The Camco story is very interesting...sometime in the 50s, a little
machine shop in a suburb of Chicago, called Oaklawn, starting building
versions of stands and hi hats that resembled those being made in
England, by Premier. They also came up with a pedal design, based on
another pedal called a "Martin Fleetfoot". John Rochon, the president of
Camco allied himself with the Rogers Drum Company and a man named George
Way.  At that point, Rochon's company was known as "Camco Drum
Accessories"  They were also an early manufacturer of plastic drumheads.
For Rogers, Camco was a supplier before, and just as they were bringing
out their Swiv-o-matic line of stands and single post pedal. After those
products were out, Rogers didn't really need Camco, and Camco got it's
own drum manufacturer anyway. That manufacturer was the aforementioned
George Way, president of the George Way Drum Company.
. Camco was the alternative for Way, to the lesser quality products from
Walberg and Auge that he also stocked and featured in his catalogs. Way
started manufacturing drums in 1956 -7 inside the defunct Leedy factory
in Elkhart. This is the same time that Leedy went to Slingerland and the
Ludwig family bought back it's name from Conn and changed WFL to Ludwig.
Camco provided enough hardware pieces to round out the Way catalog., so
he looked like he could compete with the big manufacturers. After all,
George Way, the former sales manager of Leedy and Slingerland, had a 40
year career and well known name to trade on. The rumor has always been
that John Rochon gained control of George Way Drums in 1961 in a
backhanded way. My guess is that Rochon was Way's biggest creditor, and
through negotitions, kept getting equity instead of bill payments.
Finally, he got control.

Rochon changed the black winged Way badge to the white winged Camco
badge. He kept George Lewan, a longtime former Leedy employee who had
gone with Way,  as a supervisor and moved the production to Oaklawn.
Those drums, the marriage of the Leedy tradition with the designs of
Way, have been sought after all these years.

I have heard varitions of the story of how Way created the round lug
that he called the Aristocrat. I have known people who have always
sweared by the Camco pedal, the only real competition for the Ludwig
Speed King back in the 60s. The Camco factory also made the equally
accepted Gretsch Floating Action pedal.

The great appeal of Camco was the wonderful woodwork--the Jasper shells,
3 plies, 4 plies. The metal hoops were a variation of earlier double
flanged Leedy hoops with higher collars--so attractive, so easy for
tuning. The weaknesses, if anyone really noticed, were the finicky
strainers and the heavy reliance on Walberg and Auge's second class
holders and plating on them.

Camco never made great catalogs--mostly black and white, and undated,
and if you look close, you can find Way badges and outdated holders.
Lots of jazz guys played little Camcos--the featured rock players in the
catalogs included  Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys and Nick Ceroli of
the Tiajuana Brass, although, he didn't play rock.

Camco was sold to the Kustom Amplifier Company and moved to Chanute,
Kansas, at a time when guitar and drum companies were joined at the hip.
Later, they were sold to a Los Angeles entrepreneur. That owner, Beckman
Industires, later sold the name and half the rights to the famous pedal
to Hoshino, the owner of Tama Drums. The other half of the pedal rights
and the rest of the company were sold to a group of drum teachers in Los
Angeles, who made thrones on the side. They were known as--they are
still known as--Drum Workshop.

What a heritage--what a tradition!  No wonder, most of us can't find
these wonderful pieces of drum history. And whether you like the
hypnotic 3-D Moire, a beautiful white marine pearl or one of the
fabulous lacquer finishes, if you can find a Camco, you can find a
little pot of gold without having to find the end of a rainbow.

Harry Cangany,    March 2003.