Seymour S. Drugan ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

  General Notes:

Seymour may have had a 2nd wife named Sally because her name appears on the front cover of a booklet entitled "Don's Diary, the Breakfast Club...1949 Yearbook". Pictured on the booklet are Seymour, Sally, and sons Robert, and Dennis. It is not known for certain if this was his 2nd wife and the 3rd son, Thomas, who was born in 1951 was her child. The name Sally may have been a nickname for his 1st wife, Iola Ann Sipple. Her name appears with him on the 1940 US Census.
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From Winona, Minnesota Census Directory, 1921, 1929, 1931, 1934:
SEYMORE DRUGAN
Occupation: Musician
Residence: 177 W. Mark, Winona, MN

Moved to Chicago and played guitar on radio broadcast "The Breakfast Club". Later moved to Los Angeles and worked in music store.
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Seymour Drugan Joins WGN Staff
Seymour Drugan, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Drugan, 177 West Mark street, has joined the staff of WGN, Chicago Tribune radio station, as a featured orchestra player, Mrs. Drugan learned in a wire from her son today.

Seymour Drugan for several years has traveled with some of the foremost dance and radio bands of the country, including the Henry Busse orchestra which went to Hollywood this summer to make a Metro-Goldwyn "short" entitled "Palmy Play Days at the Club".

He was graduated from Winona High school eight years ago and after a few months at Teachers college went to Appleton, Wis., to begin the orchestra work he has followed since that time. He plays the violin, guitar, and trumpet, and has been a featured player in the Tom Temple, Henry Busse and now the Harold Stokes orchestra.

(Source: Winona Republican-Herald, Wednesday, October 02, 1935, Page: 5)
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Some of the guitars of Richard Gibson:

SOUTHERNER JUMBO (1954)
The Southerner Jumbo, an old substitute in the Gibson line, was during many years the retort to 'acorazadó of Martin. This guitar is of 1954 and has pretty finished a totally original one. As he is typical in the Gibson acoustic, its rich and ligneous tone is appropriate for the technique of "finger picking" or "strumming", is the guitar of the recording of "Who's Your Baby" and also she is the one that I use for that subject during the tour. Also I am called on with this and style "to finger picked" the "Prairie Wedding", although in the recording of the disc I used a Martin D-21 of 1965.

GRETSCH ARCH TOP GUITAR (mid-1930's)
"Certainly the senior guitar on tour, I purchased this instrument in 1969 while living in Los Angeles. It belonged to a wonderful guitar player and friend of mine, Seymour Drugan, who played in the 1930s and 40s as a staff guitarist on radio in Chicago. He purchased this guitar new, in fact he purchased 2 of them at the same time and called one the male and the other the female because of their very different tones. "Drugan" is inlaid across the top banner of the head stock where it used to say Gretsch. Seymour moved to L. A. in the 1950's and worked for many years in the instrument department of Wallich's Music City on the famous corner of Sunset and Vine. In 1968 he came to work at Al Casey's music store where I too was employed. He was a constant source of good advice to me, and was well known and loved by all the West Coast guitar players. After his death in 1969 I purchased this guitar from his wife. By the way, mine is the female and it's mate, the male, is enjoying semi-retirement in Phoenix, Arizona with Al Casey. A woman's work is never done, and this female stays busy, she's the "Rudiger" guitar on record and tour."
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LUTHER NALLIE ON JOHNNY WINTER: TG (Tom Guerra) Talks to Johnny Winter's Guitar Teacher - Luther Nallie of the Sons of the Pioneers, arguably America's oldest group, around in one form or another since 1933.

TG: So Luther, Johnny mentioned that you were a big influence on him as a guitarist and a teacher that set him on his way. Was teaching your main gig back then?

LN: Yes, it was. I was also doing some club dates off and on, but teaching was my living. I did teach Johnny and Edgar both, Johnny more than Edgar. I remember this kid coming in who had previously taken from Seymour Drugan, a fine guitarist who had played on the "Breakfast Club" on one of the major radio networks. Johnny had me scratching my head a lot of times because he would soak up anything I taught him immediately, and I would have to think up something else real quick to show him. He was a very normal boy and very polite and extremely talented. It was always a pleasure when it was time for Johnny's lesson or if he just happened to come by to visit. I taught Johnny for about a year I think, and this was in 1956 in Beaumont at Jefferson Music Company.

http://www.mambosons.com/johnny-winter.html
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Johnny Winter
By Don Menn - From Guitar Player, August 1974

Beginning with his great grandmother's hundred- year old Spanish guitar with a neck "all horribly warped like a bow," Johnny Winter -- the Texas blues rocker -- has been stringing guitars since he was eleven. He's worked his way through the years with first a Gibson ES-125, then a white Stratocaster, a couple of Gibson Les Paul customs (one gold, one white), and a '66 Fender Mustang.

