Damon Atchison asked: Was it electrically controlled?

I missed any earlier discussion of this topic.  I worked for the Kilgren
Organ Company in St. Louis in 1959 and we rebuilt two Wurlitzer Theatre
Organs: the Fox Theatre organ in St. Louis MO and the Palace in Dallas
TX.

Both organs had electro-pneumatic actions.  The keyboard closed low-
voltage contacts whose signals were routed through the stop tablets and
relay to small magnets near the related pipes.  These magnets in turn
operated pneumatic relays which opened the valves allowing air to pass
into the related pipes.  Electro-pneumatic action allowed pipe ranks and
percussion ranks to be located in distant parts of the theatre.

This action also allowed multiplexing of the lowest two octaves (read:
"biggest and most expensive") and also the creation of fake stops by
combining ranks (which singly were other stops) in thirds, fifths, and
twelfths creating more stops on the stop tablet than represented by pipe
ranks.

 [ Editors note:
 [
 [ The modern engineer might recognise this as "harmonic synthesis".
 [ The multiplexed stop is a "fake" because the fundamental isn't
 [ really present, but the ear thinks it is!  Multiplexing and "fake
 [ stops" like this occur primarily in theater organs; the purists of
 [ the church-organ community wouldn't think of having such expediencies,
 [ and would have *real* pipes connected to the stop (assuming they
 [ had the money and space for the big pipes).
 [
 [ The wall-to-wall stop tablets on the console, therefore, control
 [ many more sound combinations than there are pipe ranks.  In describing
 [ an organ the most important parameter is the number of ranks.
 [
 [ Robbie

The Fox unit had a paper roll player.  The holes in the paper allowed
electrical contact between spring wipers and the keyboard signal buss.
The paper rolls were about 20 inches wide and about seven inches in
diameter.  Each roll would play for about 30 minutes.

One other thing: These "Million Dollar" Wurlitzer Theatre Organ's cost
between $30,000 and $100,000.  Publicity being what it is in show biz the
publicized price was inflated.

The Midmer-Loesch Theatre Organ on the Atlantic City Pier (The largest
theatre organ built) cost $83,246.  The Radio City Organ (also Midmer-
Loesch I believe) cost $60,000.  Most Wurlitzer Theatre Organs were
around $35,000, but they were worth a million dollars in publicity.

Bill Finch

 [ Which recalls the song, "I Found a Million-Dollar Baby In a
 [ Five-and-Ten-Cent Store"   :-)   -- Robbie