Drummer Gene Krupa was 24 when he joined Benny Goodman's orchestra in 1933. While with Goodman, he made his first film appearance in Hollywood Hotel (1937), the highlight of which was a jam session featuring Krupa, Lionel Hampton and Teddy Wilson. Krupa formed his own band in 1938, alternating between this endeavor and performing with other bands until 1951. His movie activity during this period chiefly consisted of a handful of energetic musical short subjects produced by Universal. He was featured as "himself" in two Technicolor biopics of the 1950s, The Glenn Miller Story and The Benny Goodman Story. Gene Krupa's own biography (with undue emphasis on his drug problems) was filmed as The Gene Krupa Story in 1960, with Sal Mineo, no mean drummer himself, in the title role.
by Hal Erickson
biography
