My father, a music teacher and church choir director, and my mother attended two music workshops conducted by Fred Waring at Penn State--the last one concluded about two days before he passed away.
Collegiate--Waring's Pennsylvanians (1925)
Maybe even a cut above Lawrence Welk. LW was a superb performer, but I don't recall him coming up with a lot of original stuff like the other three did, almost until the day they died.