Sam Wooding and his Orchestra were a popular New York Jazz band in the early 1920s. They played at venues such as the The Nest, on the Fox vaudeville circuit and at the Club Alabam. In 1925 Wooding's band was picked to be the orchestra for a new musical revue called Chocolate Kiddies which was being formed to tour Europe. Chocolate Kiddies was built around the vaudeville team of Rufus and Drayton and featured performances by Wooding's eleven piece orchestra, thirty chorus girls, dancers and comedians. Edith Wilson and Adeline Hall were vocalists in the show and Tommy Ladnier was the star soloist. Chocolate Kiddies also included music by Duke Ellington and Jo Trent. Wooding's orchestra stayed with Chocolate Kiddies for around a year and then extensively toured Europe without the revue playing in Germany, Sweden, Spain, France, Switzerland, Istanbul, Turkey, Romania, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Holland, Belgium and Russia. In 1927 they took the act to South America and played in Buenos Aires. They returned to the America in 1927 and played in vaudeville and turned down a gig at the Cotton Club. Wooding's Orchestra returned to Europe in 1928 and continued to play abroad until they broke up in Belgium in 1931. Wooding returned to America in 1932 and reformed the band until 1935; during this period Sidney Bechet was with the band briefly. After 1935 Wooding left the music business for a few years to attend college and earn a master's degree in music from the University of Pennsylvania.