Viola Smith

Viola Smith Viola played drums in a number of big bands and small combos during her career in music. She joined Phil Spitalny's all-female orchestra as the drummer and later appeared in such films as 1945's "Here Come the Co-Eds" featuring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. In the 1960s she joined the Kit Kat Band, an orchestra band, for the Broadway musical "Cabaret" and for TV shows such as CBS's "I've Got a Secret." Beginning in the 1940s she appeared in print ads as an endorser of Ludwig Drums (at the time called WFL Drums) and Zildjian. She was interviewed one month before her 100th birthday, and passed away 5 weeks shy of her 108th birthday.