In 1922 at Peddle Prep School, Winegar directed a band called the Gold and Blues. Later that year he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where in 1923 his band won a contest and were awarded a trip to Europe. After spending the summer performing overseas, they came home to continue their studies. Frank majored in architecture. During the winter of 1923-24 he published his first song, "Dreary Weather". Within a few years, Waring's Pennsylvanians made a nice recording of it on Victor records. In December of 1924 Ted Weems secured a gig for Winegar's Peppy Collegians at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York. They enjoyed such success that when the others went home, Frank stayed put to form another dance band made up of working musicians from New York. They played the Arcadia in January of 1925, then toured New England and parts of the Midwest. By the autumn of '25, Winegar was back at school studying architecture, even as he led a collegiate dance band in and around Philadelphia. It was during the spring of 1927 that Winegar made a handful of phonograph recordings for the Victor label. Years later he surmised that the reason these sides were never issued was that his arrangements were "too full" of saxophones. In June 1927 Milt Shaw became the leader of this band. They took off for Michigan, there to become Milt Shaw's Detroiters. The architect's next band, Frank Winegar's Pennsylvanians, included Sherry Magee, Bill Haid, Tony Franchini, Larry Hart (not lyricist Lorenz Hart) and brothers Herman and Bill Drewes....