Hello all. I was contacted last Tuesday by a friend who said a friend of his was looking to trade a Radio King kit that he got from Barrett Deems. He said he was looking for a Buddy Rich type kit, preferably Slingerland or Gretsch. I figured it was a long shot, but I called and told him about my late 50s Slingerland kit, which I had acquired a matching, period-correct canister throne for 2 weeks ago. He said that it sounded like what he was looking for...he wanted a 22" bass drum.
I asked why in the world he would want to part with this kit. He said he rarely plays it (about 3 times a year at special jazz events) because of the 26" bass drum, and he's had it since the 80s. I figured there would be no way he would trade the kit for mine, but he said I was the type of guy he wanted the kit to go to (someone who would respect it for what it is and take extra good care of it) and I had exactly what he wanted and my kit was in great shape. He said the canister throne sealed the deal because of the added value and he thought it looked real cool with the kit.
I can't say that I have hard evidence that this kit belonged to Barrett Deems, or whether or not it was on stage with Louis Armstrong. However, I am quite convinced by the number of pictures of this man with Barrett Deems, that he knew Mr. Deems on a personal level, and have no reason to doubt the story. The only verification I do have is a picture of the original calf skin FT head that Barrett signed (picture 3), which included a little inside joke. The story is that this man played at the Playboy Club in Chicago in the 80s (I saw a Polaroid showing this man and Mr. Deems with two scantilly clad women wearing bunny ears, so I'm sure this is true), so when Barrett wrote "this is the best head of all"...you get the picture.
So, here it is! Picture 4 shows the 1945-46 cloud badge and picture 5 shows the 1950-53 oval badge. The story of the different badges is that Slingerland made a "10 lug metal shell Radio King" for Mr. Deems with this kit. He liked it, so he kept it when he sold the kit. This early 50s RK, I'm told, is the drum that Mr. Deems got to match the kit and use on gigs because he liked the tone and feel of the wood RKs, and the metal snare was too ringy for his taste, so he didn't play it on gigs.
More pictures to come.
Lynn
