JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE ORGAN SOCIETY Orbil ID™e eclronic 1ynrhe1izer P,UJ ~ -~oh_xe01pinel orgon equoJ... rhenewe;I woy lo mo <.emu1ic fromWur irzec Now with the Orbit III electronic synthesizer from slowly, just as the theatre organist did by opening and Wurlitzer you can create new synthesized sounds in­ closing the chamber louvers. stantly ... in performance. And with the built-in Orbit III synthesizer, this This new Wurlitzer instrument is also a theatre organ, instrument can play exciting combinations of synthe­ with a sectionalized vibrato/tremolo, toy counter, in­ sized, new sounds, along with traditional organ music. A dependent tibias on each keyboard and the penetrating built-in cassette player/recorder lets you play along with kinura voice that all combine to recreate the sounds of pre-recorded tapes for even more dimensions in sound. the twenty-ton Mighty Wurlitzers of silent screen days. But you've got to play the Orbit III to believe it. And it's a cathedral/classical organ, too, with its own in­ Stop in at your Wurlitzer dealer and see the Wurlitzer dividually voiced diapason, reed, string and flute voices. 4037 and 4373. Play the eerie, switched-on sounds New linear accent controls permit you to increase or of synthesized music. Ask for your free Orbit III decrease the volume of selected sections suddenly, or demonstration record. Or write: Dep t: 1072 WURLilzER ® The Wurlitzer Company, DeKalb, Illinois 60115. ha.4'1he ,vay cover- photo ... Genii's console, the 3/13 235 Special Wurlitzer with Brass Trumpet, was installed in the Canal Street Theatre in New York in 1927, and was moved to the Triboro The­ atre in Queens, New York in 1931. Marvin Lautenheiser discovered it in 1962 and now houses it in a huge studio adjacent to his home in Springfield, Virginia. See story on Journal of the American Theatre Organ Society page 5. (Photo by Richard Neidich.) Volume 14, No. 5 • October, 1972 ATOS National Membership is $8.00 per in this issue ... calendar year, which includes a subscription to THEATRE ORGAN, the official pub­ lication of the American Theatre Organ FEATURES Society. Single copies $1.25. Make check or 5 "Genii" . Marvin Lautzenheiser money order payable to ATOS, and mail 8 John DeMello . • . • . Alice Blue and Stu Green to P.O. Box 1314, Salinas, California 93901. 12 Jesse Crawford - An Appreciation . John Muri Editorial Address: 13 El Bombarde. .. Douglas M. Powers THEATRE ORGAN 21 1973 Convention P.O. Box 1314, Salinas, California 93901 22 Introducing ... Sidney Torch . Judd Walton 24 Restoring the Barton . Henry B. Aldridge Advertising Address 27 Organ at Midnight .....• . ... Bob Ort ATOS Advertising 2231 North Burling Street 29 Theatre Organ in Cathedral Ray Brubacher Chicago, Illinois 60614 32 Nostalgic Memories ..... Charles Wright ATOS National Headquarters 35 How to Entertain 500 Friends ATOS P.O. Box 1002 DEPARTMENTS Middleburg, Virginia 22117 4 Acre of Seats 36 Hollywood Cavalcade 42 Letters to the Editor Phone (703) 554~321 16 Vox Pops 37 For the Records 43 Chapter Notes ATOS National Officers 26 Nuggets from the Golden Days 40 Closing Chord 47 Classified Ads Erwin Young, President 30 Snippets from England 41 Dinny's Colyum Duane Searle, Vice President Mary Bowles, Secretary -Treasurer Nina Young, Executive Secretary ATOS National Board of Directors Mary Bowles Allen W. Rossiter Gaylord Carter Dick Schrum Al Mason Richard Simonton As we begin a new administration in the Allen Miller Judd Walton history of ATOS certainly the first order of Stillman Rice, Past President business is a sincere expression of gratitude ATOS Past Presidents to the former officers who have carried the Richard Simonton Feb. 1955 - Oct. 1958 torch for the society for the past year. I can Judd Walton Oct. 1958 - July 1961 Tiny James July 1961 - July 1964 assure them that the flame is bright and the Carl Norvell July 1964 - July 1966 future of ATOS is brighter because of their Richard Schrum July 1966 - July 1968 Al Mason July 1968 - July 1970 efforts. Stillman Rice July 1970 - July 1972 The first change from your new admin­ ATOS Honorary Members istration is an attempt to establish a permanent 1959-Jesse Crawford 1966-W. "Tiny" James address for the membership files, which up to 1960-Farny Wurlitzer 1967- Erwin A. Young, Jr. now have been moved with each president. 