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Topic: Wurlitzer Organs

William Phillips
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 117
From: Cardigan, Wales, UK
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-14-2005 04:19 PM

The Odeon Lecister Square organ is in full working order as far as im aware. There are a few CDs available for it. They even have a house organist, he is Donald McKenzie. The CDs are good, Ive got them [Smile]

I love the Wurlitzers. Any one know any thing about the ElCapatain Organ in Hollywood?

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Kenneth Wuepper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1026
From: Saginaw, MI, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-14-2005 06:46 PM

William,

The El Capitan Wurlitzer, beautifully restored and installed, is played constantly. It is controlled by the MusiCom system of digital circuitry which is from England. The organ can be played normally from the console or it can be played by the digital memory sequencer. This feature makes it possible for the organ to be heard even when there is no organist present to play it. Unlike rolls, the digital memory is very adaptable to changes and editing.

The MusiCom system has replaced all of the troublesome relays and switches as well as the setter boards for adjusting the combination piston settings. We have a large church organ here in Saginaw, Michigan which has MusiCom with several digitally recreated stops of the organ as well as the combination and playing capability. It is indeed remarkable.

KEN

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-18-2005 01:15 AM

Electronic relays have a lot of advantages - they're smaller, they can offer more flexibility & more features for a console - but their main advantage at installation is the same as any new piece of equipment at installation. When they're new, they work better than the older unit (electro-pneumatic or older electronic). But that's dependent only on time spent in service. Over time, they also develop problems with component failure.

I know a couple of organ techs with large organbuilders who grumble off-the-record about how when an organ (they were speaking of "straight" church organs, since they're the most numerous in use) is being rebuilt or re-spec'd, the company will include in the quote a new electronic relay, but their personal take is that if the original EP relay is rebuilt, it will last longer, have less catastrophic failure modes, not require long, agonizing troubleshooting on the phone with a tech somewhere familiar with that specific relay trying to isolate the problem, & then making return trips after arrival of parts to install, troubleshoot again, etc.; as opposed to just patching with a bit of leather or cleaning up some contacts. The sentiment is usually "They could just rebuild the original relay & be good for another 40 years, or spend a ton of money installing an electronic that will be obsolete & need replacement in about 10 years."

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Richard C. Wolfe
Master Film Handler

Posts: 250
From: Northampton, PA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 07-18-2005 09:38 PM

We continue to use our little 2/7 WurliTzer every Saturday night before both shows. People love it. However, there never seems to be more then 5 ranks playing at a given time as there are always a couple being rebuilt or awaiting repairs. The complete toy counter, completely restored, is due back any time now and should go back on line shortly.

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Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 07-19-2005 01:15 AM

I doubt that any electro-pneumatic organ ever worked 100% more than a few days past its installation. Just too many things to go wrong.

The biggest advantage to keeping the old mechanical relay is that it will aways be posible to fix it. Anybody who can psyche out a mechanical device can work on it.

Best reason to use electronic in a Wurlitzer is to get rid of the damned stop tab pneumatics half or more of which are inaccessable with considerable disassembly.

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-19-2005 01:43 AM

I'm with Bill Enos, those pneumatic stop actions are a nightmare, as much fun as it is to hear sit down & hear an air hiss in the console. And Wurlitzer combination actions are just mind-boggling in their excess of telephone-exchange wiring.

I'm for keeping the mechanical relay, & when the console is rebuilt put in SAM's & a microprocessor-based combination action for a regularly-used organ, unless the organ is some kind of icon like, ummm, I'm thinking...

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Josh Jones
Redhat

Posts: 1207
From: Plano, TX
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 07-20-2005 07:23 PM

We have one, 4/21 and growing. the original organ installed in the 20's was a 2/7. The organ plays Fridays, saturdays, and sundays. The new console was built by Lance Johnson in 1998 while the theatre was being remodeled. Rob Richards of the El Capitan recently held a concert in our theatre, before wich the organ was modified to his specifications. you can see it on the web at http://www.rratos.org/

http://www.robrichards.com

JJ

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-21-2005 12:27 PM

Wurlitzer was one of the companies I interviewed for a career when I graduated from college in 1970. They were in North Tonawanda, NY. If I had taken the job, it would have been as an engineer in their juke box division.

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-25-2005 06:35 AM

The Wurlitzer Building is still there in North Tonawanda.
http://www.nivek.com/wurlitzer/
I think I read that it's occupied by a tenant that's planning to re-hab & light the Wurlitzer sign on the tower again.

