Wurlitzer 950TA
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See it in color... then hear it in color! Wurlitzer950TA You are invited to write for a pin-up picture of the most beautiful electronic organ we have ever built . then visit a dealer to hear the most beautiful sounds Wurlitzer has ever created! It's our new Professional Model 950TA ... a Total Tone organ in Theatre Styling ... shown in Antique White with Gold, also available in Sable Cherry. Conveniently placed controls for the myriad of available sounds make the or- r-t ••~r~-;~';-;--;::;;~~::;:;::;;:;;;;;;~:1111 -~::::::_::======:- ganist at home from the start. Five gen- _ eral pistons, third-keyboard Orbit Synthesizer and couplers for the keyboards and pedals further enhance the playability. Pistons deliver impressive sounding pre set registrations: theatre organ with violin solo, strings with flute, orchestra with reed solo, full organ with trumpet, cathedral organ with chimes. Tibias sing a full range of pitches (16' to 1') with no doubling back, all playable through a built-in custom Leslie Speaker System. For other thrilling preset combinations, there is the exclusive Spotlight Solo™ Section. New Chromatic RiffTMplays two-way chromatic scales at any speed from any note, an impressive effect. WuRLifZER® Percussion offers 15 rhythms combin The Music People able in endless ways plus instrumental percussion voices, and arpeggiation Send coupon for free color picture and complete stop list that follows chord and key changes r-------------------------1 automatically. I To: Wurlitzer, Dept. TO-680 , DeKalb , Illinois 60115 I Please send my free color picture and details on 950TA : Touch Response offers a new kind of I musical punctuation. Symphonic Pres I Name . I ence multiplies solo voices into choirs! I Address ..................................... • • • • • I Get the picture today ... I City . I and dream a little! I State . Zip . I L-------------------------JI D Send name of nearest dealer. I ATOS National Membership is $15.00 per cal endar year, which includes a subscription to THEATRE ORGAN , the official publication of the American Theatre Organ Society. Single copies $2.50. Make check or money order pay (ISSN 0040-55311 JOURNAL OF THE able to ATOS , and mail to P.O. Box 45, Falls Church , Virgi'lia 22046. AMERICAN THEATRE ORGAN Editorial Address SOCIETY THEATRE ORGAN P.O . Box 1314 Salinas , California 93902 VOLUME 22, NUMBER 3 Phone : (408) 663 -3238 Advertising Address JUNE / JULY 1980 ATOS Advertising 2231 North Burling Street Chicago, Illinois 60614 Membership Office featur-es ... P.O . Box45 Falls Church , Virginia 22046 Phone : (703) 573-4138 5 Opus 585: The Voice of Fresno's Pizza & Pipes .......... Ron Musselman ATOS Corporate Office ATOS 8 Canada's Last Original Installation ............. Thelma Smith 6900 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, California 90038 9 Hazel Jones Spence Vail .................... John D. Everest Office of the President 13 Rochester's Wurlitzer Opus 1951 ............... Lloyd E. Klos Thomas 0 . (Tommy) Landrum 4815 Leonard Parkway 14 Charisma and Serendipity ....................... John Muri Richmond, Virginia 23226 Phone : (804) 353 -8376 15 Tube Directions (for Conventioneers) National Headquarters 18 Satisfying a Growing Demand for ATOS Custom Consoles ......................... Tom Thompson P.O . Box 1 002 Middleburg , Virgin ia 22117 20 Theatre Organists as Composers, Part I .......... Lloyd E. Klos Phone : (703) 364 -2423 26 ATOS Financial Report for 1979 National Officers Thomas 0 . (Tommy) Landrum, President Lois Segur , Vice President Erwin Young , Treasurer Wyn McDonnell Davis , Secretary technical ... National Board of Directors 17 The Acoustical Consultant ............... R. J. Weisenberger Paul (Mac) Abernethy , Jr . John Ledwon 24 Choosing the Proper Solid-State Rectifier ........ John Persick William Rieger Judd Walton W . "Tiny" James Betty Mason Richard Schrum George F. Thompson depar-tments • • • Ray F. Snitil , Past President 25 Music Review Curator 4 Editorial Paul Abernethy 12 Dinny's Colyum 27 Vox Pops P.O. Box 2480 Burlington , N .C . 27215 12 Konsole Kapers 32 Letters to the Editors EDITORIAL STAFF 33 Chapter Notes Editor - George Thompson 15 Closing Chord Associate Editors - Lloyd E. Klos, 16 Nuggets from the Golden Days 52 Classified Ads Peg Nielsen Editor -Emeritus - W. "Stu" Green Photographer - Bill Lamb 22 For the Records Publishers - Floyd and Doris Mumm Editorial Assistants - Don Lockwood Jan James Advertising Manager - Len Clarke Circulation Manager - Lee Prater Cover- Vhoto THEATRE ORGAN (title registered U.S. Patent Office) is published bimonthly by the American Theatre Organ Society , Inc., a nonprofit organi The Rochester Theater Organ Society's 4/22 Wur zation. Thomas 0 . (Tommy) Landrum , Presi litzer, Opus 1951, has been entertaining concertgoers dent . All rights reserved. Entire contents copy in the 2574 -seat Auditorium Theatre since 1967. righted. American Theatre Organ Society, Inc., 1980. Office of publication is P.O. Box 2329, RTOS was organized 16 years ago, when the organ Livonia, Michigan 48151. was still in the Palace Theatre . See story on page 13. POSTMASTER : Second Class p()stage paid at Dick Harold Photo Livonia , Michigan . IF UNDELIVERABLE, send form 3579 to ATOS Circulation Department , Box 45, Falls Church, Virginia 22046. ATOS 3 JUNE/JULY 1980 THEATRE ORGAN .ABCBIVES/LIBRARY Richard Simonton Feb . 