JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE ORGAN SOCIETY 1970 NEW YORK CONVENTION COVERAGE The magnificent sound of the WURLITZERORGAN now comesto you with Total Tone® The Wurlitzer 4030R The Wurlitzer 4502 More than 50 styles and finishes ... for amateur or professional) for home or church) for schoolor club~ The Wurlitzer 4300 Delu xe Now, many Wurlitzer Organsare available with the theatrical sound of Spectra-Tone® and Reverb, the fascinating effects of the Slide, the scintillating The Wurlitzer 4700 sounds of Ssh-Boom.® WuRLiliER means Music to millions® The Wurlitzer 4500 pianos • organs • electronic pianos The Wurlitzer 4075 DeKalb, Illinois 60115 THE COVER PHOTO Bill Lamb Photo Radio City Music Hall organists Jack Ward, Dick Leibert and Ray Bohr performed at the Fabulous Fifteenth. Convention coverage begins on Page 26. Journal of the American Theatre Organ Society In Th is Issue Volume 12, Number 4 August, 1970 FEATURES 5 The Kilgen Wonder Organ . .. H. A. Sommer 10 The Gil White Residence Organ ATOS National Membership is $8.00 per cal­ . .. Ray Brubacher endar year , which includes a subscription to 11 Another Theatre To Bite The Dust THEATRE ORGAN, the official publication of 13 Song Slides And Theatre Organists .......................... .. John Muri the American Theatre Organ Society. Single 14 Launching Henry ................. Henry B. Murtagh copies: $1.25. Make check or money order 15 Theatre Organ Enthusiasts Boost Fresh Air Fund payable to ATOS, and mail to P. 0. Box 90, 16 Toronto's Odeon Carlton ......... Stewart Duncan New Haven, Connecticut 06501. 21 The Esther McDonald Stayner Story .. Lloyd E. Klos ALL MATERIAL FOR PUBLICATION 23 New York Paramount Now Nostalgia John E. Merriken EXCEPT ADVERTISING SHOULD BE 24 A Living Tribute . ........ ........ Douglas Marion SENT TO ATOS PUBLICATIONS 26 1970 Convention Coverage P. 0. BOX 2329, LIVONIA, MICHIGAN 48150 38 30 Davids Tackle Goliath Of Organ ................... Allen Miller 39 Conn . Valley Offers Scholarship Awards ADVERTISING ADDRESS: Dick Schrum, Box 39 RTOS Holds Contest For Aspiring Organists 7422, Bitter Lake Station, Seattle, Wash . 98133. 43 Rodgers Delivers "Style 260 Special" . ..... Peg Nielsen ATOS National Officers Stil Iman Rice, President DEPARTMENTS Lee Erw in, Vice President 8 Snippets From England 40 For The Records Mary Bowles, Secretary-Treasurer 12 Nuggets From The Golden Days 42 Letters To The Editor Eleanor Weaver, Executive Secretary 17 Vox Pops 44 Chapter News ATOS National Board of Directors 20 Hollywood Cavalcade 47 Classified Ads Gaylord Carter Mary Bowles W. "Tiny" James Lee Erwin Allen W. Rossiter Ben M. Hall ANOTHER SWAN, ANOTHER SONG Richard Simonton Allen Miller We have the good fortune to have the well demonstrated leadership of Albert T. Mason, Past President our new President, Stillman Rice, available to keep us moving forward. He will be ably assisted by Vice President Lee Erwin from New York, Secretary ATOS Honorary Members Treasurer Mary Bowles from Delaware Valley, and the consistent efforts of 1959-Jesse Crawford HALL OF FAME the new Executive Secretary from Connecticut Valley, Mrs. Eleanor Weaver. 1960-Farny Wurlitzer Jesse Crawford 1961-Mel Doner Eddie Dunstedter Please note all the new addresses on this page. The Board of Directors 1962-Leonard MacClain Reginald Foort and the President have appointed me the publisher of Theatre Organ to 1963-Eddie Dunstedter Leonard MacClain continue the team effort that is now producing the magazine. This means 1964-Reginald Foort Don Miller 1965-Dan Barton Henry Murtagh that all material for the magazine (except advertising) will continue to be 1966-W. " Tiny" James Ray Shelley sent to P. 0 . Box 2329 . 1967-Erwin A. Young, Jr. Arsene Siegal 1968-Richard C. Simonton Firmin Swinnen My heartiest congratulations to Maestro Claud Beckham, Chairman 1969-Judd Walton 1970-Lee Erwin Bob Balfour and all the superlative crew that accomplished the impossible 1970-Bill Lamb ... a New York Convention . They even timed the weather so we could all EDITORIAL STAFF get home before the long, hot summer arrived. No one that attended will ever forget it and those of us who were there may well be a little patronizing Editor - George Thompson about it. One of the nicest things noticed was the return of the fun and Associate Editors - Ray Brubacher Lloyd Klos enjoyment that appeared at the Tulsa Regional. Another was the constant Peg Nielsen help from the native New Yorkers in getting around on the subways. This Editor-Emeritus - W . "Stu" Green was not what one expected from reading the newspapers. Publisher - Al Mason This will be the last time I occupy this page and Betty and I wish to Art Director - Don Lockwood thank all of the officers and staff for their help together with all those who Advertising Manager - Dick Schrum have helped to make this an exciting and busy two years. We hope the friends Circulation