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It's not the largest, but So. Cali folks can see silent films with live Wurlitzer Pipe Organ played at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo.

www.otmh.org/

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That is probably THE WORST theatre website that I've seen. No pics of the the theatre, audiotorium, or organ on there!
I sure as hell wouldn't want to drive out to some unknown theatre.. It could be a run down shack in a very bad part of town for all i know!

danny
 

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Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 08-08-2004, 01:50 PM:
 

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I sure as hell wouldn't want to drive out to some unknown theatre.. It could be a run down shack in a very bad part of town for all i know!

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In 1972, the original Organ Stop Pizza restaurant premiered in Phoenix, Arizona at the corner of 7th Street and Missouri Avenue with a Wurlitzer pipe organ which was originally built for Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theater. This unique concept of a pizza parlor with a pipe organ was envisioned by William P. Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer whose enthusiasm for the theater pipe organ and its music led to the creation of this landmark attraction.

The phenomenal success of the Phoenix restaurant prompted plans to open another Organ Stop in Mesa. It opened in 1975 near the corner of Dobson and Southern Avenue with a Wurlitzer organ from the Denver Theater in Denver, Colorado. In the theater, the Denver instrument had 15 ranks, or sets of pipes. The instrument was totally rebuilt, and the decision was made to enlarge the organ to 23 ranks for its debut in the new Mesa Organ Stop.

The success and popularity of the new Organ Stop Pizza mirrored that of the Phoenix location. In 1984, Bill Brown decided to retire from the restaurant business. The Phoenix Organ Stop was sold to a real estate developer, who sold the pipe organ and demolished the building in favor of an office complex. Incidentally, that instrument was sold to a couple in Downers Grove, Illinois, for installation in their home!

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Mark: Anyone we know? WJ & SJ did used to reside within the Tivoli. The Tiv had the organ from the Champaign Rialto but wasn't that replaced?
 

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Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 08-08-2004, 09:02 PM:
 
Steve,

That would be the Sanfilippo "Palace de la Musique" in Barrington Hills, Illinois.

Here's one web page about it, though there's simply no way to do the place justice on the internet:

Jasper Sanfilippo Palace de la Musique

Here's another site, with color pictures:

Sanfilippo's Victorian Palace

My main interest is automatic musical instruments, and Jasper has at least one of nearly every one ever conceived and built, from all over the world.

Oh, BTW, the idea of putting a WurliTzer into a pizza parlor was Carsten Henningsen's. He was the first to install one in his "Ye Olde Pizza Joynt" in Hayward, California in the early 60's. He was a good friend, who's gone on to the big console in the sky. He was also a 'steam man'. Great guy.

The huge pizza organs are mostly franken-WurliTzers and are vastly extended over their original WurliTzer specification and, as Mark says, aren't completely unified (nor are most of them entirely WurliTzer). Carsten's was modest, by comparison to the later monsters.

Ron Yost
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 08-08-2004, 11:11 PM:
 
Um...that site says The nucleus of the organ was built in 1927 for the Riviera Theatre in Omaha which seems to conflict with the story about the ex-Phoenix, née-Hollywood Egyptian organ, even ignoring that Barrington Hills and Downers Grove are two completely different places.
 

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-09-2004, 12:26 AM:
 
The largest as installed by the Wurlitzer company is Radio City Music Hall in NYC.

The Sanfilippo organ is at 80 ranks the largest theater organ yet built. It is mostly but not all Wurlitzer. I had opportunity to hear the organ and see and hear Mr Sanfilippo's vast mechanical musical instrument collection---all absolutely breathtaking. If you have the opportunity to go there, don't miss it.
 

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Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-09-2004, 03:48 AM:
 
I remember swearing to myself that I would never be one of those people who knew all about cast & acts of the theatre organ soap opera, & now I are one:

The Sanfilippo's had 2 large theatre organs. One, before they built the present huge organ house, & another when they got David Junchen to create the big one in there now.

Without going to look stuff up, it seems to me that they first had the Egyptian organ as the nucleus of an enlarged one: the Egyptian was a Style 260 Wurlitzer - 3 manuals, 15 ranks. It was enlarged with more ranks from other organs which had been parted out. Then, when they decided to build get David Junchen to build the Last Word In Theatre Organs for the new organ 'room', they sold the 1st organ & got another Wurlitzer which was enlarged. The Sanfilippo 5 manual console (not many were built back in the day!) is not vintage or original or whatever either, it was constructed I believe by Ken Crome.