With allowance money earned by grass mowing and lugging out garbage, Beaumont, Texas' best-known guitarist began accumulating his giant record collection of rock and roll (Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, etc.), post-war Chicago blues (Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Sonny Boy Williamson, etc.), and later the blues of the Mississippi Delta, of Louisiana, and Texas. "Lightnin' Slim and Lonesome Sundown and Lazy Lester; I mixed all that stuff up," Winter recalls. "A lot of it was still on 78s, but on the backs of albums by people like Muddy Waters I 'd read about Robert Johnson, and Son House, and Leadbelly, and Blind Lemon. When their albums finally did come out, I'd remember their names and buy them, buy the Delta blues."

Was Clarence Garlow your only teacher?

No, there were several guys. I never took lessons like to learn how to read music or where to put my fingers. I would just ask these guys to show me whatever they thought I ought to know. The guy who really started me off was a guy named Luther Naley, a really good country guitar player. The last time I talked to him he was playing bass with Roy Rogers [laughs]. Luther was working at Jefferson Music Company in Beaumont. I guess he thought I was good, and we got to be really good friends. I really dug finger style -- Merle Travis/Chet Atkins things. I still love those guys. Chet Atkins is a fantastic guitar player. I just got off on a completely different game. Country and western was all around, and Luther played real good country and western. He'd show me things like "Honky-Tonk." He'd really go to a lot of trouble. If I'd ask him to show something to me he didn't know, he'd go and get the record, and figure it out and come back and show me. When I got interested in blues, Luther really didn't know too much at all about that, so I picked that up a lot on records. I knew enough to go on from there by myself. I could listen to the record and learn the licks myself. For a while there was another guy, Seymore Drugan, that played in gig bands, and in the old days he worked for Rickenbacker for a while. He was kind of a jazz guitar player. I took two or three lessons from him and learned some chords and different things. I didn't want to get into jazz, but I thought it would be cool to learn some of the things that he could show me. His son, Dennis, ended up being my bass player in my first rock and roll band, Johnny and the Jammers [laughs].

From www.guitarplayer.com
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Name: Seymour S Drugan
Residence Date: 01 Mar 1994
Residence Place: Simi Valley, California, United States
Address: 195 Tierra Rejada Rd Unit 135
Address Continued: Simi Valley, California 93065
Address Date: 01 Mar 1994
2nd Address: 9819 Hayvenhurst Ave
2nd Address Continued: Northridge, California 91343
2nd Address Date: 01 Feb 1976
Possible Relatives: M Drugan, Martha L Drugan
Record Number: 157924119

Citing this Record:
"United States Public Records," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KTP4-8K3 : accessed 08 Jun 2014), Seymour S Drugan, Residence, Simi Valley, California, United States; from a third party aggregator of publicly available information.
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Rob Westphal posts the following letter from Harry Fleishman, luthier and designer

Rob,

If you are related to Seymour [Drugan], can you please pass on this following text to any of his surviving children/grandchildren? Harry Fleishmann writes very highly of him and he'd like to express his appreciation to them. I have also corresponded with Craig Nuttycombe (the Craig mentioned herein) who has written a piece of music dedicated to Seymour. It's called "Ode to Drugan" and if it's of interest I can send you a copy if you 'd like. Likewise Craig thought very highly of Seymour too.

Hopefully you can pass this on Rob. I'd be interested to know how you get on and to touch base with our American cousins.

Keep well,
Patricia McMeekin (nee Drugan)
Source: Patricia McMeekin, re: Harry Fleischmann's Letter About Seymour D rugan, in email from Robert Westphal

----Original Message----
From: guitars@sbcglobal.net
Date: 26/02/2008 5:34
To: <patricia.mcmeekin@tinyworld.co.uk>
Subj: my mentor

Dear Patricia,

Thank you so much for writing back, even after a time. I fully understand the vagaries of email, the web, and uncommon sites.

If you have a way of reaching any of Mr. Drugan's children assuming he had kids, I would love to share this with them, too. You may feel free to simply forward it to them, with the request that if they so desire they should write me. I'd love to let them know just what a great man th eir dad was.

