Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Wurlitzer Organs

This is topic Wurlitzer Organs in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by William Phillips (Member # 1162) on 07-06-2005, 01:19 PM:

Just woundering if anyone out there have a wurlitzer or other theatre organ in their cinema and if they still use them. [Smile]

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 07-06-2005, 01:40 PM:

William, search posts by me in Film Yak, one about always carrying a camera.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 07-06-2005, 11:59 PM:

We still have at the Byrd Theatre, Richmond, Va. Wurlitzer number 1948, installed in August 1928. 4 manuals, 17 ranks. An original installation, never been out of the building. It has been in continuous use except during WWII when all the organists were in the military since Dec. 24 1928. It is still played every Saturday night and at other times on request. At present the console is in dire need of rebuild but the chests and relay are in pretty good cond. There are photos of the organ on our web site www.byrdtheatre.com If anybody is going to be in the area and would like to see the organ and or play it or see the theatre e-mail me. The Byrd is open 365 nights a year playing mainstream film with an occasional festival.

[ 07-07-2005, 05:08 PM: Message edited by: Bill Enos ]

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-07-2005, 01:45 AM:

The American Theatre Organ Society has a list of extant theatre organs in the US (you should say cinema organs, or Reginald Foort will come back & smite you!)

Some are in theaters running current fare (like the Byrd or the Galaxy in NJ); many are in venues which run occasional 'classic' films like the Ohio & the Fox in St. Louis.

Top of the props & greatest cred goes to the 1926 Tampa Theatre in Tampa FL which now runs a sort of 'art' program -- but occasionally they'll run a silent & it will be accompanied on the theatre's original & maintained Wurlitzer by Rosa Rio, an incredible & ball-of-fun silent film accompanist who played the organ for silents in first run (!) at the big houses in NY, New Orleans, etc., moved later to accompanying dramas, mysteries, soaps, etc. on the organ on network radio when talkies came in, & then retired to Tampa FL.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-07-2005, 02:31 AM:

The only theatre pipe organ I know of in Britain which is in working order and played for the public regularly is at the Paramount Cinema at Penistone, South Yorkshire (near Sheffield). That one's a Compton rather than a Wurlitzer, though.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-07-2005, 09:09 AM:

Dont forget the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. The Moller organ there is original and will easily rattle the walls. I love hearing it played!

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 07-07-2005, 06:31 PM:

The Mighty Moeller at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus has been playing before and at intermission for the summer film series.

The silent feature this year was METROPOLIS. Clark Wilson has been the organist for the series for the past few years, and he is among the best I've ever heard at film accompaniment. Any place that wants to show a silent feature with an outstanding organist, you would be well advised to seek out Clark.

I know the Harold Lloyd family is very particular about his films, since they only let Gaylord Carter play them. It would be nice if they would let Clark play a couple, especially SAFETY LAST.

Posted by Mathew Molloy (Member # 666) on 07-07-2005, 08:47 PM:

We're proud to house a Mighty Wurlitzer here at The Golden State Theatre in Monterey.
Golden State Theatre's Mighty Wurlitzer

In addition to many pre-show organ concerts performed by (semi-)local and extraordinary organists (Warren Lubich, Tom Hazleton, Dennis James & Jim Riggs to name a few) we present The General on September 3rd and Phantom Of The Opera on October 29.

Posted by John McConnel (Member # 2000) on 07-08-2005, 04:14 PM:

A minor correction...the pipe organ in the Ohio at Columbus is a Robert-Morton, rather than Moller. It's a large instrument, with 26 or so ranks of pipes, and a 4-manual console.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-08-2005, 05:09 PM:

Is the organ at the Odeon Leicester Sq still used?
I was always impressed with sound of the Comptons and the degree of unification they employed

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 07-09-2005, 09:50 AM:

Thank you for the correction, Mr. McConnel. You are correct...the brain just slipped a gear on that one.

It has been very well maintained. Clark Wilson is not only an organist, but an expert organ technician, and the instrument sounds better and better over time. Clark has been using more of the percussion instruments this year.

Posted by Bob Koch (Member # 1062) on 07-09-2005, 02:49 PM:

IMHO the Robert Morton theatre pipe organ was a marvelous insrument for the theatre certainly better than a Kimball or a Moeller. As for now, The Stanford Theatre; Palo Alto, Ca[1924] has been completely restored with furnishings of the period except for the booth which is modern in every respect except it has arc lamps[Strong 135s for superior screen illumination. The Wurlitzer pipe organ was completely restored, and I mean no expense spared and it is played regularly and is impossible to describe the way it sounds. Only because of my advanced age and remembering the way a theatre organ sounded it brought tears to my eyes when I heard it I think this whole project was under the direction of Mr Robert Packard of the HP Foundation.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 07-10-2005, 01:55 AM:

I think Ed Stout restored/installed the organ at the Stanford (& the one at the Castro, & the straight organ at the Palace of Honor). There are some truly excellent organ techs out there these days, but Ed Stout is just off the scale.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-10-2005, 02:00 AM:

quote: Bill Enos
...the Byrd Theatre...

