moment," writes Walt, "the Theatre Or­ prise and amazement of an audience gan Club of Fall River was formed!" which half expected co hear hymns on A full rehabilitation program is planned Sunday morning pipes. Dolton admits and we can expect periodic reports. he was a little shook, too: "I received my 'baptism of fire' in front of that audi­ After the big opening of the Roberson ence-but it was lots of fun." Afterwards Culture Center in Binghamton, NY, some club members admitted that Ham­ silent films were scheduled with Link mondry would never again be the same organ accompaniment- one program tt after hearing pop pipes. month for the remainder of the year, including such classics as "Birth of a The same Morton got a workout Nation," 11Intolerance" and 11 Way Down by none other than Don Baker while East." Organ accompanist scheduled was he was in Baton Rouge for a Conn­ Paul Loomis. Forty years ago, Paul was cert. A little group of fans listened one of the finest theatre organists in the intently and one was heard to ex­ Triple Cities area, his fame extending as claim, "Who would ever have far north as Utica and Rome. According thought that, of all people, the great SHORT SHOTS FROM to ATOE member , Chet Rataski, Mr. Don Baker would one day play at EVERYWHERE Loomis retains his touch. our Paramount!" Why not? Don played for 13 years at another Para­ Minneapolitans with long memo­ mount, and even the gap between 3 6 and 6 ranks made little difference to New Yorker Dick Loderhose, ries who recall Eddie Dunstedter's Don, who expressed admiration for owner of both Jesse Crawford's "salad days" in the twin cities may the fine tone and good condition of Paramount studio 4-21 Wurlitzer also remember another name which the Morton. and the NY Roxy 5-deck Kimball, appeared concurrently on theatre hasn't been prominent in the organ marquees - Bob ("Bobo") Ryan. hobby area of late. A recent New Eddie was Bob's idol when the lat­ Theatre Organ Enthusiasts visiting the York to Los Angeles phone call ex­ ter played at the St. Paul Orpheum New York area should make the Radio plained why; Dick reports that for and Palace. Those who remember­ City Music Hall a must in their itiner­ the past three years he has been re­ Bob will be glad to learn that he's ary,, if the words of ex-RCMH organist doing his entire Jamaica Estates in­ well and living in Calistoga, Calif., Doc Bebko are any criterion. Visiting stallation. For most of that time the were he operates a swank motel and this great stronghold of the theatre organ organ has been silent. The chambers restaurant. The latter, no surprise, recently, Eddie reported: "I sat in the now boast 42 ranks of pipes and the is equipped with a Conn theatre orchestra in mid-house and the organ console stop rails have been re­ model plug-in which Bob sometimes was absolutely at its finest. Henry Pope's worked to accommodate the addi­ plays for diners. restoration work was superbly evident; tional stop keys at the expected not only is the organ in perfect tune, but places on the horse shoe ( instead of Ifs nice to have friends, including th e the highs, harmonics and overtones were on the front board). Dick played a kind who perf arm unexpected kind­ evident where previously they were chorus of "The Lady Is a Tramp" nesses. In Lancaster, New York, Joe and either absent or muffled. And the PED­ over the phone and even within "Ma Laura Thomas were tickled when they ALS-oh, those gorgeous subcones are Bell's" narrow transcontinental fre­ received a priceless gift in the mail, a absolutely awe-inspiring! Jack Ward's quency range, it sounded great. pair of Wurlitzer nameplates to replace playing was really excellent, no doubt Now he's looking forward to a re­ those missing from their home installa­ enhanced by the ease of playing a well­ sumption of recording, as soon as tion console. The plates were a gift from maintained instrument. It made me wish some topflight artists can be signed. Dave Voydanoff who, during a visit, no­ I could be at that console again." His ticed the original plates were missing. friend, Paul Lavalle, the Music Hall con­ The new job in Fall River Massachu­ Some time before that, Bill Hatzenbuhler ductor, got a great ovation, reports Doc. setts, looked good but it was with con­ had presented the Thomases with a "He is an electrifying personality." siderable reluctance that Walt Hanlon unique 25th wedding anniversary gift , (one of the group which revitalized the an addition to the little W urli' s to y After 35 years, the former 3-manual El Paso Plaza 3-15 Wurlitzer) moved counter in the form of a raspy 11Bronx Kohl organ which was in Rochester, the his family across the land, East from El cheer" which Bill installed in time for organ was apparently installed in a Mas­ Paso, Texas. He left many. memories­ use during the anniversary party. Hm/ __ sachusetts church where it has -remained among them Jim Connor and John R. until a Mr. Sudre of Miami, Florida, pur­ Thomas, two who gave large chunks of Dolton McAlpin, the young law stu­ chased it recentl y. Mr. Sudre already has their final years on Earth co bringing dent who turned out such a creditable a 12-rank, 2-chamber Robert Morton in theatre organ back co the Texas border Concert Recording album (Thoroughly his home, and will install the Kohl, mak­ town. But there was treasure at Walt's Modern Morton," played on the Bacon ing it into a 4-manual organ in the destination. He attended a United Fund Rouge, Louisiana, Paramount 6-ranker), process. show in a Fall River theatre and lo, be­ now admits that he "turned on" mem­ tween the acts, the sound of a threatre bers of the New Orleans Hammond The organ was used by several players organ was heard and a console came up Organ Society, who motorcaded co Baton in its heyday. Among them were]. Gor­ out of the pit (played by a local school Rouge at the behest of the Paramount's don Baldwin , George Bacon, Westfield teacher, it was determined later). The manager, Tom Mitchell, to hear the S. Brown, Gladys Clark, Margaret Culp, organ (a 3 -12 Marr & Colton) was obvi­ sound of real pipes on a Sunday morn­ Rose Harloff, Chester E. Klee and Lou ously in need of help so Walt made an ing . A witness stated that Dolcon had Perricola. Theatre is still open, adapted offer to management and found "the the "joint jumpin" during his one and for Cinerama and other wide-screen pro­ powers" downright cooperative. "At that one-half hour concert, much co the sur- ductions.

