The Gene Krupa Story The audience rewards Krupa with a standing ovation. The film ends as Ethel tries to sneak off, sure Gene will return to his old ways. He catches up with her, and asks where she is going, "without me"? The closing credits come down on a shot of them walking away together, into the night. In real life, the two were first married from 1934 to 1942; they remarried in 1946 and were together until Ethel's death in 1955. Krupa himself played the drums on the soundtrack for the film, and for the sequences in which Mineo, as Gene, plays the
The Gene Krupa Story to read music; Gene has never learned that skill and Ethel encourages him to finally do so. He does, under the tutelage of a member of the New York Philharmonic. Though Dorsey already has a drummer, Eddie gives the bandleader the idea to highlight Krupa in a "special return appearance". The performance starts out great, but hecklers begin jeering him. To the audience’s surprise the Tommy Dorsey Band drummer picks up the beat when Krupa falters, and covers for his fellow drummer as a sign of support. Gene composes himself and is able to finish a call-and-response two-man drum solo.