Very cool drums! They are a part of a simpler past. Thanks for sharing.

Brian

That's some "full dress" treatment on the snare drum Mark!

Great stuff, the circus title caught my eye. Here's a kit apparently ordered by a drummer for the Moscow Circus. A red, of course, Vistalite Jazzette

It certainly is! I wish the photo was larger, as it's hard to tell what the designs are. Circus clowns? Ring Master?

I agree! Glad you enjoyed it.

Interesting post, I bet it was good to play some sort of busy rudimental type stuff, Im from the uk and was drummer on a circus here for 2 full years, in mid 90s , just me and a very good keyboard player in band. I recently got a radio king snare 40s, It would have been fab to have it back then. I bet they used them as well. It would be nice if any of you can delv further with history and pics of various drums etc. Sean.

"Red" Floyd?...any relation to "Pink"?

Wow!I'd love Vistas in those sizes!

Great ad. I have never seen this one. I am the one who posted the Ringling Brothers drum a while back. Red Floyd was a terrific snare drummer for Merle Evans Ringling band for 30 years. George Way (who also did some circus drumming) was sales and marketing manager for Leedy and had the contract to design and build custom drums for the circus. This looks like an early Broadway snare. My drum was made in 1939 and has some of the same characters applied to the wrap as the one in this picture. After George Way left Leedy the circus changed to Rogers. Here is mine then and now.