Ringo Starr was so proud to play a Ludwig drum set during the Beatles’ first televised appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 that he asked William F. Ludwig II to build a special set for him with the company name printed in bold letters at the top of the bass drumhead.
Naturally, Mr. Ludwig obliged.
“I remember my dad watching them on TV and saying, ‘Who knows? Maybe these kids will be big someday,'” said his son, William Ludwig III. “The next day our phone was ringing off the hook.”
Family members said the resulting demand for Ludwig drums prompted the company to build a 100,000-square-foot addition to its factory and add a night shift.
“It was hard keeping up with all the orders,” his son said.
After a concert at Chicago’s International Amphitheatre several months later, Mr. Ludwig met with Starr, who over the years remained a loyal customer. The two visited again backstage in 2006 after Starr performed with his band at the Rosemont Theatre.
“It was as if nothing had changed,” his son said. “They still had so much respect and appreciation for each other.”
Mr. Ludwig, 91, previously of Oak Brook, the son of the founder of Ludwig Drum Co. in Chicago and its former president, died of natural causes Saturday, March 22, in his home in Chicago.
Ludwig Drum Co., originally called Ludwig & Ludwig Drum Co. after its founders, William Ludwig Sr. and his brother, Theobald, was founded in 1909. It was built around the bass drum pedal the brothers — drummers themselves — invented to meet the needs of professional drummers worldwide.
By the 1920s, the company had become the world’s largest drum company, family members said. “Ludwig drums were what many considered the best drums ever made,” his son said.
As a young man, Mr. Ludwig saw the fortunes of the American drum industry rise and fall through his father’s business. The Depression, and talking movies that put theater drummers out of work, forced his family to sell their business to Conn Co., an Elkhart, Ind.-based music business, in 1930.
Seven years later, Mr. Ludwig and his father became the co-owners of another company they named WFL because lawyers for Conn made it clear they could no longer use their family name. In 1955, Conn exited the drum business and sold the Ludwig name back to Mr. Ludwig, who served as president of Ludwig Drum Co. from the early 1960s until the company was again sold in 1981.
“He hung on as long as he could, but competition from foreign markets made it harder and harder to keep the business going,” his son said.
Born in Evanston, Mr. Ludwig grew up in Oak Park and graduated from Oak Park High School before receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
During World War II, he served in the Navy at the Great Lakes Naval Station, where he became a chief petty officer and taught the art of military drumming. Thousands of soldiers learned to march to the beat of drummers he had trained, family members said.
In 1948, Mr. Ludwig married his wife of 54 years, Marguerite. She died in 2002.
In his retirement, Mr. Ludwig enjoyed traveling around the country and giving lectures on the history of drumming in America. The presentation included a demonstration of the sound effects used by theater drummers. He also performed with the Wheaton Community Orchestra, earning the timpani chair year after year, family members said.
“Bill was a unique guy who there will never again be anyone quite like,” said close friend Don Koss, the principal timpanist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1963. “There was, of course, his business side. But he was also a great lover of music, especially classical music. He loved everything percussion.”
Other survivors include a daughter, Brooke Crowden, and four grandchildren.
Services will be private.