I used to take the bus into Hollywood, to Wallach's Music City at Sunset and Vine, practically every chance I could. There was an old guy there named Seymour Drugan, who was probably younger than I am now, but seemed pretty old at the time I was maybe 11 or 12. After a while he got pretty used to my hanging around and would talk to me a little. I was on the verge, and perhaps past the verge, of getting into a lot of trouble by then, and Mr. Drugan helped pick out an electric guitar for me to rent, for a mighty $7.50 a month. After three months of playing this gold-topped Les Paul he offered to sell it to me for the balance of $77.50. (The value of that 53 Les Paul today is approximately 50,000, but then I wanted a Stratocaster!) Only many years later did I realize that he had picked out the best guitar in the store, rented it to me for practically nothing, and then offered it to me at a steal as a favor.

After a while Mr. Drugan got to trust that I would be respectful (even though I was generally a fairly disrespectful person other places), and he trusted me to get guitars down to show customers if he was busy. Later, when Craig started working there, Mr. Drugan must have told him it was ok, because he started asking me to get a guitar also. Craig occasionally showed me stuff on guitar. I knew that Mr. Drugan had been a relatively well-known musician, and a respected one, because he was listed in the Gibson catalogue as a Gibson player. I already liked and respected him, but this added to his mystique for me, as an impressionable kid.

One morning, a Sunday as I recall, Mr. Drugan called me at home to ask if I'd come in to the store. Of course, I hopped on a bus and got there as quickly as I could. He took me into a small cubicle off the main guitar area and took a big jazz guitar out of an old case. I sat down and he played jazz standards for me for about half an hour, without saying a word. I was in a weird state of mind, half feeling the honor of his playing for me and half bored. Remember, I was a 13 year old kid who was into surf music and rock and roll; jazz meant nothing to me at that time. However, one thing about all this was clear to me, even if only on a very subconscious level: he was telling me that music was a life. He was letting me in on the fact that you don't have to outgrow music, and that guitars were also a life. On that internal level I knew that this was something very special and that I was being honored and respected, and that he cared about me. He had taken the trouble to call me and to share this time and music with me. He knew I was really into guitars, and he was telling me that it was ok.

After playing for me for a while, Mr. Drugan put the guitar away and said that he had really called because he wanted me to help him with some thing. We went back into the shop area and I helped him unpack the first Gibson Firebirds in Los Angeles. The first Gibson Firebirds! He certainly didn't need my help; he sure made my day. I got it.

Any time a big name artist came into the store, and this was Sunset and Vine, he would introduce me as if I mattered. I met Carol Kaye, the Association (he asked me to see if I could find them something unusual to use on their next record!), Barney Kessel, and many others. Later, when I was in the lowest time of my life, in Biloxi, Mississippi, he sent me my guitar, carefully packed up and ready to play. A friend of mine was in a plane crash and badly injured, to the point he could hardly move his arms or legs. Mr. Drugan had Milt Owen, the upstairs guitar repairer, build a mini guitar for my friend to play in the hospital during his long recovery.

The store sold, the new guy was simply not the man Drugan was and I stopped going in to the shop. I heard later that Mr. Drugan was working in a hole-in-the-wall music store on a side street, so I went in to see him, but he had just left. I never saw him again. I never knew what had happened to him, or that he had died so very young, and to a far too great a degree, unsung.

Because of Mr. Drugan I feel a lifelong debt, which I can only repay by helping kids that either come to me, or are referred by teachers or advisors. I've almost always had some boy or girl that I trade help on their guitar or bass for helping me clean up my shop. Sometimes they don't work out, sometimes they stay on for years, overlapping with another kid who is in need of a guitar mentor. I am working now with a young man who was dropping out of school and vandalizing and who was nearly shot one night for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. His advisor persisted in calling me to meet with him and finally I had a chance to get together with him. I've been teaching him for a couple of years now. He is attending the J. C. and I just gave him a scholarship to a class in lutherie I was teaching. I really like him and he has really turned himself around.

My dream is to keep collecting wood and eventually have a small lutherie scholarship in Mr. Drugan's name. I would provide wood (a diminishing resource) and guidance to a young enthusiastic wannabe luthier, chosen through the Guild of American Luthiers. I would like to be able to pass on both knowledge and the honor that Mr. Drugan gave me, as a kid who was on the verge of a lot of trouble.

I hope this rather long story has given you some more insight into Seymour Drugan and just what a hero he really was. One of the biggest disappointments in my life has been that I never had a chance to show him my work, the work he probably made possible by being there for me when I needed someone. I wish I could have showed him that I understood, and that I truly appreciated what he had done.

