Noble and Cooley, Toy Drum Makers' History

King Rupert

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For those of you who don't recognize the title of this thread. Noble and Cooley are drum makers, they started in 1854 and are still in business today... why is this relevant? Because they made all the early Muppet percussion instruments.

I spent this Saturday getting a private tour of their offices and workshop in Granville, MA. They're a small family owned shop that now employ three generations, coincidentally our tour was on the day of Grandma's 80th birthday boasting a shirt that said "Aged to Perfection". But I digress.

The tour started with a little history of the company and how they came about, making little toy drums in 1854 about 700 units per year, which grew to hundreds of thousands only 10 years later. They have been in the drum business since their inception making drums for the Civil War, Abe Lincoln and the Eisenhower family. As time went on it became more practical to make toy drums out of tin rather than wood, but they still make both today. Toys ares still tin and their professional line is made of wood. http://www.noblecooley.com/history.html

They made toys drums for JC Penney and Sears catalogs, and eventually started aquiring licenses for the drums. They started with Mickey and Donald and eventually were able to obtain Dr. Teeth, Animal and Fraggle Rock. Due to restrictions around the use of Kermit and Mrs. Piggy they were not able to use them. I was able to get a look at all the early concepts for these instruments and I was able to see how they were made. Everything is done in house using machinery built by the family. 90% of what they do there is still done on the original machines using a pulley system its pretty wild.


The tour concluded with their professional drum line and how their built today, still, every step is done by hand from the shaping of the wood, to the assembly, and the paint. It was great to get a tour of some Massachusetts History, as well as dive into a little piece of the Muppets.

As they wished me well I was given two pieces of paper as a gift. One includes 4 prints of the original Animal drum head, the other is a piece of concept art that never made it into production. It's a drum head with Kermit and Animal that says Jim Hensons Muppets.

If anyone is interested I could photograph them and post them. I thought my tour was worth mentioning especially since I know a few of you are in Mass.

:halo:

Note: I can pretty much confirm the Kermit Tambourine listed in the Collectible section was also a Noble and Cooley product, as the Kermit and Animal drum head I got featured an almost identical Kermit. It also has the N&C logo in the lower right corner.
 

King Rupert

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I thought this would at least spark some interest from the Mass folks...
 
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