Movie Theatres and Organs

[barwonfan]

Many years ago, I was overawed to see a huge organ rise up just to the left of the screen and the gentleman seated at it played a wonderful fanfare which set us up for the movie. I don't think he played during the movie, but maybe my father who was born in 1901 would have seen the odd black and white movie and seen the pianist playing furiously during the police chases and softly during the love scenes. I am hoping that one of our members will tell of their experiences of theatre organs. J.T.

[kens]

Hi!
I have fond memories of the famous organ in the Blackpool Tower ballroom. It came up through the floor with the organist playing. Then we danced and the floor was sprung. ie, it was designed to flex with the dancers. A weird experience.
My wifes' mother was deaf and yet she played piano in cinemas to accompany the silent films. How she did it I dont know. Her renditions brought the screen to life.
Ken S.

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi

I enjoy playing theatre organs when I get the chance, although primarily I'm a church organist. The first time I played a theatre organ in public was a little fraught, however. The school where 3 of my children attended had installed an organ from a bomb-damaged cinema in the early 1950's. The console sat at the side of a gallery in the main hall, with pipes in a chamber at the rear of the gallery. By the time of this episode, the organ had been neglected and was in pretty poor shape, but one of the teachers at the school, Nigel Spooner, had started to get the instrument playable. The story starts at about 8:00 am on a December morning, when the phone rang. It was the head of music at the school (Thomas Peacocke School in Rye, Sussex). It was the day of the annual Christmas Concert, which my 3 were involved in, and I was booked to record the show. Anyway, as I said, the phone rang, and the head of music (who was also a member of the church where I was organist) said:- "Nigel's been taken ill. He's arranged for someone to play for the choir items, but he's not happy to do the organ solo spot. Could you do something?" I quickly sorted out some appropriate Christmas music that I could try & play in theatre organ style. The school hall was in use all day for rehearsals of the choir & various ensembles. I was there all day setting up the recording rig & getting balances for the various items. I had about 30 mins rehearsal time. I'd not done more than casually look at the organ & try things out to a limited extent. The pistons weren't working at that stage in the repairs, so I was faced with some 60 or so stop tabs for the 6 ranks of pipes, chimes, and nothing else as the percussions had been "lost" in storage. I sorted out my short medley, hand-registering everything (I planned it so it started fairly softly and built up, so I only had to add stops). The performance went well, thankfully. A few years later, Nigel Spooner moved on to another job, the "Friends of Rye Wurlitzer" was formed, I played the instrument every year for the Christmas Concert until I moved away from the area. Things have come a long way since then, as the following web site will show:- https://www.ryewurlitzeracademy.co.uk/

These days, I occasionally play the Cinema Organ Society's 3 manual Compton in Fentham Hall, Hampton-in-Arden (near Solihull). We have a monthly "DIY Evening" when anyone can play - you get about 15 minutes on the organ - good fun.

Every Blessing

Tony