Drummer appears in above video at 0:28 and comes back in 30 seconds after DeNiro dialgoue.
Remember the street drummer scene in Taxi Driver, when Robert DeNiro is taking Cybil Sheperd to the movies? The drummer's name is Gene Palma.
When he was 13 years old, he saw the movie 'Hollywood Hotel' with star drummer Gene Krupa in it and decided to be a drummer. First learning on pots and pans and then his father bought him a drum. Palma's goal was not only to play like Gene Krupa but "to be Gene Krupa in spirit," Palma said.
At age 35, the movie The Gene Krupa Story (Sal Mineo as Krupa) was playing at a New York theater. Palma entered a Gene Krupa sound alike contest at the theater and won a pearl drum and four hours at Gene Krupa's house. "I really got inspired by meeting Gene in person," Palma said.
After playing at various cafe's and teahouses in NYC, Palma became a street performer five days a week, except in winter. Palma got paid $172.00 for Taxi Driver and $30.00 for the John Ritter movie Hero at Large.
In 1980, I was on the streets of NYC with my friend Frank and we came across Gene Palma...drumless. "Where's your drum?" Frank asked. "Someone stole it," Palma said calmly. "But I know who took it."
We didn't stick around or return there, but it struck me as memorable to see Gene Palma on the street with his drum stolen ... maybe by some taxi driver.
