Gene Krupa drum, in a recording session in December 1927. One of his bass drums, a Slingerland 14 X 26, inscribed with Benny Goodman's and Krupa's initials, is preserved at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. In 1978, Krupa became the first drummer inducted into the "Modern Drummer" Hall of Fame. The 1937 recording of Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" combined with Waller's "Christopher Columbus" by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra featuring Gene Krupa on drums was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1982. With Benny Goodman Gene Krupa Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October
Gene Krupa witness, John Pateakos had been paid to testify falsely against Krupa. Pateakos returned to prove that he wasn't a minor, that he had dodged the draft, and that he had been instructed by federal agents to leave after the first conviction. He recanted his earlier testimony. In the early 1970s Krupa's house in Yonkers, New York, was damaged by fire. He continued to live in the parts of the house that were habitable. In 1973, Krupa died in Yonkers at the age 64 from heart failure, though he also had leukemia and emphysema. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery