The Gene Krupa Story
1959 film by Don Weis
The Gene Krupa Story (also known as Drum Crazy) is a 1959 biopic of American drummer and bandleader Gene Krupa. The conflict in the film centers on Krupa's rise to success and his corresponding use of marijuana.
Plot
The young Gene Krupa brings home a set of drums and puts them in the family room. His mother and three of his brothers stand by as his father makes it clear, as he has many times before, that he abhors the idea of Gene playing jazz drums. He says, "I have been too easy on my baby son," and insists that Gene be "somebody fine...a priest, maybe". Gene is about to graduate high school and does not want to study in a seminary; he says he doesn't know why, but he has to be a drummer. His father orders him to get rid of the drum set. Gene says he can't and his father reacts by busting the tom-toms and the balance of the set. Gene says he will find a way to keep getting drums no matter how often his father busts them, that he has an opportunity to play with a group of guys, for money.
During rehearsals for some of his initial club performances, Krupa meets a girl named Ethel, who is immediately struck by his drumming.
“The Gene Krupa Story” enters the record as 1959 film by Don Weis. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gene, Krupa and Story can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7736039. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Gene Krupa Story” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.