Imagine my surprise when Victoria Webb posted her comments on the Estey
Tuba! I often wondered what happened to the organ.
I started at L.A. Trade-Tech college in the Fall of 1962, and immedi-
ately obtained access to the organ. Pipework was totally un-molested,
but the push-button action was not operative. I doubt the organ had
been tuned in two decades or more, but it was nearly in tune! I arranged
for several of the old Poly High student organists to visit and play it,
including Dick Simonton, Doc Olsen, and three others whom I have forgot-
ten. Truman Welch (sic), a skating rink organist, had been a student
organist, too.
I measured the reverberation in the auditorium, and it was six
seconds! It made the organ sound absolutely superb, but was too much
for speech, so the auditorium was remodeled over a summer vacation.
I never did hear what happened to the organ, which actually belonged to
the Student Body Association. They were never consulted by anyone about
the organs demise.
As I recall, most of the pipes (if not all) were 'Haskell' type, folded
to be 1/2-length. It was a very compact instrument. According to the
former student organists, at one time it supposedly had a roll player
with only one roll.
I heard that a twin had been installed in Hollywood High, and had been
vandalized by students, who put pipes in their car's exhaust and went
screaming down Hollywood Boulevard.
John Spradley
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