The next best thing would be for his family to know about him and to see the work I've done in his honor.

Please visit my site at http://fleishmaninstruments.com
I'm going to edit this letter and put up a page about Mr. Drugan in a few days. I am convalescing from teaching a class that goes 10-12 hours a day for 2 weeks, during which the students build a guitar from scratch.

All the best to you and the family. Please stay in touch and if you know how I can contact Mr. Drugan's kids, feel free to pass on this to them.

Sincerely, Harry
Harry Fleishman, Luthier & Designer
guitars@sbcglobal.net
www.fleishmaninstruments.com
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  Death Notes:

Name: Seymour Drugan
Given Name: Seymour
Surname: Drugan
Event Type: Death
Event Date: Aug 1969
Age: 60
Birth Date: 02 Mar 1909

Citing this Record
"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J18K-VPF : 4 December 2020), Seymour Drugan, Aug 1969; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
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  Burial Notes:

There is a gravestone for Seymour Drugan next to his parents, Charles and Fannie, at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Winona, Minnesota. However, the year of death is left blank. I assume this means that either he or his parents had arranged for his gravestone ahead of time but when he died, he was probably buried in Illinois near his wife and family.
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  Noted events in his life were:

• He appeared on the 1910 US Census in Trempealeau, WI on 15 April 1910. ²

1910 US Census
Sheet 2A, Roll 1739, District 173, Family 40
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
Home rented
Married 4 years
Seymour Drugan..Son..1..WI

(Living with parents.)
.

• He appeared on the 1920 US Census in Winona, MN on 14 January 1920. ³

1920 US Census
Sheet 9A, District 205, Family 211, Roll 865
Winona, Winona County, Minnesota
170 East 5th Street; home rented
Seymour Durgan..Son..10..WI

(Living with parents.)
.

• He appeared on the 1930 US Census in Winona, MN on 12 April 1930. ⁴

1930 US Census
Sheet 3B, District 32, Family 547, Roll 1135
Winona, Winona County, Minnesota
179 North 11th; home owned, $3000
Seymour Drugen..Son..21..WI..Musician, Orchestra

(Living with parents.)
.

• He appeared on the 1940 US Census in Chicago, IL on April 1940. ¹

1940 US Census
Sheet 11B, District 103-3229, Family 232, Roll 1022
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
6224 Clairemont; rent $60
Residence in 1935: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Seymor Dougan..Head..31..Wisconsin..2 yrs college..musician, orchestra..earned $4250 in 1939

(Living with wife and son.)
.

Seymour married Iola Ann Sipple, daughter of Wenzel Sipple and Maggie Vancaster, on 15 June 1931 in Green Bay, WI.¹ (Iola Ann Sipple was born on 14 August 1911 in Green Bay, WI ¹ and died on 7 December 1988 in Chicago, IL.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• They appeared on the 1940 US Census in Chicago, IL on April 1940. ¹

1940 US Census
Sheet 11B, Roll 1022, District 103-3229, Family 232
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
6224 Clairemont; rent $60
residence in 1935: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Seymor Dougan..Head..31..Wisconsin..2 yrs college..musician, orchestra earned $4250
Sally Dougan..Wife..25..WI..12th grade
Robert Dougan..Son..5..IL
Lilly Sare..Housekeeper..21..IL..12th grade
.

  Marriage Notes:

GREEN BAY GIRL IS MARRIED TO SEYMOUR DRUGAN
The marriage of Miss Iola Ann Sipple, daughter of W. J. Sipple, 128 S. Baird St., Green Bay, to Seymour S. Drugan, Appleton, son of Mr. and Mrs . C. H. Drugan, Winona, Minn., took place Monday morning at St. Willebrord church, Green Bay. The Rev. P. A. Van Susteren performed the ceremony, Miss Leona Chiebowski, Green Bay, acted as bridesmaid, and Clifford Reichenberger, Appleton, was best man. A wedding breakfast was served to about 25 guests at the Northland Hotel. After a wedding trip to Chicago and other Illinois cities, Mr. and Mrs. Drugan will make their home at 533 N. Division St., Appleton.

Out of town guests included Mr. and Mrs. Tom Temple, Mr. and Mrs. C. Worachek, Mr. and Mrs. N. Stammer, Mr. and Mrs. M. Bouche, and Miss Myrtle Jandrain, Appleton. Mr. Drugan is a musician with Tom Temple's orchestra.

(Source: Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, WI, 16 Jun 1931, page 8)
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