Hi,

The latest addition to the collection comes from my good friend and fellow collector Mark Cooper of Coopersvintagedrums.com I usually stay clear of Duco finishes as a good number of them have not faired well over the 80 + years but this one had two things going for it: 1. Red/Cream/Red Duco which I have never seen. 2. This is a 6.5 x 15 Broadway Parallel model which is somewhat rare.

1935 LEEDY 6.5 x 15 RED/CREAM/RED DUCO BROADWAY PARALLEL MODEL

THE SHELL:

The R/C/R Duco finish is in excellent condition with no major dings or loss of paint. I did give the shell a light polishing as there was a little dirt build up, very little though. The clear maple interior is very clean with a date stamp of 3506 (June 1935). The clear interior is a little unique in that I’m used to seeing white interiors from that era. The badge is clean with a tight grommet.

THE HARDWARE:

The hardware is 100% original and all there. The nickel plated hardware is in excellent-plus condition, at first I thought that the hardware was chrome plated so I had to “A-B” the hardware vs. some chrome pieces to be sure. The hardware needed no attention, just a light once over with a cloth. The Broadway Parallel mechanism is the second generation version. I did clean up the threads on the tension rods. A bonus here is that the original Parallel snares are intact. Original Leedy Parallel snares are much harder to find than original L & L Super snares and the fact that they are 15” snares adds to the bonus.

As a finishing touch I added of-the-era top and bottom calf heads.

Finally, a group photo of this drum with its little brother, a Leedy 6.5 x 14 Blue/Silver/Blue Duco Broadway Parallel.

Enjoy!

Mike Curotto