Waring, Fred(erick Malcolm) (1900–1984)

US conductor, songwriter, and inventor. While an engineering student at Pennsylvania State, he formed the Pennsylvanians with his brother, Tom Waring. The group performed throughout the 1920s and even made the first all-musical movie, Syncopation (1929), but it was largely owing to his many appearances on radio during the 1930s that Waring's Pennsylvanians became a national institution. His was also the first orchestra to have its own television show (from 1949). His soft melodies and lush orchestrations struck a chord with mainstream Americans.

Waring was born in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. By the age of 16, he was conducting his first small group of musicians, the Banjazzatra. He and his orchestra were often invited by President Dwight Eisenhower to play at White House functions; he gave his farewell concert at President Ronald Reagan's inaugural concert in 1981.Waring prospered greatly from his musicmaking; he also composed about 200 songs and formed the Shawnee Press, a major publisher of choral and band music. More surprisingly, he is also the man behind the Waring Blendor, one of the first electric food processors, which he patented in 1937 and perfected and marketed for many years.