The three college types were the young men who formed the Kingston Trio, a folk-singing group which rapidly became one of the entertainment world's most in-demand attractions.

The Kingston Trio saga began in the spring of 1957 in The Cracked Pot, a colorful college hangout near to the campus of Stanford University south of San Francisco. Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, students at nearby Menlo College, and Dave Guard, a Stanford economics major, were playing at The Cracked Pot for little more than pretzels and beer. A San Francisco publicist, Frank Werber, heard about the group and one night came down to see them.

Werber saw potential in their work and signed the boys to a personal-management contract -- drawn up on the spot and written on a paper napkin -- and began grooming them for a professional debut.

First on the agenda was a name. After mulling several, Werber and the boys chose The Kingston Trio because "It sounded collegiate" and calypso music was then in vogue and Kingston also sounded calypso.

The Trio worked for months, polishing their act to a slick smoothness and, when Werber felt they were ready, made their professional debut at the hungry i, San Francisco's famed new-talent showcase.

After that they moved across the street to another famous spot, the Purple Onion. There the Kingstons were booked for only a week. They were extended for another week, then another. They ended up staying seven months.
Word of the sensational new group had spread across the country and the boys headed east to SROs at Mr. Kelly's Blue Angel, and the Village Vanguard.

The Kingston Trio's first record was released in June 1958, It sold well, but was by no measure an overnight hit. Contained in the album, though, was a haunting, century-old folk song, "Tom Dooley." Disk jockeys around the county played the song constantly and a single record of "Tom Dooley" was released in August. The record gained momentum from the day of its release and shot to the top of the national best-seller lists, where it stayed for months. It swept past the million mark shortly before Christmas. The rest is pretty much legend. That legend is in your hand.