Web Journal 2009
The 2/11 Wurlitzer in Salt Lake City's Capitol Theater was a rarely seen feature until the Associate Director of Salt Lake County's Arts, David Barber, came up with the idea to relocate the console to the 2nd floor balcony, and to play it for the public with a first ever WURLITZER WEEK. WURLITZER WEEK will take place September 15, 16 and 17th, 2009 12:00 – 1:00 PM at the Salt Lake City Capitol Theatre, located at 50 West 200 South. Admission is FREE.
The console had been stored in the basement all the years since the theater was built. Each time the organ was to be played, it had to be brought up on the backstage elevator, rolled across the stage and plugged in to eight bulky cables with multi-pin telephone connectors.
Now the console has a permanent home in the balcony box next to the stage at audience left. Its back is to the proscenium wall, and its colorful stop tabs are in direct line of sight with the entire audience, allowing the artist to see the stage and screen, and have direct interaction with patrons. No longer out of sight and out of mind, the Wurlitzer beckons. Its highly visible location makes it an 'elephant in the room' demanding notice other than sight alone.
David saw the best way to introduce this seldom seen treasure to our citizens is by an informal free-to-the-public lunch-hour event. Wurlitzer Week will attract much attention, and it has only one chance to make a good first impression on the public. Different organists now can become acquainted with the console, and share their discovery with the encouragement of audience applause.
Among those first to participate is Salt Lake City's famous Tabernacle Choir Principal Organist, Richard Elliott. Richard has theatre organ background that includes performances at Radio City Music Hall. We hope to hear from his theatre organ student who has performed the Christmas programs with the Rockettes. Other local organists that will play are David Massey and Douglas Dieu, both principal organists at the famed Organ Loft in Salt Lake City.
An hour to the North of Salt Lake City is Ogden, Utah, where Wurlitzer Wednesday has been regularly enjoyed by the public. Hour long concerts are presented free to the elderly and their caretakers, and two dollars for others, enjoying Peery's Egyptian Theater's 3/23 Wurlitzer. Information can be found on the Theatre web site: www.peerysegyptiantheater.com. Mr. Michael Welsh and Douglas Dieu are Principal organists.
These outreach programs will invigorate the art forms of theatre pipe organs in Utah. The Edison Street/ Organ Loft's 5/34 Wurlitzer, the Capitol Theater's 2/11 Wurlitzer, and Peery's Egyptian Theater's 3/23 Wurlitzer, are the three Wurlitzers presently performing. Soon, to the North, in Logan, Utah, Michael Ballam's 3/16 Wurltizer will grace the Utah Theater now owned by the Utah Festival Opera, making FOUR Mighty Wurltizers along the Wastch Front.
Our local ATOS chapter is lobbying City officials to install another Mighty Wurlitzer for the large Broadway-style Theater planned for downtown Salt Lake City. Then, a 5-Wurlizer phenomenon will place theatre organ art forms among the fine performing arts in this art-oriented city, already known globally for its famous classical organs.
(September 4, 2009) Blaine Gale & Shane Franz, Great Salt Lake
Chapter, ATOS
This year's ATOS Summer Youth Camp will be held in Phoenix, Arizona from July 27-31, and will feature the 5/106 Midmer-Losh at the Adrian Phillips residence as the primary camp venue. We will also be making a couple of visits to Organ Stop Pizza to hear, see, and play the 4/74 Wurlitzer installed there (we've even arranged for several hours of open console as well!)
This video was produced by Vickie Power.
Often we are sent articles that appear in newspapers or other
websites to include in the ATOS Web Journal. It is not always possible
to obtain permission from the owner to "reprint" them here. Writing a
new article with a link is also difficult without a first hand account
from the sources of the article's details.
To solve this problem there is now a new link at the top of the ATOS
Web Journal page to recent
theatre organ articles
aggregated by Google News. This will allow you to view the material
on
the original web sites.
As a boy going to Saturday matinees in the 1950s, Evan Chase always wondered what the big ivory console was that was partially covered in the orchestra pit of Toledo's State Theatre on Collingwood Avenue. 50 years later he not only found out, but owns it and installed it in the theatre across the street from the site of the State, the Collingwood Art Center (CAC). Pipe organs have been a serious interest for Mr. Chase since the mid-1970's and now Toledo can enjoy the magnificent ivory and gold 3-manual Marr & Colton console playing an 8 rank theatre pipe organ in this great 600-seat theatre.
The State Theatre (1926, demolished 1995) was Toledo's most luxurious theatre prior to construction of the Paramount in 1929. The State boasted 2000 seats and a Marr & Colton Theatre Pipe Organ. Legend has it that the installer for Marr & Colton Company was sweet on one of the employees of the newly opened theatre and would return often to "adjust" the pipe organ -- just so he could see the woman who would one day become his wife! In the late 1960s, the long-dormant organ was revived by young artist Rick Shindell who would record an album on the instrument. It moved to Wisconsin where it remained until the early 2000s. It was then donated to the Toledo Area Theatre Organ Society (TATOS) who retain the bulk of the pipe work and other parts for their installation at Toledo's Ohio Theatre. The romance of the golden era of theatres continues with the glorious sound of the theatre organ in Toledo!
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Top
Left:
Emily Seward at a practice session before the public premiere of the
new console at a movie pre-show in February, 2009. A video
showing some fun
with the organ, still hot off the soldering iron, during the
first test-play with organists can be seen on youtube.
Top Right: Console in the theatre where it is sometimes heard up to 7 times per month. CAC 3/8 Hybrid Theatre Organ Bottom Right: State Theatre Console is prepared for its move to the Lois M. Nelson Theatre in the Collingwood Arts Center. It still has pneumatically operated tabs that will be used with the combination action. |
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"... the night's soloist, Jonas Nordwall, who nearly unhinged the San Jose theater from its foundations with his finely wrought, yet supercharged performance on the California's mighty Wurlitzer ..." - Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News
Another related article: "The California's mighty Wurlitzer becomes a symphony instrument next weekend"