december 1 968 22 The Theatre Organ Society of Austra­ the Surf City Hotel some years ago. The and helpful to us all were those lia's Honorable Secretary, John Clancy, 3-14 is still a strong attraction. DTOC folks. What a wonderful takes us to task for stating that spirit they have!" The DTOCers has 18 theatre organs in theatres (De­ Leroy Lewis? After the big blast must have "taken" to Billy in re­ cember 1967 TO-B). While that state­ of national publicity he experienced turn. At least they signed him for a ment would have been correct 40 years when he masterminded the installa­ return concert at the Senate on Jan­ ago, at present, John advises, Sydney has tion of the former Atlantic City uary 18th. only two left, both Wurlitzers, a 4-21 in Warner's theatre 3-27 Wurlitzer in the State Theatre and a 3 -15 in the the Panama Hilton's "Bombarde" Our now-and-then overseas corre­ Capitol. He adds that Melbourne theatres Room, plus his playing rtint and spondent, Michael Candy, reports from have three Wurlitzers, a 4-19 in the recording ression there, we lost that he managed t0 get in to Regent, a 3-15 in the Dendy and a 2-12 track of him. But not for long. One inspect and play the 4-16 Wurlitzer in in the Plaza. In addition, there's a 2-12 of the most inventive and imagi­ the Siemens mansion in Berlin. He re­ Wurlitzer in the Metro Theatre in Perth native musicians in the entertain­ ports that it is still there, intact, unused and a Christie in the Victory Theatre at ment business, Leroy has been busy and apparently unmaintained since U.S. Kogerah. So much for theatres, but it designing "pipes plus electronics" GI Marvin Merchant returned to the doesn't end there. There are Wurlitzers combinations. Lately he's been play­ USA sometime after 1964. Merchant did in the Moorabin Town Hall (4-21), the ing club dates in the Pittsurgh, Pa., a lot of work on the neglected giant Marrickville Town Hall (2-10), St. Peters area :ind those ho heard his Ham­ while he was stationed in Berlin and, College at Adelaide (3-15), a 2-10 await­ mond X66 plus pipes (Vox and says Mr. Candy, the organ needs another ing installation in the Willoughby Civic Tibia), describe it as a tonal marvel. interested GI with organ-fixing skills; Centre, not to mention John Clancy's it's loaded with ciphers. This 4-16 may residence (2-15). Many of these organs A note all the way from Middlesex, be one of the last two Wurliczers left on have been the objects of TOSA's affec­ England, from Don Knights, British re­ the European mainland, the other being tion and preservation efforts. Are we for­ cording organist for the Concert Record­ a 2 -7 in the Paris Paramount. Michael given now, John? ing label, says he tried to get in touch said the 4 -16 console still bears a pair with the BOMBARDEduring his recent of "ATOE" automobile-type windshield transfers, relics of its Merchantising days. Be£ ore we leave , it Los Angeles visit, but learned that the would be proper to note that Vic entire staff (two) had gone North to Hammett there continued his string the Ninth Annual Home Organ Festival. Recently we noted that Reginald of concert successes across the face That's the second time we missed him; Foort~ who believes "I 5 years in the of the planet, starting in his native last time (two years ago) he was right on same place is enough," was about to England, through the USA and end­ the grounds of the Festival and we let leave Chicago. Since then we re­ ing at Melbourne's Dendy theatre. him gee away. Here's hoping next time ceived a very formal card asking us In addition to his six weeks of he's around that Don and the editor will to "please note change of address." nightly "down under" spotlight have a chance to go over that book of Betty and Reginald Foort are now concerts he also found time to cut Viennese tunes Don carries with him; residents of Pompano Beach, Florida. three LP recordings, two on the we have a mutual interest in Viennese music. Of his trip across the USA, Don Dendy 3-15 Wurlitzer and one on In Minot, North Dakota, Eric Reeve 1 the Clancy 2- 1 5 home installation. states that it was "the best vacation Belle a very meticulous researcher in matters Vic got around to the Town Hall and I have ever had. We enjoyed every theatre organ, is still trying to unravel installations, too. He told a news­ minute we were there." the radio studio organs of Chicago. The paper interviewer, " ... the theatre list of Barton installations we've been organ is booming back into fashion In Detroit to record an RCA album running has proved