Hi All, The story about Mr.coopers inport drum business he started..This was told to me over the years of knowing him before he passed away...He had a drum shop he open back in 1950 called "cooper drums" in garden grove,ca..He sold all the big name drums ludwig,rogers ,ete,ete..So in 1960 he was looking to make more money,and came up with what about inporting drums from japan,up to this point no one was doing this..So he talk to Pearl about making drums for him and selling "pearl sets in the u.s.a. but not under Pearls name,they did the deal and the drum inporting started...The first sets Mr. Cooper only sold in his store the name he used was "MINDY" name after is first granddarghter,these badges were simple sticker type they were recteangle in shape with silver backing and mindy in black letters,sets were 3pc,4pc,5pc with cymbals only colors were red,blue,gold,silver speickle finish.He sold these for about 1 year under that name sells were very good so he order more sets in 1961 he change the name to "COOPER" these badges again were simple stickers that were oval in shape silver backing with cooper in black letters..In 1962[mid] he ordered more sets but wanted to sell them across the U.S.A.he said he added pearl finish[w.m.p.--b.d.p.--pink d.p.]and change the name again to "Tempest" change the badge to a oval made of brass-[slingerland copy]-painted black with tempest in gold letters badge also had "de-luxe" under the tempest name at bottom of badge again sold these sets across the U.S.A.--By late 1964 Pearl wanted to export pearl sets under the Pearls name thats when Pearl drums became inports to the U.S.A,but still made sets for Mr.Cooper to sell under the Tempest name Mr.cooper told me by 1966 Pearl was flooding the market with the sets they made,they were useing Pearl and about 75 other names..Pearl still made the Tempest sets for Mr. Cooper but also wanted him to order more sets so in late 1966 Mr.cooper came out with another name of drums"stagemaster" also still useing Tempest these badges were stickers somewhat oval is shape letters and around the badge was gold the backing color was an off-white..By late 1968 or the first part of 1969 Mr. cooper stop useing Tempest and Stagemaster as names to sell the drums he was selling and stated to sell "AMERICAN CUSTOM" drums also made by Pearl...More on "AMERICAN CUSTOM" drums next time...Mikey----P.S. Mr.Cooper give me all the badges i talked about i think iam going to email David a photo of these maybe he could post them here or maybe one of you guys can>>>