American Theatre Organ Society

From an article by L. R. Clarke in the Winter 1963 issue of Theatre Organ

The Moller console after it was permanently
installed in the BBC Studio following World War II.

By the late 1930's most theatre organs had fallen silent. Some theatre pipe organ music could still be heard on radio programs like Amos and Andy but even these few radio jobs were soon to be a thing of the past for the organist. However, in England the theatre organ was still highly popular. The British Broadcasting Company featured many top theatre organists regularly.

As staff organist at BBC, the name Reginald Foort soon became a household word, as he was featured regularly at either its concert organ or its theatre organ. While his name became well known and his audience great, the financial return could have been better. Realizing there were more than a hundred vaudeville theatres all over Great Britain, none with an organ of any kind, he conceived the idea of taking an organ on the road.

A company was formed to furnish complete travelling vaudeville shows built around a theatre organ. This would require construction of a "portable" organ.

Inasmuch as Mr. Foort had great respect for the Moller organs he had known on his visits to the states (even though Wurlitzer and Comptons were being heard most everywhere in England), he approached the Moller people to build a completely portable organ with a five-manual console.

Reginald Foort and his close American friend, Reginald T. Watson, designed the organ, and Watson ("the world's greatest organ fanatic") literally slept in the Moller plant to help work out the many details.

Foort was featured at the Paramount Theatre in New York in 1935 and this famous Wurlitzer left an indelible impression. This had a definite influence on the specifications of the travelling Moller. To improve on the Paramount organ, he specified four tibias, one more than the Paramount. The results were very gratifying. The organ, built to the designer's most exacting specifications, had 27 ranks, fully unified, 259 stop keys, and over 100 pistons and controls.

One section of the organ being moved into one of the many theatres. The motor in the foreground was one of several, due to the varying electrical currents.

When completed, the portable instrument weighed 28 tons and required 65 crates to ship it to England. The crated organ arrived in London just one week before the first engagement. Once there, five 30-foot trucks the size of the London double-deck buses and a crew of 12 were needed to handle this massive Moller organ. There were three organ technicians, five truck drivers, two electricians, and two stage riggers, plus the administrative personnel.Moving the organ in and out of theatres was by no means a simple matter, even though the portable features were ingeniously designed by the Moller craftsmen. The organ was hurriedly disassembled, shipped, and re-erected some 167 times. Most of the work was at night, and the trucks moved through the darkness like a circus caravan. It would seem a difficult task to keep such a delicate instrument in good working order, but there were no disappointments -- only praise for the organ.

Usually four-and-one-half hours were required to disassemble and load the organ after the close of an engagement. To do a proper job of installation, 24 hours were required to get the organ into a new theatre, set it up, test everything, and tune it completely.

Mishaps did happen. At the start of his performance at the Empire Theatre, Glasgow, Mr. Foort suddenly realized that he and the console were sliding down the slight rake of the stage towards the orchestra pit but he kept playing. The stage hands were preoccupied backstage, and for the moment did not realize the predicament Reginald Foort was in. By chance, one stagehand finally noticed, and he alerted the rest of the crew. They stopped the console just short of the orchestra pit. From that moment on the console was secured in place for each performance.

Workmen are shown installing the organ on a theatre stage.

As World War II progressed, moving the giant organ became more and more difficult. Later, it was necessary to switch some pipes and leave the large string section behind in order to ship the organ by rail.

During a week's engagement at the Empire in Liverpool, bombs were dropped nightly, usually during the second performance, and on the Saturday night of that engagement, three incendiaries were burning in the roof space, but the show continued. The organ crew was responsible for saving the organ and the theatre.

During air raids, the BBC made full use of their Compton theatre organ to boost public morale. One night in September 1940, the Compton organ was destroyed by a bomb dropped on St. George's Hall. This was kept a secret for security reasons, and the BBC immediately started using a Hammond organ that was in an emergency studio outside London.

Reginald Foort encountered many hardships with the travelling organ because of wartime conditions. Having learned of the destruction of the BBC studios and the organ, he offered his portable Moller organ to the BBC in May of 1941 for the duration. They eagerly accepted it, and the organ was installed in temporary studios outside of London where it remained for several years.

The 16' extension of the Gamba, never used
on the road, was finally installed at the BBC.

Following the war, Mr. Foort decided to sell the organ outright to the BBC. After a thorough reconditioning of the instrument, the BBC re-erected the organ in Jubilee Hall, East Road, London.

At that time, the 16' extension of the Gamba rank was installed and put to use for the first time. These large pipes had remained unused and in storage because it was determined at the very beginning that they were too cumbersome to be subjected to constant handling during the many moves between theatres.

The foresight required to conceive such a large undertaking was remarkable. This may not have been the first travelling pipe organ, but it was unquestionably the largest portable pipe organ ever built.

The "new" BBC/Foort Moller organ was eventually sold to Radio Nederland (VARA) in Hilversum, Holland. While in Hilversum, the organ was played by the legendary Dutch organist Cor Steyn.

After spending many years in the VARA Studios in Hilversum, Holland, the Foort Moller was sold in 1973 to Organ Power Pizza of San Diego. The Moller Organ Company restored the organ and it was then installed in the Organ Power Pizza Parlor #2 in that California city.

The pizza operation failed by the late 1970s, and the organ was then purchased by J. B. Nethercutt of Merle Norman Cosmetics. In 1979, Mr. Nethercutt donated the organ to the city of Pasadena, California, for installation in the Civic Auditorium.

By 1980, the Foort Moller organ had been installed in this landmark auditorium by the late David L. Junchen. Tom Hazleton played the opening concert, and Reginald Foort was in the sold-out audience. The organ remains in use in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium as of this writing in 2002.