Gene Krupa - A tribute to Gene Krupa
Posters & Lobby Cards
Film Posters and Lobby Card Sets
a collection of rare lobby card sets and film posters
Film Posters and Lobby Cards
When I realised that Film Posters and Lobby cards had been originally produced for the Films that Gene Krupa had appeared in, this then represented a new challenge in my collecting period. The current collection is quite extensive with original examples of Posters and or Lobby cards, which were not easy to obtain and the first two Film posters and Lobby cards are when Gene was a sideman playing with the incomparable Benny Goodman Band, which by 1937 was again voted as the Worlds Greatest Swing Band for the second consecutive year. The Band was complimented by the Benny Goodman Trio and Quartet, these two groups were at the time groundbreaking as pianist Teddy Wilson and Vibraphone player Lionel Hampton were both black musicians and indeed this was a very brave thing to have thought of let alone have! The Trio was born July13, 1935 and the Quartet was born August 21, 1936; I personally homed in on the small group tracks as I would be able to hear and study Gene Krupa far more easily!
The Trio produced the first recorded 32 bar drum solo in Jazz History on the tune "Who" and as always something new from Gene, when he plays he adds soft cymbal sounds by playing the High- Hat synchrony to the bass drum accents. On the tune "After you've Gone " he plays four beat Bass Drum and "stick on stick" which is similar to a rim shot, but was already part of his extensive armory and would remain with him throughout the whole of his career .
All Gene Krupa films are represented by film posters and or lobby cards. Great friend and collector (of Buddy Rich and Slingerland Drum sets) DAVE BROWN was extremely helpful in tracking down many of these items for me.
Additional Gene Krupa Band advert posters and record label adverts together with original Film Press Books and associated memorabilia also forms part of my collection. I also have many of the original films in either video and DVD format.
Originally when I started collecting Film Posters no matter what size they were they were folded as this was the original way that the Cinema or Theatre would store them. The paper can be very thin especially for ones of the middle 1940's (on several live Armed Forces Radio Network WW2 Broadcasts you often hear the announcer appeal to save paper as there was a National shortage ) and tears can often occur along the creases; so it was on this basis that I decided to frame all my collection to protect them.
The collection consists of some 4,500 78rpm records, alternate takes , test pressings, unpublished records and broadcasts by the Krupa Band and Trio, and I have everything Gene recorded commercially either as a sideman, Band leader , or his Trio Quartet and Sextet. A large collection of vinyl Lp's, 45's, CD'S and DvD's, 16" Transcription discs and alternate takes of other Bands many of which are by Benny Goodman together with extensive memorabilia associated with Gene his life and times. There is an extensive collection of photos of Gene from the 1930's through to the 1970's, together with adverts from Downbeat Metronome Life and Collier magazines and indeed anything I have been able to obtain by Gene Krupa who I have studied for the vast majority of my life.
Benny Goodman's first known recordings date with Gene occurred on a Red Nichols & his Five Pennies session on April 18, 1929 which also had Glenn Miller as a sideman, and there were many more to follow before Gene joined the Benny Goodman Band on December 22, 1934 staying until March 3, 1938, to open and appear with his own Band during April of that same year.
This was pop music then and the Goodman Band can easily be compared to Beatlemania in terms of popularity; however one main difference the Goodman band complete with Gene during 1937 played 365 days that year, they would perform 6-8 Shows at the New York Paramount Theatre during the day to take up a three month stint at the Pennsylvania Hotel playing from 7pm - 1am in the morning, pretty gruelling and quite incredible in my opinion.
As he often talked about other drummers this formed an additional challenge to build up an appreciation of drummers who were playing with Bands located in New Orleans, Kansas City Chicago and New York together with Territorial Bands. My interest also covers British Dance Bands from the late 1920's covering Ambrose, and my early favourite The New Mayfair Dance Orchestra with vocals by Al Bowlly ( some 200 sides ) complete with drummer Bill Harty who had written a book "Modern Style ( Swing ) Drumming; I have a mint first 1934 edition.
The collection features Gene Krupa and around him and his Band an appreciation of drumming and music from the mid 1920's through to the early 1960's, Gene's influence is colossal, by the mid 1930's he was a household name and the endorser of Slingerland Drums appearing on the the front cover of their catalogues consecutively for some 32 years.
GK Lounge
Jerry Brennan
jerryb4321@yahoo.co.uk
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