Paul Whiteman (Denver (Colorado), 28 March 1890 – Doylestown, Pennsylvania, 29 december 1967) was an American Orchestra leader. He began as a classicalviolinist at the San Francisco Symphony and during the first world war led a band at the American Navy. However, he was known for his jazz -inspired dance orchestras, on the. Whiteman led his first dance Orchestra in 1918 in San Francisco. In 1920 he went to New Yorkwith his band. Here he made his first album Whispering-The Japanese Sandman, of which more than two million copies have been sold. He was a star and got his Orchestra national prominence. Paul Whiteman's Orchestrabecame the most popular band of the 1920s. In 1924 the Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin written in his command, and the piece became the theme song of the Orchestra.