Oddly, I watched TTYD again recently and was impressed that the effort was made to make sure the instruments were period correct. This is not always the case. [ I remember in "The Buddy Holly Story" the drums used were a late 70's Ludwig Blue Sparkle kit, which I found irritating.] Anyway, there were two sets used in TTYD. In the beginning "Shades' was playing a natural finish Leedy "Shelly Manne" kit and after stardom a WMP Ludwig Super Classic appeared. Enjoyable movie!

Yes the only vintage set was the one i rented to the movie a wood Leedy set..The Ludwig W.M.P. set was not a vintage set it was a new Ludwig set with made up with vintage badges that my friend Todd Trent-{Ludwig Rep}- made up for the movie..A side note on T.T.Y.D. that whole movie was made in my home town Orange,ca along with about 100 other movie's from 1922 to 2112 and still counting....Mikey

The Johnny Cash Movie had a sweet Rogers swingtime set in it ...

That was your set in TTYD? Always wondered how those prop guys acquired vintage instruments, cars, appliances, etc. So who decided which sets should be used into the movie, the prop guys or the suppliers?

Another siting of a beautiful vintage Ludwig set was on an episode of Mad Men. A wedding was taking place on the day Kennedy was shot, Nov 1963, and the drums and instruments were all period perfect. I'm always looking for anachronisms in period films and TV shows, like the drummer in Tora Tora Tora using a 1960's marching snare as Pearl Harbor is being attacked.

MC303... very interesting! What great observations. I would like to see your hard back edition... "Drums in Movies.. the good, the bad and the ugly"

Mikey.. how cool is that!! Having your drums star in a movie.

The silver sparkle kit in That thing you do is owned by Gary Asher in Birmingham, Alabama. Big Ludwig collector.

i used to work for the former ludwig artist rep off and on for 17 years, and i helped make 3 kits used in the movie.

here's a pic of the kits before he delivered them, and my story about the kits i posted on my site awhile back.

----------------------

my old boss gets a call from 20th century fox, and they need 3 period looking drum kits for a movie called, "that thing you do" directed by tom hanks. its not uncommon to get these types of calls and he also supplied drums for "rockstar" and "almost famous" among others.

he couldn't get actual vintage kits and clean them up because they would still look older, and for the time period the movie was set in (the 60's) they had to look like new 60's kit. so he got 3 new kits from ludwig and they were made to look vintage 60's.

when we recieved the kits, it really didn't take much to make them look vintage. there wasn't going to be any serious close up's of the kits so the details did not need to be extreme. all 3 kits are playable and are all ludwig. no misc brand parts on them.

first he took floor tom legs, cut and bent them into the shape of 60's style spurs. then he had 60's style badges made and we put those on. if i remember correctly, these were kinda like hard cardboard stock that were printed on.

next we got new coated tom and floor tom heads with no logos on them, then had a stamp made with the original 60's ludwig drum head logo and stamped them in the correct areas. he bought 3 rail consolette mounts and we were done. the bass drum cymbal mounts and posts are ludwig as they were still avail from the company.

these kits are pictured above before they were delivered to the studio. they're white marine pearl, black oyster and silver sparkle. if i remember correctly, tom hanks kept the white marine pearl kit, and the other 2 came back to the shop and were sold. gary asher has one of the kits in his ludwig collection.

Love this movie. Have it right here on my computer in fact. Looked at the last attachment, and am a bit puzzled; Don't recall either a black oyster, or a silver sparkle kit in the movie, (Capt Geetch & The Shrimp Shack Shooters used a red kit) and even the wmp kit in pic didn't look right to me. Noticed first, that prefab spurs were crimped too low which I would have noticed in the movie. Also, it appears to be a 22" kick drum pictured, whereas the drummer in the movie was using a 20". If we're talking details here, I'd be keen to get the straight poop. Though the wmp kit in the film does appear shiny and new, there does appear to be some slight mellowing... my guess would have been that it was a true vintage kit - why prefabricate one, when there are so many pristine original kits still floating around?

I have worked for one of the biggest prop. house's in Hollywood,ca off and on for 20 years.I have had many of my set's on movie's and T.V. show's from about 1989 till now.My friend the owner of the prop. house has a warahouse that is 100,000 sq. feet of space that holds anything you can think of from A to Z from 1930-1980...So i guess that alot of people have seen my drum's or his drums is alot of thing's.Oh B.T.W just about everything that you see in T.T.Y.D. movie was from my friends place,me or Todd and my home town.....Mikey

Thanks J!m,Yes it;s cool to have my set in the movie but that is one of many that my drum set's have been in and that not counting set's or drum's you see on T.V...Also music video;s i was part owner of O.C.D.P. drums out of santa ana,ca many bands used are custom made drum's No Doubt, Blink182,Lit,Lump Biscuit, ete ,ete...And not counting all the times i have rented drums to the studio's in L.A.ca....mikey