Just in case anybody is wondering, the article I posted was transcribed exactly from a PDF file scan of the actual page from the SEPTEMBER 12, 1925 THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW. You can see it for yourself at arcade-museum dot com. You’ll have to do a search though.

:)

There seems to be some conflicting information in regard to the drum Bun E Carlos speaks of in his collection, his Hart drum. At ludwig-drums dot com, it’s mentioned that Triumphals were made from 1925 through 1928. So by the earliest time Bun E’s drum could have been made Hart Jr. was going to be celebrating his 3rd birthday and from what the 1925 article describes he received his swastika drum then.

Below is a quote from the ludwig-drums website regarding Bun E's drum:

Actor William Hart was the greatest movie cowboy of the silent movie era. In 1925, he purchased a 4x14 Triumphal from W.F. Ludwig, Sr. The drum was for Hart’s newborn son. A few years later, his young wife ran off with the son. When they reconciled, Hart traded in his 1925 Triumphal to Ludwig for an even fancier drum; another custom-ordered Triumphal with inlayed silver and engraved Navajo symbols.

DOH

Edit: The Swastika Symbol was used in Navajo textiles (see the link below).

http://www.whirlinglog.com/Page_5.html

:)

Bun's drum is the one I previously owned and the one that is in my book.

Mike Curotto

Hi Mike,

When you sold the first Triumphal, I was wondering if you might have a line

on the fancier one. That would be a fancy addition to your next book.

While visiting a western museum in South Dakota years ago, I saw a car belonging to another legendary silent movie star, Tom Mix. The outsides of

the tires were treaded with swastikas so they would leave the imprints in the road.

Chicago, Here we come,

Joe Luoma

Yeah, that symbol is OLD OLD OLD And as stated, too bad it's such a negative symbol nowadays. There are certain styles of mustaches you can't wear for the same reasons, too. Not that I would want to grow one of them. I'm just saying that symbolism is strong. Collectible-wise, that kind of thing would be off the hook to a lot of different people for a lot of different reasons!

Bun E Carlos mentions on Ludwig-Drums dot com he thought the Bill Hart Jr. 3rd birthday drum was at the William Hart Museum. I spoke to the museum and the person indicated she had been asked this question before. She assured me there were no drums in the museum’s collection that she knew of. She also said it was a “closed” collection. That implied that no more items would be added to what the museum has had all these years.

Maybe Hart Jr’s family has that 3rd birthday drum, and we will all get a chance to see it and those Navajo symbols someday.

By the way, if there were two drums as described by Bun E then neither one was actually the movie star’s own drum, both would have been Hart Jr's. That could be why there are no drums in the William Hart Museum.

:)

I know what you mean,O. I once had a girlfriend who had one of those mustaches and believe me, I would never date her nowadays.

"Nietzsche is peachtzsche"-A guy named Herb.

I discovered another mention in the press of the Hart 3rd birthday drum. This time from 1928 three years later than the first article. I’ve included the photo that accompanied the article. Based on the earlier 1925 detailed description, the part about the Hart drum here appears to be misremembered and exaggerated (only three years and the story is already changing). It is curious that although it is about stars and musicians, the only drum company mentioned is Ludwig and this article was released from Chicago, so it is likely to have been generated by Ludwig’s press department. Here again there is no mention of a second Hart drum and “trade in”.

Now they got me wondering what happened to the Arbuckle set mentioned too.

Below is the article:

[SIZE="4"]JUNE 30, 1928 The Music Trade Review[/SIZE] source arcade-museum

Prominent Musicians and

Drummer's Art

CHICAGO, ILL., June 23.—The famous musical comedy star, Leon Errol, is playing a different role as shown by this delightful pose before a set of Ludwig drums. The picture was taken by W. Heywood, manager of the small goods department of the R. S. Williams & Sons Co., Ltd., Toronto, Ont.

Other stars that have taken to Ludwig drums include the famous Ben Turpin of the movies, "Fatty" Arbuckle also, at one time, took a keen delight in the drums, and once owned the most expensive set of gold drums ever made by Ludwig & Ludwig.

The late Vernon Castle, the dancer, enjoyed sitting down at the drums and substituting for the regular drummer in his shows. Drummers state that Vernon Castle was one of the few amateurs that was in the good graces of other members of the orchestra when he played drums. He had perfect rhythm and did not "upset" the orchestra.

William S. Hart paid $750 for a solid silver and gold decorated snare drum of the Ludwig make about three years ago for his son.

The Duncan sisters always carry their own drummer and feature the percussionist in their productions.

George M. Cohan once beat the bass drum in the early days of the Cohan Family act in vaudeville. Cohan still is very finicky about his drum effects in his musical shows.

Victor Herbert, the composer, wrote what drummers term "perfect drum parts." Sousa, too, writes excellent drum scores for his band arrangements. Sousa was taught the art by his drummer sergeants of the Marine Corps.

This photo was captioned "Leon Errol at the Drums":

Just a late note to an old post. The R.S. Williams & Sons Co. , probably distributed Ludwig & Ludwig, in Canada . They were a very large musical instrument maker , distributor and minor music publisher---at one time with operations in 5 Canadian cities. The factory in Toronto by the 1920's had 250 employees. Although they are now known mostly for Pianos, they did also make drums. I have only ever seen (and own) one. It is a 15" x 6 " nickel( maybe tin) on brass( possibly could be solid nickel or solid tin----I have to do more investigation) single point 10 tube lug snare drum. It has shellaced oak hoops and the snares are original. One curiousity is that the snares are collected at the butt end by a hard black 1" x 1/2" plate made of either Bakelite or India Rubber that holds them against the outside of the bottom hoop. Snare adjustment is by a long wing screw. The 20 tension rods have 5/16" square heads and I have a key for it. A paper label on the inside gives the details of the maker but no date. Historical records show that R.S. Williams had branches in Calgary,Winnipeg,Toronto and Montreal by 1919. Since these are mentioned on the label, it would out the date of mfg. ,sometime after that . I am currently relapping heads for it.

My info on the William Hart drum came from The Chief. I think there is a photo of the second William Hart drum in a late 20's Ludwig Drummer magazine.

I refer to the drum as The William Hart Drum because he paid for it.

William Hart was one of the biggest silent movie era Western stars. He hung out with Wyatt Earp and other famous "cowboys".

When I acquired the drum, I told my father about it. He said Hart was the biggest cowboy movie star of his childhood.