1 955 - Oct . 1958 Judd Walton Oct. 1958 - July 1961 Tiny James July 1961 - July 1964 Carl Norvell July 1964 - July 1966 ~l)ITO~IAL Dick Schrum July 1966 - July 1968 Al Mason July 1968 - July 1970 Stillman Rice July 1 970 - July 1972 Erwin A. Young July 1972 - July 1974 Paul M . Abernethy July 1974 - July 1976 ATOS, a nonprofit society or a commercial Ray F. Snitil venture? July 1976 - July 1978 Twenty-five years ago the founders of ATOS Preston M . Fleet formed the present organization for the pur July 1978 - Nov . 1978 pose of preserving the art of theatre organ. No commercial gain was considered by any one involved in the formation or subsequent t-i0~012Al2"1 growth of our group. M~M13~12\ In the recent past some have stated that a professional staff is needed to produce our 1959 - Jesse Crawford journal and to handle the business matters of 1960 - Famy Wurlitzer this organization. Why this feeling should arise 1961 - Mel Doner is beyond practical reasoning. The goals of our 1962 - Leonard MacClain society are not for gain, but to preserve a small 1963 - Eddie Dunstedter bit of Americana. Therefore, any one person or 1964 - Reginald Foort 1966 - Dan Barton any group of people espousing the theory of 1966 - W. "Tiny" James moving our group forward commercially, must 1967 - Erwin A. Young have self-improvement in mind. There is no 1968 - Richard C. Simonton need for advancing our cause by commerciali 1989 - Judd Walton zation. In fact, it would very likely cause the en 1970 - Bill Lamb tire theatre organ movement to disappear. 1971 - George and Vi Thompson ATOS is doing okay as it is, why make radical 19n - Stu Green changes for uimprovement"? Some modifica 1973 - Al and Betty Mason tions of our by-laws are probably necessary, 1974 - Lloyd E. Klos 1975 - Joe Patten but the alterations need not be of such a nature 1976 - Floyd and Doris Mumm as to alter the original conceptions of our 19n - Les and Edith Rawle founders. 1978 - Len Clarke 1979 - J .B . Nethercutt 4 THEATRE ORGAN JUNE / JULY 1980 The Voice of Fresno's Pizza and Pipes by Ron Musselman Photos by Howard Martin and Ron Musselman In March of 1977, Bob Breuer organ remained in the theatre until build a new structure, designed from opened his new Pizza and Pipes May, 1957, when it was purchased by the ground up to house and show Restaurant in Fresno, California, Harold Logan of Niagara Falls. case the organ. Finally. in 1976, a and hundreds of curious Fresnans Ontario. and installed in his resi site near a busy intersection was filled the building on opening night. dence. The chambers were located in located and the project began to take At 5:30, 24-year-old Don Croom a large basement, with the organ shape. took his position at the console, and speaking into the living room where The organ is installed in long and the 23-rank Wurlitzer roared to life. the console was situated. In 1974, fairly shallow chambers which oc In the years since, the restaurant Logan sold the organ to Bob Breuer. cupy most of the front wall, except has proven to be a huge success, Breuer's original plans were to use for the building's main entrance. with little advertising having been an existing building for his restau which separates them. The 23 ranks necessary. The news has spread pri rant, but the lengthy search proved of pipes and percussions are placed marily by word-of-mouth. And it's to be a dead end, so he decided to as follows: been encouraging to see large num Visible from the street are the 16' Post Horn and the 8' Tibia offset (on the left) and the large-scale Diapason offset bers of young people in the audi and 16' Tuba offset (on the right). The relay and blower rooms are above the front entrance, behind the sign . ences respond enthusiastically to their first exposure to a theatre or gan ... even when the sound of Bach comes rolling out of the cham bers. The interior of the 368-seat facility is attractively finished in dark woods, contrasted with red wall paper on the upper-half of the walls. Dozens of framed photographs of silent and talkie stars line the lower portion of the side walls. Several rows of small, clear lights highlight the edges of the balcony and its sup porting columns, as well as the peri meters of the pipe chamber windows facing the street. Opus 585, originally an 18-rank 260 special, has had an interesting history. It was first installed in Shea's Hippodrome Theatre in Buf falo, New York, in 1922.