helpful. Eric esti­ again." for Readers Digest release, Billy Nalle mates, for example, that station WBBM noted that westcoaster Tom Hazelton must have had three organs over the was set for a concert that mid-October years. In later years the station is said to In Youngstown, Ohio, it was the fa­ weekend for the Detroit Theatre Organ have had a 3 -7 Wurlitzer. Before that, it miliar story. This time it was the 38- Club. Billy decided to stick around for had a 2-7 Barton and after that a 3-10 year-old Warner Theatre which would the Senate Theatre bash and admits he's Barton, and Eric wonders which one be sacrificed t0 the wrecking ball. Cali­ glad he did" ... I found both the man Milton Charles played on the memorable fornian Elbert Dawson, living temporar­ and his playing delightful . .. His best rThree Consoles" program. WLS studios ily in Warren, Ohio, panicked when he rhythm number was 11San Jose" and his were eqitipped with a 3-manual Barton recalled that the now dark theatre orig­ best ballad was one whose title I can't which is probably the one Ralph Waldo inally had an organ and he wondered recall except it had the word rheart' in it. Emerson recorded for the Silvertone whether it, too, would be pulverized by Afterward, we had a grand visit and I label. The NBC organ situation was a the wrecking ball. A fast exchange of let­ enjoyed getting to know him. I'm very greater puzzler, but Eric thinks he has it ters assured Mr. Dawson that the organ glad I stayed for his concert." If Tom unraveled. First there was Al Carney's had already been sold and removed be­ Hazleton so completely captivated the (now Johnny Seng's) studio organ (a fore the furnishings were auctioned in seasoned pro with his style and music, custom 4 -15) 1 then the Wurlitzer in the late September, although we couldn't what must he have done to the rank and WENR Opera House studio, and later name the rescuers. file DTOCers when he fondled that 4-34 the 3-13 Wurlitzer in the WMAQ Mer­ Wurli? chandise Mart studio, on which Irma In the same somber mood, Eric Glen used to play the rrQuiz Kids" radio Zeliff reports that the Fabian Theatre in Billy Nalle becomes ecstatic when theme. 11 Chicago organ lore is kinda Hoboken also kept a date with the steel he talks about the fine cooperation mixed up," states Eric. ball. The 2,000-seat Fabian was where he had from the DTOCers while Leroy Lewis obtained the Wurlitzer recording: " ... You just can't imag­ The "Quiz Kids?" Wonder if anyone which he and Ted Cambell installed in ine how interested and hospitable recalls the title of their radio theme? We

23 theatre organ bombarde are certain Dave J unchen remembers tracted fans from far and wide. Martin electronics engineer Bill Johnson also that it was "School Days"- because he Thal and Rick Shindell came from designs, builds and markets logic was one of radio's Quiz Kids. Which Toledo, Jess Littlefield from Rochester , con t ·rol systems. And girls, he's leads us into a brief commercial for Laura Thomas from Buffalo, and even handsome and single! Why still Dave. After years of helping others with the Syracuse University organ whiz, Will single? «The elecronics work plus their organ projects, Dave has put out Headley. They came to marvel at the the record business keep me a bach­ his own shingle and now runs the Jun­ tasteful decor of the little auditorium , elor," admits Bill, a little wistfully. chen Pipe Organ Service, 401 First St., the solid glass walls from ceiling to fioor, A profile on Bill J ohm on and his Sherrard, Illinois. The reason we include the handsome console which rises out of burgeoning Concert Recording Co. his address is because we have just re­ the fioor as smooth as silk, and the young is coming in a future issue of TOB. ceived a list of pipe organ goodies which man who rode it up, Billy Nalle , who Dave has for sale - Pipework galore­ later declared in broad flsuthin" accents, "To coin a saying, the report of my Wur.Iitzer, Barton, Kimball, Mar & Col- tr • •• they had to add 150 extra seats . ton, Robert Morton. Also parts for all which cut the reverb but sure didn't cut passing has been greatly exaggerated," those brands-chests, percussions, blow­ the enthusiasm. That audience was a cried BOMBARDEeditor Stu Green when ers, swell shutters, reservoirs, consoles, sizzler." questioned about a rumor that he was stop keys, pedalboards, toy counter quitting the staff of THEATRE ORGAN effects and actions - the works ( even a BOMBARDE. After years of sitting at his rare 4-poster Barton console lift with Lost somewhere