Manager - Vi Thompson we have made will remain so as this is the true reward for the amount of work that was required of us. THEATRE ORGAN (title registered U. S. Patent Office) is published bi-monthly by the American Many things are in sight for our Society as long as we keep working to Theatre Organ Society , Inc., a non-profit organiza ­ make our great instruments available for the artists to play. Let's keep the tion , Stillman H. Rice, President. All rights reserved. friendship warm among us. This is as essential as all the leather, wire and Entire contents copyrighted 1970 by ATOS, Inc., wood that the organ makers ever used. Thanks for the memories. Office of publication is P.O . Box 2329, Livonia, Michigan 48150. Printed by Detroit Master-Craft, Livonia, Michigan 48150. POSTMASTER: Second Class postage paid at Livonia, Michigan. IF UNDELIVERABLE, send form 3579 to ATOS Circulation Department, Box 1314, Salinas, Clf1{;/CUkJ1L California 93901. ATOS Al Mason, Past President 3 ARCBIVEs/LIBRARY theatre organ By Bill Peterson, Number 22 in a series LOEW'S THEATRE -AKRON, OHIO This theatre is now the Akron Civic Theatre, and The organ is a 3/ 13 Wurlitzer style 240 with was designed in Moorish style by John Eberson. The waterfall console and rotating lift. Members of the house opened on April 20, 1929 with clouds and Western Reserve Chapter of ATOS have restored twinkling stars on its atmospheric ceiling. After 41 the organ and plan to present concerts in the years the house is in immaculate condition. future. - Photo courtesy of David Vargo august 1970 4 "The Voice of the Silent Drama" Wonbtr<!&rgan by H. A. Sommer Photography by John Sagorka Photo Copying by Bill Lamb There was always a pride in craftman­ PART 1 ship at Kilgen which justified the Latin slogan on the Kilgen shield - "Mirabile When the popularity of theatre organs and the increasing demand for them auditu" ( wonderful to hear). created a "sellers market'' in the '20's, a number of firms well-known for Although George Kilgen has been their church organs diverted some of their effort in order to cash in on the retired for several years, he has a re­ shortage of instruments designed to both accompany silent films and serve as markable memory, especially in the solo instruments. The Kilgen Company of St Louis, a firm with a history of organ field and of the St. Louis factory. organ building going back several hundred years in Europe, answered the call He was responsible for many of the to a limited degree. George Kil gen remembers those hectic days vividly. patents developed, particularly con­ cerning electricity and was the designer N THIS present day it is most un­ of the famous Kilgen magnet, which is usual to meet a person who was in­ still said to be the quietest and most Itimately engaged in the manufacture of efficient of all, also the most expensive theatre pipe organs, supervised theatre to make. This was important, because installations and was well acquainted it helped bridge the great change from with such pioneers as Hope-Jones, tracker and pneumatic to electro-pneu­ Marr, Colton, Moller and others of the matic action early in the century. golden era of the theatre organ. Such His father, Charles, was a man of a person is George J. Kilgen, namesake the "old school," believing deeply in of the grandfather who started the com­ tradition, as applied to the organ bus­ pany in the United States. He lives now iness and in the raising of his sons. As in Sacramento, California. an organ builder he believed that the First, George filled me in on Kilgen only place for an organ was in a history, which starts back in the middle church, auditorium or a home parlor. ages. In 1639 when France was per­ He was vehemently opposed to the secuting Huguenots (Protestants) , building of theatre organ's. His sons, young Sebastian Kilgen , a French Hu­ however, who took over about the guenot , fled into Germany after being time theatres were demanding organs, wounded in the strife of intolerance at thought otherwise. George was playing home. He took refuge in a monastery In 1851, George Kilgen ( grandfather on a clandestine football team, un­ near Durlach, then the capital of the of our story teller), decided he'd had known to his father, and at age fifteen Duchy of Baden. While recovering enough of Europe and its continual broke his arm during scrimmage. It from his injuries he heard the sound wars ( the French invaded and burned had been a Kilgen tradition to appren­ that was to shape his life - the organ Durlach to the ground, including the tice all sons in organ building, so during in the monastery chapel. He learned Kilgen shop, at one time) . He decided his recovery his father decided that the that the instrument had been built at to seek his fortune in the New World time had come for George's apprentice­ the monastery and his deep interest con­ and in 1851 established a small shop in ship to begin.