CHICAGO — A piece of Beatles (and local) history — the made-in-Chicago Ludwig drum kit used by Ringo Starr between May of 1963 and February of 1964 — fetched some $2.2 million at auction over the weekend.
The kit, used to record such hits as "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, according to Julien's Auctions of Beverly Hills, Calif.
"I wanted it to be small so it would make me look big," Starr said before the auction.
Some of the proceeds of the auction, which features some 800 items, including a number of other Ludwig-made products, will go to the Lotus Foundation, a non-profit headed by Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach.
At the time it was acquired by Starr, Ludwig drums were made at a factory at 1728 N. Damen Ave.
According to the company, William Ludwig III, whose father started the Wm. F. Ludwig Drum Company in Chicago, was watching the Ed Sullivan television show when the Beatles performed in 1964. At first, he thought the Beatles were a comedy act but then noticed the drummer was playing one of the family-made instruments. There on Ringo's bass drum "was my name," Ludwig III said in the book "The History of the Ludwig Drum Company."
The drums didn't typically come with the Ludwig name on the front. But a sales agent in England told Ludwig that Starr was "so proud that he had an imported drum set from America that he insisted on having the Ludwig name printed on the head." Starr happened to buy one, referred to as an Oyster Black Pearl.
After Ringo made the kit famous, retailers demanded that the Ludwig name be put on them. The family was reluctant at first, Ludwig said, because "it seemed ostentatious."
In 1964, company sales were $6.1 million. Two years later they were $13.1 million as the factory on Damen Avenue hummed. The Ed Sullivan show, Ludwig later said, was "the appearance that launched a thousand purchase orders."
The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Note the Ludwig drum. (CBS)
The company closed its Chicago factory in the mid-1980s and Ludwig drums are now made in North Carolina.
Irsay said with the purchase, he now has at least one instrument from each of the Beatles.
"It took over $4 million and 45 years but we finally got them back together again," Irsay told Rolling Stone magazine.
Ringo Starr is presented with a special gold-plated drum in Chicago in 1964. (Ludwig Drum Co.)
