Purdue News
Purdue News
November 20, 1996 Length: ~1 1/2 Min
Ray Cubberley, Producer/Writer/Director (317) 494-2075; Fax 494-0401
Current Length: 1:27
Thrust: Purdue All-American Marching Band celebrates 75 years of banging World's Largest Drum.
1. STATION ANCHOR ON CAMERA As with all Purdue home football games, this weekend's Bucket Game will feature the Purdue Marching Band and its famous icon, the World's Largest Drum. This year is special for the drum because it's been punctuating band performances for 75 years. Ray Cubberley has the story.
2. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
3. NAT SOUND Weighing nearly half a ton, this is no ordinary drum. It takes four members of the Purdue All-American Marching Band to maneuver it around the field, while two others beat it.
4. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
5. NAT SOUND Director of Bands David Leppla says the Purdue drum was built in 1921.
6. SOT
CG: David Leppla, Director, Purdue Bands But there are only two still in use right now -- ours and the University of Texas. And of course ours probably has the most prominent place of any large drum in the world simply because of the way we showcase it with the marching band.
7. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
8. NAT SOUND And Leppla says Purdue earned the right to claim its as the world's largest when the Texas drum failed to show up at a "drum-off" in the early '60s.
9. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
10. NAT SOUND The drum's six-member crew has almost always been all male. But this year, a female band member sought and won the right to beat on the big drum.
11. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
12. SOT
CG: Misty McIntyre, Monticello, Ind. I love the tradition that goes with the drum. Every Saturday when we go and perform with the drum I get really excited to see everyone stare at the drum and look at the drum to know that ... it's a childhood dream of mine that came true.
13. SOT (McIntyre) The fact that I get to be on the drum crew the year that it celebrates its 75th birthday is really, really exciting for me.
14. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
15. NAT SOUND
CG: Courtesy Purdue University Despite its age, Leppla says the World's Largest Drum remains in good shape and should last at least another 75 years. I'm Ray Cubberley.
16. NAT SOUND UP FULL SOUND OF BIG DRUM
rmc/leppla.drum/9611f29
