Arcadia Roller Rink, . 4-20 Wurlitzer I:isher Tl,eater, Detroit. 4-33 Wurlitzer Fox Theater, Detroit. 4-36 Wurlitzer formerly Capitol Theater,Detroit. ORGANS OF DETROIT By ROGER MUMBRUE I, like all the rest of the enthusiasts, Arcadia Roller Rink , 4-20 Wurlitzer. removed last summer by Robert How­ gre~n spotlight, while he played his solo certain ly en joy the arti cles that appear in United Artists Theater , 3-17 Wurlitzer. land , who is finishin g his new home from the second console. the Theater Organ; however , ther e has Ol ympia· Stadium, 3-17 Barton . where the organ will be installed. A rank The 32 foot diaphone is located in a seemed to be one thing missing, that 6-Mile Uptown Theater , 3-11 Wur- li~t appeared in the Summer issue of the chamber on the left side of the theater. being articles dealing with the theater litzer . The ater Or 2an. Unfortunately many of the se are in poor organs of my home area, Detroit. Yes, Cinderella The ater, 3-10 Wurlitzer. The Fox Th eater and its Wurlitzer are adjustment rendering the set unus able, the Mighty Wurlitzer even found its way Riviera The ater, 3-10 Morto n. certainly something to stir the imagina­ but they are still connected, and a real as far north as Michi gan. In fact, we even Avalon Theater, 3-10 Barton . tion of any red-blooded organ enthusiast. novelty to hear. App arently they were have a couple of the largest, but I'll get Birmin gham The ater, 3-10 Barton. The theater is huge, as its seating capacity extreme .t effective as the management into those in a moment. Redfo rd Theater , 3-10 Barton. is nearly 6,000 . The stop list was thor­ still tells of the plaster they have loosened As far as. the theaters are concerned , Royal Oak The ater, 3-10 Barton . oughly covered in Judd Walton's article and the lass they were supposedly capa­ we have no organs playing regularly. We There are quite a number of smaller on th e Fox, so 1'11just ble of breaking. The percussions are, for do, however, have two public buildin gs organs, to be sure, but I won 't go into mention the differences in installation. the most part, installed in chambers on where live theater organ music can be them here. As usual, the larger theaters The main console rose on an elevator in the righb hand side of the stage. heard, these being the Arcadia Roller and organs were to be found in the down­ the orchestra pit, but years ago was moved Th e drgan in the Fisher Theater is Rink and Detroit's indoor sports arena, town houses. However, many of the thea­ to right of the stage where it rests on a even more unique, possessing many quali­ O lympia Stadium . I'll tell you more ters outst ate had organs to~ The ma­ platform about three feet from the floor. ties unfamiliar to the usual Wurlitzer about these in a moment. jority of these were Bartons with a few The organ is bein g maintained, although style . The Fisher The ater is very orna te; Meanwhile, back in the theaters; per­ Kimb alls thrown in for good measure . not in perfect shape. It is played for Good complete even to a small waterfall in the .haps the best way would be to give a list­ These were smaller instruments, not over Friday services held in the theater. I be­ lobby. It is patterned after an Aztec tem­ ing of the larger organs first and then 13 ranks. Th e largest of these is the 3-13 lieve the second console is still operative, ple. Although small in seating capacity discuss them more in detail, so here goes : Barton in the Michi ga n The ater in Ann although it is now stored in the basement. (2700 seats), it has a huge ceiling. The Fox Th eater, 4-36 Wurlitzer; also . Arbor, Michi gan. There was one major The tales are still told of the fun that basement stairways appear to be en­ 3-13 Moll er (Lobby) . exception to this rule; th at bein g the 4-15 Jack Franz, the , had with the trances to a dungeon, and the wall Fisher Theater , 4-33 Wurlitzer. Page installed in the Michi gan The ater second console on Halloween. He sent brackets as torches mounted on the wall. Hollywood Theater , 4-21 Barton . in Flint, Michi gan. This was an unusually the main console up from the pit with a The theater is kept in a very fine state of Palms Theater , 4-20 Wurlitzer. well unified organ of 206 stops. It was skeleton riding the bench , bathed in a (Continued on page 22) Hollywood Theater, · Detroit. 4-21 Barton. 16 17 (Continued from page 17) should shoot the guy who invented sound You can imagine how quickly any movies and wide screens.) available theater organ is snapped up repair. The organ has played publicly The only other playing organ in the with such an enthusiastic group of thea­ from time to time, so has been kept in city is also unique to some degree, that ter organ lovers waiting. In fact, this is reasonably good · condition, the only real being the 3-1 7 Barton in the Olympia why there is no point in listing the size problem is the replacement of magnets Stadium. The unique feature is that the of all the home theater organs here in ( they are late style black caps), which stadium seats 14,000 people, and the Detroit; by the time this letter reaches burn out in quantities . organ is not amplified. Surprisingly the you, several of them will have added The Fisher organ is complete with a volume is adequatei. but of course it must severa I ranks. grand , which due to the size of the be played nearly wide open, with the theater, can be heard well. The most pipework on very high pressure. peculiar feature of the organ is its un­ THE WURLITZER FACTORY usual stop arrangement , although there The last of the larger organs is the SHIPMENT LIST. were a few others built along this fashion. Barton in the Hollywood Theater. It is quite playable and used occasionally. Through the kind cooperation of Mr. Famy On any one ma!1ual the stops are grouped Wurlitzer , Chairman of the Board of the by chambers , of