Mechanical Music Digest  Archives
You Are Not Logged In Login/Get New Account
Please Log In. Accounts are free!
Logged In users are granted additional features including a more current version of the Archives and a simplified process for submitting articles.
Home Archives Calendar Gallery Store Links Info

End-of-Year Fundraising Drive In Progress. Please visit our home page to see this and other announcements: https://www.mmdigest.com     Thank you. --Jody

MMD > Archives > November 2009 > 2009.11.28 > 02Prev  Next


Roll-playing Theater Organs
By Tom DeLay

I cannot answer on an over-all theater organ basis, but I can address
the Wurlitzer piano-console pit organs.  These instruments are a hybrid
between a Photoplayer and a theater organ, and are electro-pneumatic
like the theater organ rather than tubular pneumatic as is the
Photoplayer.

Wurlitzer built over 500 piano-console organs of all styles.  The most
common style was the 4-rank style 135.  Not all piano-console organs
had roll players.  I have no idea as to how many of the 500+ such
instruments had roll players.  I can tell you there are virtually none
left.

Still intact with roll players:

    1. Dave Bowers has a wonderful unit installed in his home: style
       135 (and recorded);
    2. Phil Underwood has the largest (originally) 6-rank style 160;
    3. Montana Museum has a style 135, with the original tracker bar
       swapped for an O-roll tracker bar;
    4. Mine is the smallest of the lot: a 3-rank style 109 (and not
       presently playing).  It has the econo player, 88 notes with all
       registration and expression done by hand.  The piano/accom-
       paniment manual has an 85-note relay for the majority of the
       piano notes.  The bass stops divide at middle F# and below,
       while the treble stops operate from middle G up.  Percussions
       also play an octave higher than they do on the upper solo
       manual;
    5. A style 135 in Australia.

Without a roll player:

    1. A style 109, still in its original home, restored, in the
       Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton, Va.  This instrument never
       had a roll player.

Recently a style 135 has turned up in its original theater in
Pennsylvania, quite unplayable.  I do not know whether it has a roll
player.

The style 135 is easily the most common theater organ ever.  There are
lots of parts scattered about the country, but there are fewer than a
dozen left intact worldwide.

The style 200 Special Wurlitzer (2 manuals, 8 ranks originally, 13
ranks now) installed in 1992 in the State Theatre, Monterrey, Calif.,
was factory prep'ed for an 88/98 concert roll player in its previous
1928 home in the Parkside Theatre, San Francisco.  All switching in the
relay has double switches for all solo manual stops and an 85-note
relay.  The manual relay divides at middle F# and G.  F# and below
operated the bass stops, while G-natural and above operated the treble
stops.  This organ never had the roll-playing device installed.  At the
console all the bass and treble stops were ganged on one stop key via
three-wire stop contact blocks, so the console was not overrun with
gobs of stop tabs.  I owned this organ for seventeen years and am more
than slightly familiar with the system.

Tom DeLay
Salinas, CA


(Message sent Sat 28 Nov 2009, 01:58:31 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Organs, Roll-playing, Theater

Home    Archives    Calendar    Gallery    Store    Links    Info   


Enter text below to search the MMD Website with Google



CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD

Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz.

Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site.

Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website.

Please support publication of the MMD by donating online

Please Support Publication of the MMD with your Generous Donation

Pay via PayPal

No PayPal account required

                                     
Translate This Page