Although Eugene Ormandy is best remembered for his forty-four-year tenure as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, for five years during the early 1930s he was conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Ormandy worked hard to build the orchestra and improve its musicianship, and by 1936, through tours of the East and South and landmark recordings for RCA Victor, he had established an international reputation for the orchestra and positioned himself for his appointment in Philadelphia as Leopold Stokowski's successor.