Considered Australia’s version of Cab Calloway, Walters began his career in Perth in the late 1920s playing at dance palais such as Perth’s Luna Park until 1932, when he moved to Sydney to make it in the big city scene. He founded the first incarnation of his Personality Band and gained significant local media attention with sellout crowds. By early 1933 Walters was featured in the Australian Dance Band News (Australasia’s premier popular music trade magazine), which noted that he had the only 10-piece band in Sydney and it was proving a big hit with dancers.