1961-Mel Doner 1968-Richard C. Simonton 1962-Leonard MacClain 1969-Judd Walton The Circulation-Editorial office for THEATRE 1963-Eddie Dunstedter 1970-Bill Lamb ORGAN and the membership office for ATOS 1964-Reginald Foort 1971-George and Vi Thompson will be under the same roof at P.O. Box 1314, 1965-Dan Barton 1972- Stu Green Salinas, California 93901 with Vi Thompson directing circulation and memberships EDITORIAL STAFF and George Thompson remaining editor. All material for the magazine, ( except Editor-George Thompson Associate Editors - Ray Brubacher advertising) new memberships and renewals should be sent to this address - thus Lloyd E. Klos eliminating one step which had previously resulted in delays in activating member­ Peg Nielsen ships and mailing of THEATRE ORGAN . Advertising copy should be mailed to Editor-Emeritus - W. "Stu" Green Publisher-Al Mason Len Clark, 2231 N. Burling St., Chicago, Illinois 60614. Editorial Assistant - Don Lockwood All other correspondence should be sent to ATOS National Headquarters, P.O. Advertising Manager-Len Clarke Box 1002, Middleburg, Virginia 22117. A separate ATOS telephone has been in­ Circulation Manager-Vi Thompson stalled at the Middleburg address and will be answered only when I am there to THEATRE ORGAN (title registered U.S. Patent Office) is published bi-monthly by talk with you. This removes the need of a person to person call and direct dialing the American Theatre Organ Society, Inc., will assure the rnme result. The number is Area code 703, 554-8321. a non-profit organization, Erwin A. Young, While my name may not be a household word in ATOS, I hope that the corning Jr., President. All rights reserved. Entire contents copyrighted 1972 by ATOS, Inc., year will change that and find me renewing old friendships while meeting many Office of publication is P.O. Box 2329. members who are new to me. We have some of the finest people in the world in this Livonia, Michigan 48150. organization and I look ahead with enthusiasm to the opportunity to work with POSTMASTER: Second Class postage paid at Livonia, Michigan. IF UNDELIVERABLE, send form 3579 to ATOS Circulation De­ partment, Box 1314, Salinas, California 93901. ~t:~y ~(2~3.~3( OCTOBER, 1972 THEATRE ORGAN V <j anacre of seatsin a palaceof splendor! (Photo courtesy the Helgeson collection) Number2 7 in a series- By BillPeterson THE ST. LOUIS THEATRE - St. Louis,Missouri This 4000 seat house was designed by C.W. and George L. Rapp , and opened in 1925 . The organ was a 4-manual Kimball. The theatre has been completely refurbished and is now named Powell Symphony Hall, the home of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. 4 THEATRE ORGAN OCTOBER , 1972 by Marvin Lautzenheiser Introduction from the score itself without copying, simultaneously, giving, in effect, an Today computers are used to do all mechanically or electronically, an organist with more than eight hands. kinds of things from controlling flights actual performance by a musician. Its It is with more than passing interest to the moon to keeping records of our capabilities include the playing of any that we note that the computers in­ charge accounts. It is only natural, notes on three keyboards and pedal­ volved in the GENII System are digital. then, to try to develop a computer board, changing stop tabs, controlling In this system the meaning of the system to play a theatre pipe organ. the swell shades, and operating the term "unit orchestra" on the Wur­ The GENII System does just that. The untuned percussion and traps. Up to litzer can come close to realization. music played by GENII is generated 40 of these things may be operated Inasmuch as GENII is already playing music of an advanced level, the question now is "How well can a computer be taught to play the organ?" The re­ mainder of this article will describe the GENII System. Development The design of GENII began in 1966 with actual construction started in 1968. A multitude of concepts were analyzed and discarded before the The most unusual feature of this summer's convention was GENII, the theatre-organ-playing com­ puter built by Marvin Lautzen­ heiser. The precision clearing and setting up of the stop tabs in­ variably triggered an appreciative ripple while the flashing red lights on the keyboard display kept all eyes occupied. Marvin and his GENII received a stand­ ing ovation. So many ATOS'ers requested copies of the technical GENII Seminar that it was with­ held from the initial convention coverage in order to present the paper in its entirety. Editor current design was adopted. Much of the electronics could be described as "Early American" with many of the parts salvaged from scrapped electronic gear. The MUSICTRAN language has been through three major overall de­ signs leading to a rather generalized, flexible language which com bin es reasonable ease of use with a thorough control of the resulting music. The MARVEL computer program which 5 translates the data from punched cards 3. Notes times and durations are specified in computer counts; thus a quarter note's to data on a digital tape has under­ 4. Percussion, toys, and traps gone continual modification for over length could be coded in the range two years. 5. Volume of 56 to 72 with the expected value With all the above work in the 6.