Wurlitzer - Theatre Organs

Theatre Organs

See also: Robert Hope-Jones and Wurlitzers in the United Kingdom

Perhaps the most famous instruments Wurlitzer built were its pipe organs (from 1914 until around 1940), which were installed in theatres, homes, churches, and other public places. It was marketed as "The Mighty Wurlitzer".

Englishman Robert Hope-Jones, considered the inventor of the theatre organ, had developed a concept of the organ as a "one man orchestra" to accompany silent movies. Hope-Jones concept was based on two principles:

• That a pipe organ should be able to imitate the instruments of an orchestra
• That the console should be detachable from the organ.

Among his sound innovations were a kind of electro-pneumatic action, the Diaphone and the modern Tibia Clausa with its strong 8′ flute tone. The Tibia eventually became a staple of theater organs. Hope-Jones organs were also noted for such innovations as stoptabs instead of drawknobs and very high wind pressures of 10″ – 50″ to imitate orchestral instruments. He also used a system of unification, which multiplied considerably the number of stops relative to the number of ranks.

Between 1887 and 1911 his company employed 112 workers at its peak, producing 246 organs. But shortly after merging his organ business with Wurlitzer in 1914, he committed suicide in Rochester, New York, frustrated by his new association with the Wurlitzer company, it is said. Moving the business to their North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, from 1914 to 1942, Wurlitzer built over 2,200 pipe organs: 30 times the rate of Hope-Jones company, and more theatre organs than the rest of the theatre organ manufacturers combined. A number were shipped overseas, with the largest export market being the United Kingdom.

The largest one originally built was the four-keyboard / 58-rank (set of pipes) instrument at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Music Hall instrument is actually a concert instrument, capable of playing a classical as well as non-classical repertoire. It, along with the organ at the Paramount Theatre in Denver Colorado are the only Wurlitzer installations still in use that have dual consoles. While Denver's is the typical "master-slave" system, Radio City is the only surviving original Wurlitzer installation to have two identical and completely independent consoles playing the same organ.

Wurlitzer organs still in their original locations include:

Chicago Theatre (the oldest) in Chicago, Illinois Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, Rhode Island Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia Fox Theatre in Saint Louis, Missouri Lorain Palace Theatre in Lorain, Ohio Weinberg Center in Frederick, Maryland Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota Shea's Theatre in Buffalo, New York Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, New York Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama Opera House Blackpool UK - The last Wurlitzer to be shipped to the UK from the Wurlitzer Factory. Granada Cinema Tooting, London, UK Gaumont Cinema Kilburn, London, UK.

Coleman Theatre in Miami, Oklahoma Fargo Theatre in Fargo, North Dakota Denver Paramount Theatre in Denver, Colorado Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay, Oregon Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, Washington LIU Brooklyn (Former Paramount Theatre) in Brooklyn, NY Plaza Theatre, El Paso Texas Rose Theatre (originally Riviera) in Omaha, Nebraska Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa California Theatre in San Bernardino, California Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Casa Loma Castle, Toronto Ontario Canada. Sanfillippo Collection, Place de la Musique, Near Chicago Illinois. Tower Ballroom Blackpool, UK - Possibly the most famous Wurlitzer, and most played and recorded. New Gallery London, UK Tivoli Theatre in Chattanooga, Tennessee

Another example of the large-scale Mighty Wurlitzer can be found in the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum. The large four-manual, 16-rank Mighty Wurlitzer type 250 special was purchased by Werner Ferdinand von Siemens in 1929 and installed in the Siemens Concert Hall in August of that year. At the end of World War II the organ and the concert hall became property of the German state. The Mighty Wurlitzer survived the war, but was seriously damaged in 1962 by a fire, which was caused by a careless cigarette. From February 1963 to December 1963 Marvin E Merchant, a Berlin-stationed G.I., repaired the organ at his own expense. In 1982 it was given to the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, where it was restored completely and installed in the museum by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker GmbH & Co. in 1984. In the Musical Instruments Museum of this institute, where the organ is still located today, it is played every Saturday at 12:00 pm (noon).

In the 1950s, the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts (AATOE) was formed to preserve remaining theatre organs, including those by other builders, such as The John Compton Organ Co. LTD, Hill Norman and Beard, W.W. Kimball Company, M.P. Moller, Inc., Robert Morton Organ Company, George Kilgen and Sons, Marr and Colton Organ Company, the Bartola Musical Instrument Company (Barton Organ Company), and the Wicks Organ Company. The AATOE is now known as the American Theatre Organ Society (ATOS). and there is a smaller but comparable society in the UK, the Cinema Organ Society.

See Wurlitzers in the United Kingdom for details in the United Kingdom.