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 > December 2009 > 2009.12.06 > 02Prev  Next


Roll-playing Theater Organs
By Greg Graham

Someone please check my fuzzy memory, but the old Philadelphia
Convention Hall near University of Pennsylvania had a large classical-
theater hybrid Möller organ with a roll player.  I saw and heard it
playing at the ATOS convention in Philadelphia in the 1990s.

The organ had two consoles: one classical, one theatrical.  Some ranks
were shared, and others were only available on the appropriate console.
The roll player unit was in a small second-floor room and looked
something like an old floor-model Philco radio, only with a spoolbox
instead of a tuning dial.

We heard humans performing on both consoles, and the roll player.
All three input devices produced distinctly different ensemble sounds.
I liked the roll players registration the best of the three.

I've not been back since then, and I read the Hall was demolished in
2005, but it was a thing of beauty in the 1990s.

Per Wikipedia:  "The Auditorium's M.P. Möller 86-rank pipe organ, built
in 1931, was removed just prior to the building's demolition and placed
in Pennsylvania Hall in temporary storage.  In October 2006 the organ
was donated to the University of Oklahoma's American Organ Institute
where it will be restored and become the centerpiece of their music
programs."

Maybe someone familiar with U of OK can fill us in.  I see a photo of
the organ looking like something from an "Indiana Jones" movie at the
AOI web site:  http://aoi.ou.edu/OU%20Organs/IndexOrgans.htm

Greg Graham, RPT
Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania


(Message sent Sun 6 Dec 2009, 04:47:32 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