Chapter 8 of Harry Cangany's fine publication, "The Great American Drums And The CompaniesThat Made Them, 1920 - 1969" addresses the L&S (aka Leedy & Strupe) line of drums. It contains a lot of information regarding the company's "Strupe Master Tension" snare drums, which they billed as "the greatest drum improvement in history." The chapter also identifies the finishes that they offered, some history of the company, some unique features of their drums and a nice picture of their 1937 "Dictator" snare drum, which allegedly represented the pinnacle of the company's achievement, according to what's written in the chapter.

Models offered by the company in addition to the Master Tension Snare Drum and The Dictator were the Rhythm King, Service, Transient, Concert, Reliable and Boys School.

According to Mr. Cangany's publication, the "L&S" on the round badge originally stood for Leedy & Sons but, due to legalities, it became known as standing for Leedy & Strupe.

Gosh the whole Leedy & Strupe story is kind of a sad one... I found a one page brief on the company in the book Vintage Drums by John Aldridge.

That has to be a pretty rare drum.. the company was only around from 1930 to 1936.

Yeah, I have the info from the Leedy Book, and Harry's American Vintage book. Looking for the catalog pages themselves (or scans of)

Hey, Gutenberg,

If you'd like to PM me and provide your email address, I can forward the two pages from Mr. Cangany's publication.

OldSchool

Here's the drum I'm trying to find out more about...

I already have Harry's Great American Drums book -- nothing in there on this model. I guess catalog pages would be best, but those seem to be hard to find.

Well, except for the strainer, which appears to be a replacement based on the extra holes in the shell, your drum strongly resembles the "Dictator" model.

It's a little tough to tell, based on the angle of the pic.

The tension rods aren't slotted like on the Dictator pic, plus the lug inserts on my drum look more like "sleeves". The Dictator has shorter "standard" lug inserts to accept the rods. And yes, the strainer was definitely changed out to a 3-point Slingerland style.