Bill, thanks for posting the link to that fantastic house! You are truly lucky to be involved with that majestic lady!

What a beautiful place and yous have some great pics...including the tech ones!

Thanks!

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-10-2005, 05:08 AM:

quote: Gordon McLeod
Is the organ at the Odeon Leicester Sq still used?

As far as I'm aware it's kept in working order and is played occasionally (e.g. at the Royal film show each November), but is not used at all during normal shows for the public.

Another one in the US not mentioned so far is The Heights Theater, in Columbia Heights, St. Paul, MN. It's a lovely single-screen neigbourhood independent, where the screening night for last year's Association of Moving Image Archivists was held. It's a full-scale organ in what is quite a small theatre, so its sound really fills the place. We were told that it's played before the main evening shows every Friday and Saturday.

Posted by William Phillips (Member # 1162) on 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?

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 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

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 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."

Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 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.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 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.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 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...

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 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

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 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.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 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.

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 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 ]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 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?

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 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!

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 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!"

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 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.

Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 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.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-29-2005, 07:03 PM:

Many thanks Bernard - will have a look.

Today's generation of silent film accompianists, e.g. Neil Brand, Stephen Horne or Phil Carli, are amazing people who never fail to bring a film to life. But I can't help thinking that with Ena's and Florence's generation passing, we really have lost our last solid link to when silent film shows were an everyday commercial reality rather than something which is done by enthusiasts and archivists as an historical reconstruction. I never heard or projected for Florence de Jong playing, but when Ena appeared at the NFT there was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was something special. Mine is probably the last generation which will ever hear a silent film accompanist play who actually worked in the 1920s, I'd guess.

BTW, Ena didn't just have it in for Hollywood and/or Von Stroheim. Another of her party tricks was the closing scene from Shooting Stars, one of my favourite films, in which she subverted the bitter ending by playing There's No Business Like Show Business as the former star walks off the set as a destitute extra in the film's final shot.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 07-30-2006, 03:23 PM:

It has been 365 days since the last post.

Posted by William Phillips (Member # 1162) on 07-30-2006, 03:23 PM:

Silent films are the best.
We have done a few here on the trusted VIC5. Did it properly 3 bladed shutters, inverters on the machines to get what ever FPS. Neil Brand did one with us. There is one called Peter Shallcross who does them as well, Very good. He has done 5 with us. The last one was The General.
Its such a differance doing silent, the feel in the cinema is so much better, I really go to town on making the event feel special, make sure everything is perfect. Its a dying form and I dont think people realise what they are missing.
I would love to see a silent film with an orchestra, that would be a hell of an event.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 07-30-2006, 04:22 PM:

Did "The Wind" using our V-5 / triple blade and custom D.C. servo tachometer system. The music and effects where supplied by a 20 piece orchestra. The conductor had seen the film so many times and had scored it to 20 fps. When we did the rehearsal, he gave me the signal when the image looked fine....which the tach displayed exactly 20.000 [Smile]

Posted by Cameron Glendinning (Member # 3516) on 08-02-2006, 05:34 AM:

here is a Wurlitzer its at the hayden orpheum picture palace in Sydney Australia, it was added in 1988

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 08-02-2006, 01:41 PM:

Wow. Beautiful theatre!

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 08-02-2006, 09:13 PM:

Ditto, what Bruce said. Tres Beau.

Posted by Steve Maggs (Member # 444) on 08-04-2006, 09:56 PM:

aahhh Cameron you beat me to it. Just read this forum today. For more information on all 6 cinemas and the organ itself visit www.orpheum.com.au [Smile]

I was Manager of that complex for a number of years.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 08-28-2006, 02:18 AM:

I have heard about them for a few decades, but never been. So tonight I went to Organ Stop Pizza to hear their Mighty Wurlitzer! HOLY @!#$%!!..AMAZING! Look at their web site www.organstoppizza.com

Posted by Charles Greenlee (Member # 3856) on 08-28-2006, 03:12 AM:

Pipe organs are some of the most awesome (in the classical meaning of the word), and fascinating instruments. Often the building they are in was designed around them, as they are huge and highly involved. They can be extremely ornate, and few things are more beautiful than a room lined in plished organ pipes. Not to mention the sound, talk about filling the room. If any instrument could produce a note powerful enough to make someone crap themselves, it'd be a pipe organ. The one at the cathedral downtown can make your eyes rattle around in your skull, and it is not the grandest, though no toy either.

Pipe organs, the original sythesizer, originally created sometime in the 200's BC, I beleive it got it's capability to imitate other intruments around 15th or 16th century. Odd that people, when asked, quote the sythesizer as dating back to the 1950's or 60's, when it's much much older. They're thinking of the elctronic sythesizer, which is nice, but I'd rather have an organ. I wonder if I can get a pipe organ that'll run midi. [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul Cassidy (Member # 951) on 08-28-2006, 04:44 AM:

The Hollywood Cinema in Avondale Auckland still has an Organ and runs silent movies on a regular basis .
Hollywood cinema Organ

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 08-28-2006, 08:58 PM:

Charles, with the appropriate electronic relay, a pipe organ can work midi.

An electro-pneumatic relay cannot.