Our Wurlitzer Model 165 is Opus 1748.  This instrument left the North
Tonawanda factory on September 29, 1927.  It was destined for the Cozy
Theatre, Palmerston North, New Zealand, but did not arrive there.
Instead it went to Nelson in the South Island of this country.  A few
years later, in 1934, it was installed in the Paramount Theatre,
Wellington.  In 1938 it was sold to a church, and was there for forty
years disguised as a church organ.  (There is a story about a bass drum
cipher.)

In 1978 the organ was put up for sale, and we installed it in the house
we then lived in, which was less than a mile from the church.  When we
moved to our present home the organ came with us.

The original roll-playing mechanism was contained inside the piano-
style console, and unfortunately was removed from the organ before it
became our property.  We have installed a computer-based system
developed by Tim Westman.  The piano-style console has been replaced
with a two-manual horseshoe console, and an original Wurlitzer organ
piano, an upright from the Uptown Theatre in Chicago, is being
installed.  We are also adding a tibia rank (Kimball), a set of sleigh
bells, and a chrysoglott.  In addition, significant improvements are
being made to the wind supply.

Michael Woolf
New Zealand