Saw a movie called A Date With Judy

It was made in the early fifties with Elizabeth Taylor. It showed a big band play numbers throughout the film but the drum set was wild looking. The kick drum looked like was a 28 incher and the toms were sticking way out on either side of the kick facing at almost right angles to each other. The set was huge, couldn't even see the snare if there was one. Wouldn't even know how to play something like that.

I haven't seen that in a while, but most of the musical number were Xavier Cugat, who was probably the first major latin music star in the US, along with Carmen Miranda on vocals.

I think only one of the songs ever became a standard, "It's a Most Unusual Day". It's not super popular now, but it was a jukebox hit in the late 40s early 50s.

The movie came out in the late 40s, but it sounds like the drum set you're describing is more like one from the 20s or 30s. Look up Baby Dodds, or Sonny Grier, and you can see what some of the old kits looked like.

Another interesting thought is that the plot of the movie is a high school senior hiring Xavier Cugat's band for their prom.

All the big acts did this back then. Duke Ellington, and many of the great musicians from the 20s-60s, would tour the country and half the gigs were playing high school dances.

By the 60s and 70s you saw the shift to local/cover bands, and eventually DJs.

If you think about it, that's a huge amount of work for touring musicians that has just dried up...