BUDDY RICH
Buddy's folks ran a vaudeville act. Buddy's dad noticed when Buddy was 12 months old that he could keep a steady beat and play some rhythms with spoons. By the time he was 18 months old he was performing live onstage playing drums in his parents' act.
Gene Krupa said that the drummers in the pits for the vaudeville acts were always great drummers. He believes that Buddy started absorbing everything he heard or saw those pit drummers do at that very early age.
Here's an early photo of The Great One. Double-click on it.
Pictures by dtxtremeiiispecial - Photobucket
After you click, scroll down and doubleclick on the small picture.