in the shuffle of in­ typewriter, sometimes to 11: 00 p.m. or turntable!) Send for his list if any of ternational theatre organ matters was a later on weeknights, while writing edit­ these items are needed . shocking tale of piracy on the low seas­ ing or answering reams of correspond­ perpetrated by A TOErs ! It involved a ence, Stu decided that his social life was "shanghaiing " in reverse, carried out by in a somewhat soggy condition. What A few V ox Pops back, we mentioned added fuel to the conflagration was the the Wurlitzer in the Surf City hotel. It a band of ATOE-led hearties. The plot evolved when a ship carrying a famed fact that Stu has acquired a personal in­ did well by members of the New York terest in one of the magazine's associate Chapter during a September meeting Australian organist, Nore en Hennessy, hove to and dropped anchor in- Pqrt editors-one who is a girl, we hasten to held there. Among those players who add. With little spare time in which to were especially pleased were Lowell Everglades (Florida) waters. Little did the ship's officers know there was a band press his suit "it got kinda wrinkled," Ayars, Violet Egger and Esther Higgins, of organ-thirsty natives with a dastardly adds Stu. So he hollered for help and reports Eric Zeliff. scheme hiding among the palms ashore. Pres. Al Mason is providing it with two In the dead of night the "natives" (led welcome additions to the TOB staff, Remember that full-page cigarette ad by ATOE's South Florida Chapsec, both excellent and experienced writers . which showed the interior of an attrac­ George Gearhart) boarded the ship and Al will release the names. So what it tive theatre pictured from the balcony? ''kidnapped" Miss Hennessy. They took amounts to is that the work of producing A cleaning lady, broom in hand (in the her ashore, hustled her 30 miles to the magazine has been spread out a little foreground) was presumably asking "If Miami and sat her down at ATOEer to accommodate a middle-aged Romeo. we rented a hall to tell the Lark charcoal Calvin Jureit's 3-11 Wurlikimball. Miss George Thompson remains editor-in­ filter story, would you come?'' Reader Hennessy was at first surprised and over­ chief, as always. Lew Williams advises that it was the in­ whelmed by the confrontation but -Hal Steiner terior of the Brooklyn Paradise Theatre. offered no resistance. With the help of In reply to the question posed, unless Chapter Chairman John Steele, who there was an organ involved, the answer stood by to assist Miss Hennessy with is probably "no." Lew doesn't smoke. registration on an organ strange to her, she played for the assembled multitude. Ben Levy, the Detroi ter who Plot ringleader Gearhart later wrote in wrote our up-coming series about the "down under TOSA "Diaphone" that NOW the care and repair of Wurlitzer the "shanghaied" guest played some AVAILABLE magnets, is at his most color£ ul "lovely compositions . . . perfectly. She when reviewing a concert. He aimed endeared herself to all." After soothing an exact this remonstration at absent Detroit some 80 Floridian conspirators, the lady Theatre Organ Clubbers in the was whisked back to her ship, no worse duplicate 1 < DTOC News" following last sum­ for her encounter with the "natives." But of the mer's Ann Leaf concert at the 4-34 before leaving she remembered her his­ Wurli in the Senate theatre: «Any tory and sold the natives a slew of her club member who missed the Ann records. Fair enough! FAMOUS Leaf program and who didn't have a legitimate excuse, such as a broken HOWARD leg or having to take his mother-in­ In a couple of years, Concert law to the airport, is hereby author­ Recording, through its Organ of the "WONDER" SEAT ized to bang his head against the Month Club, has become the major wall. Better yet, walk into a neigh­ producer of organ recordings and bor's backyard and get his dog to tapes. To those who wonder what $160 00 DES M~j~:S,IOWA bite you!" Oh, the power that Ann makes such an enterprise perk, the Also Howard seat replacement castings and Wurlitzer Black Cap magnet coils . Leaf has over men, especially power behind the platter is a soft­ writers! spoken young man named Bill John­ son. As though the recording, pro­ KEYBOARD ENTERTAINMENT Echoes of that opening pop concert duction, packaging and mailing of PRODUCTS MANUFACTURING CO . on the Link organ in the Roberson Cul­ thousands of organ discs each month 2117 40th SI ., DES MOINES. IOWA 50310 tural Center continue to filter in. It at- wasn't enough to keep him busy,

december 1968 24