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-25-2005 01:08 PM

William Phillips wrote:

quote:
The Odeon Leicester Square organ is in full working order as far as im aware. There are a few CDs available for it. They even have a house organist, he is Donald McKenzie.

I went to the Odeon Leicester Square last Saturday morning for a two hour tribute concert held for the late Tony Moss, who was the President of the Cinema Theatre Association and the Cinema Organ Society.

Three quest organists played. Slides of old cinemas were shown. Film of the late Edna Bagna, (sp?) the renown silent era piano player and organist, who died recently aged 95, playing the organ at the Regal Walton-on-Thames.

The highlight for me was the last organist that played the best I’ve ever heard the Compton at the Odeon, John Mann. Also a short of “The Last London Trams” (1952), made by British Transport Films which looked cute on the 1.37 masked screen.

There must have been well over 1,000 in attendance. Admission was free with a retiring collection in aid of The British Heart Foundation.

Last London Trams.

Make Long Links Shorter - Vote for Pedro!

[ 07-26-2005, 12:59 AM: Message edited by: Adam Martin ]

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-25-2005 02:49 PM

quote: Bernard Tonks
Film of the late Edna Bagna, (sp?) the renown silent era piano player and organist, who died recently aged 95...

That must be Ena Baga (whose real name was probably something like Edna Bagworthy, I'd guess), of whom I have fond memories playing at the NFT when I projected there in the early '90s. I particularly remember a screening of Greed in the MOMI cinema as was, with Ena at the piano. During the wedding reception scene she played the German national anthem just at the moment Chester Conklin picks up the chicken bone with his bare hand and starts knawing at it. Then, at the dramatic ending when Gibson Gowland realises that he's handcuffed to Jean Hersholt's body in Death Valley with the sun coming up, she started playing 'Show me the way to go home - I'm tired and I want to go to bed.' I couldn't think of a better way to liven up what has to be one of the most pointlessly depressing films ever made. She must have been well into her 80s, even then.

Any idea where the film of her playing at the Regal came from and if it's easily obtainable?

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-25-2005 07:14 PM

quote: Leo Enticknap
Any idea where the film of her [Ena Baga] playing at the Regal came from and if it's easily obtainable?

No, but I will try and find for you. I understand from a friend that the film was on 35mm, obviously duped to safety from nitrate stock. The original was not in very good condition, there was a bad jump cut at the beginning, followed by 3 or 4 splices during, and scratched. All the same, very nostalgic!

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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-25-2005 11:49 PM

Leo, were you the one who told the story of the accompanist (possibly this one) at a showing of GREED who, in a scene with maggots crawling in a dish, played "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver, & who when chided afterwards for it said something like "I don't care, that movie's so damn depressing anyway!"

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 07-26-2005 04:55 PM

quote: Bernard Tonks
No, but I will try and find for you.

Many thanks.

quote: William Hooper
Leo, were you the one who told the story of the accompanist (possibly this one) at a showing of GREED who, in a scene with maggots crawling in a dish, played "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver, & who when chided afterwards for it said something like "I don't care, that movie's so damn depressing anyway!"

That was her alright, but the maggot scene was in Battleship Potemkin. Ena always maintained that Greed was a dreadful film. After the performance described in my last posting the NFT got several letters of complaint, including one from a humourless senior curator of a German archive who just happened to be in the audience and didn't appreciate Ena's take on the wedding scene. Her response was that she had to resort to that in order to stop people walking out when she played for the film on its original release in 1925; and so what was good enough then is good enough now. There really isn't much of a comeback to that... [thumbsup]

I can't remember what she played in the scenes towards the end of Greed when Trina buys the offal meat and eats it while counting her money - I must have had the booth monitor turned down for a changeover or something.

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-29-2005 08:15 AM

Hi Leo,

I received a reply on the Cinema Theatre Association UK mailing list. Obviously I thought it was Ena Baga, sorry about that but I was pretty close [Smile]

, as follows:

The film clip that you refer to and used at The Tony Moss Tribute concert was in fact Florence De Jong (sister of Ena Baga) playing at the Regal, Walton-on-Thames in March 1939.

The film was a short produced by Pathe. You will find it available in different formats on:
http://www.itnarchive.com/britishpathe/

Richard Norman.

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