which there are four. Although the Bartons were quite com­ Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tona­ Of course, this makes the organ easy to mon in this area, I understand they were wanda, New York , A.T .O.E. in chis issue play in a "straight " manner, however it scarce in other parts of the country. presents the first installment of the now famous Hearing one Barton is not quite the same "Wurlitzer Installation List ," as it has come is hard to find your favorite tibia or to be known . Actually a record of factory ship­ string combination as you may have to as hearing them all. They produced some ments , it was started by W. Meakin Jones. Mr . reach to up to four different locations to very fine organs and others not quite so Wurlitzer in a letter addressed co President find the stops. I'll write the rank list. good. For a given size of organ, they Judd Walton , who completed the negoti ations , were of ten quite lush, and very beautiful states, "I am enclosing herewith a typewritt en in the nands of a person aware of their copy of th e small memorandum book that Mr. Note especially the many celestes. This W . Meakin Jones kept of the shipments mad e gives a particularly fine string chorus. tonal possibilities. of the Wurlitzer Hope-Jones organs . This list Now that I've told you of the organs scares with shipments made after October 14, orchestral chamber that aren 't playing, maybe I should men­ 1911. Now there were 3 organs shipped prior to crumpet Foundation Chamber tion the ones that are-those being the open diapason chat time. You will notice they have no daces organs in homes. There are 16 theater on chem. The reason for chis is chat these were orchestral oboe diaphonic diapason organs in homes here , and one in a pri­ kinura shipped before Mr . Jones joined our organiza­ string gamba vate school gymnasium. However, the tion , chat is, Mr . W. Meakin Jones joined it. string celesce gamba celesce hobby is quite recent as only three of the In many of the designations it merely show s saxophone harmonic flute ( 4 foot) organs have been in since before 1950. the city and the type of instrument chat was shipped. The reason for chis is that the organs oboe horn Claire Dunham 's 2-8 Wnrlitzer has been French horn Main chamber were shipped to our own stores and then sold 1930. coranglais tuba horn ~laying since Several of the sets by the score co the theatres or other institutions. quintadena clarinet were pur chased directly from \X/urlitzer. WhereYer we knew what it was the informa­ quint adena celesce viol d' orch. Clare has moved the organ three times tion was inserted later nn If you have any questions co ask about this viol celesce around Detroit. Once he lived in an krumet list , please write me. Now, this list runs apartment house and had the blower in through 1920. From then on there was another Solo chamber salicional tuba mirabilis voix celesce the basement with the wind line running record kept and that we will have phocoscated English horn concert flute up the side of the building. As you because it is possible to do that . This original open diapason ,·ox humana guessed, this arrangement didn 't last small book was not legible enough to phoco­ stat. The last list which will be photostated tibia clausa dulciana long, so he moved it again. The moving vox humana unda maris goes through 1943 . With best wishes. presented much more of a problem to Yours sincerely , The Arcadia Roller Rink contains the Claire than to the average person as he Famy W . Wurlitzer. 4-20 Wurlitzer that was once heard in doesn't have a car. Professional moving After considerable thought on the matter , the Capitol Theater, Detroit. It is a twin was expensive, so he moved it in the only the editorial staff of have to the organ in the Palms, which is no way he could. ( Hold your breath.) He decided co present the list to you with no cor­ rections whatsoever. There are errors in it longer playable, and is minus the brass moved the entire organ in the side car of which readers will be quick co discover. sets of pipes. Arcadia is not a large rink, his Harley Davidson motorcycle, which Attempts have been made by several persons but very live as rinks go, so the playing he still owns. You can imagine the num­ co bring the list up co date with corrections. conditions are almost ideal, the delay in ber of pieces that the organ would con­ but it is almost certain co have some error in response being small, but with a long it even though e,·ery effort might be made to tain the size to fit in a side car of a make it perfect. For instance, Opus No. 1982 reverberation time . The organ is played motorcycle and the number of trips it is listed as deliYered co Mill Valley, Georgia. nightly by "Wild Bill" Holleman and took him. when actually it was shipped co Mill Valley, is a real thrill to hear. Bill, being the avid The largest organ in a home in Detroit California. While these errors are not exces­ enthusiast that he is, did the only natural will be Robert Howland's 4-15 Page, or sive, it will give an opportunity for some sleuthing on the part of everyone. Vp-ro-date thing, and added a post horn to the 4-16 with a newly acquired celeste string. information on the final or present disposition organ. There is one 3-14 Wurlitzer and then my of these instruments will be compiled by A.T. The United Artists ' \X/urlitz;r is much own 3-13 Wurlitzer. Nat Brown the O.E. as received from our readers and pub­ like the Richmond Mosque in stoplist, owner of the 3-14 Wurlitzer has o~e of lished from time co time. So here we go-haYe fun , and watch for succeeding issues~ however the theater is much smaller. It the Robert Morton v'oleon 's that was no longer is usable due to the addition mentioned in Vol. II, No. 4 of the Tibia, of a Todd A-O screen. (Somebod~· although it isn·t qui~e in playable shape. 22