Theatre organs are very modular in a basic respect: if you've got an organ that was originally 2 manuals & 10 ranks, you can replace the 2 manual console with a 3 manual, then add more ranks, then when you have more ranks, get or construct a bigger console, etc.

http://www.theatreorgans.com maintains the best database of original & existing installations; here's Downer's Grove's:
http://barton.theatreorgans.com/cgi-bin/db2net.exe

The ACCH organ has for a long time been one of those HUGE monsters that has been only partially operating or not at all. It's one of the largest in the world (fights for the title abound & quibbles turn on stops vs. ranks, etc., but ACCH maintains Is it a theatre organ? It's not in a theatre, it's not in a church, it's not really voiced like a TO, but many TO's weren't, etc. It's very important in that it's one of only two organs with a 64' rank; the other is in the Sydney Town Hall in Australia. Brrrrrr goes the 64' rank, & you have to have a huge room for it anyway. There are some folks who've transplanted some of the Wurlitzers which had 32' ranks into rooms (auditoria, whatever) that are too small to allow the wave to develop!

Gordon: no joke on the unification of Comptons. They got the idea faster & better than Wurlitzer. Lots of people re-spec Wurlitzers at re-build to increase the unification. Issues of preservation come up here, along with demands for 'modern' expectations of TO sound & performers.

The RCMH Wurlitzer is indeed the largest organ originally installed by Wurlitzer. Its pedigree is spotty though: When the contract was put out for bids, Kimball submitted a bid & the spec for the organ. Wurlitzer then went back to RCMH & told them they could put the same organ in for a lower price. They used the Kimball spec at least on the console, but much of the pipework was just slightly re-voiced Wurlitzer stuff off the shelf masquerading as different ranks spec'd by Kimball. The RCMH organ has, honestly, never been considered one of the best Wurlitzer installations in other respects, too. Besides not sounding the hottest, there are lots of stories of its being just thrown in, wires just twisted together & other sloppiness, it speaks through awkward tone chutes which were found to be full of construction junk later, etc. During the last remodel at RCMH, the original electropneumatic relays were junked, the relay rooms re-purposed for other uses, & an electronic relay installed. Supposedly it would be 100% reliable, but there have been rumors about it, too.
 

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Posted by Ron Yost (Member # 1850) on 08-09-2004, 11:31 AM:
 
Oops, Steve ... I got the wrong organ. Sorry.

It appears the one you're looking for is in the Jim Krughoff collection (I'm not sure where he lives in Il, tho). Here's a page from an old CATOE publication telling a bit about it:

CATOE April, 2002

I've met Jim a couple of times at Band Organ Rallies, but haven't been to his collection .. which also includes many mechanical music instruments (a wonderful 97-key Steenput (Belgian) Concert Fairground Organ, for example). Nothing compares to the Sanfilippo Collection in scope and magnificence of display, but the Krughoff's have been enthusiasts for far longer and know more about the instruments themselves. The Sanfilippo's simply have the most $$$ and can afford 'the best', including full-time curators and restorers.

Ron Yost
 

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Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 08-10-2004, 07:00 PM:
 
I'm happy to see so much interest in pipe organs.
After about 7 months I'm just about through installing 17 ranks in my home. I've got pictures is anyone cares to see 'um. Send me an email and I'll forward a few shots to 'ya.

Don
 

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Posted by Andrew Rossetti (Member # 2619) on 08-10-2004, 09:58 PM:
 
The organ that came from the Organ Stop in Phoenix was re dedicated at the Krughoff residence on August 5, 1989. I had the pleasure of hearing the organ at Organ Stop played by Walt Strony. Walt also did an album on this organ after is was placed in the Krughoff home. The album is called Phoenix and is on the Digital SOnic Productions label. At the time of the re dedication, it was a 33 rank instrument.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 08-10-2004, 10:23 PM:
 
Steve,
The Rialto Organ is now at the York. There is a smallish Wurlitzer in the Tiv, donno where it came from and doesn't really matter much anyway. I want to say it was 12 or 14 ranks or there abouts, but I am probably wrong on that.

Mark
 

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 08-10-2004, 11:47 PM:
 
You mean he downsized when he moved it to the York (in Elmhurst, IL, folks) ?
 

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Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 08-11-2004, 02:31 AM:
 
You're making my head hurt! Do you mean the Tivoli in Downer's Grove (a.k.a. Downer's Grave)?

It's got a 3/10 Wurlitzer, which replaced the 2/7 Barton in 1992. The Barton is now at the York.

http://www.catoe.org/tivoli.html
The Tivoli looked better with its capital on the facade. Go browbeat those people into replacing it.

10 ranks is not small, but it sort of shifts that way with a 2 manual console. 'Small' tends to be anything under 10 ranks. A Wurlitzer Style 35 is 11 ranks! The Wurlitzer Style 260 (3/15) was the large, standard organ (you could always order a 'special', though) until Publix got into a prestige & escalation thing & had Crawford design the Publix #1 style organs.

http://www.atos.org/Pages/Journal/CrawfordSpecial/CrawfordSpecial.html
The tendency towards the proliferation of 20+ & 30+ rank organs is a recent phenomenon. Wurlitzer, Rober Morton, Barton, Kimball, Moller, etc. did make 20+ & 30+ rank organs, but they were fewer & mostly 'Prestige installation' & superspecial organs.

quote: Don Furr

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After about 7 months I'm just about through installing 17 ranks in my home

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