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Wurlitzer

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bytebreaker (talk | contribs) at 02:59, 4 April 2009 (Added 'Weinberg Center' to list of American Theaters w/"original" organs; added external link about same organ). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, is an American company, formerly a producer of stringed instruments, woodwind, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes.

Over time Wurlitzer changed to producing only organs and jukeboxes, but it no longer produces either. The factory, in the same complex as that of the Eugene DeKleist company (another maker of band organs and orchestrions, acquired by Wurlitzer), is in North Tonawanda, New York, USA. The building is now home to a wide array of tenants ranging from an indoor batting cage to private apartments to various light industrial and commercial businesses. The building's current owner is in the midst of a vast restoration project and has recently replaced the original Wurlitzer sign with a new one.

Deutsche Wurlitzer, owner of the Wurlitzer Jukebox and Vending Electronics trademark, was acquired by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.

File:Pipeorgan Wurlitzer label.jpg
A Wurlitzer label on a pipe organ.
Wurlitzer 3500 Juke-box (1971)

Jukeboxes

The Wurlitzer was the iconic jukebox of the Rock 'n' Roll era, to the extent that Wurlitzer came in some places to be a generic name for any jukebox. The Wurlitzer is often used to invoke the period in films and television.

Replica jukeboxes bearing the Wurlitzer name are still available. The more recent models are able to play CDs, as well as brand new special edition units also with iPod connectivity. These full and smaller sized replica jukeboxes, now owned by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, are available to view at: http://www.deutsche-wurlitzerusa.com/ (click on the ear)

Band organs

Band organ models once produced by Wurlitzer include:

Some orchestrions made by the company can be found at Clark's Trading Post, Lincoln, New Hampshire, USA, the Music Hall, Nevada City, Montana, USA, and the Jasper Sanfilippo collection at Victorian Palace, Barrington Hills, Illinois, USA. The company's patents, trademarks and assets were acquired by the Baldwin Piano Company with their purchase of the keyboard division of Wurlitzer in 1988.

Chaminade High School, in Mineola, New York, is currently the only high school in the USA to have one in their school. It was bought from an adult movie theater.

Theatre organs

Perhaps the most famous instruments Wurlitzer built were its pipe organs (from 1914 until around 1940), which were installed in theaters, homes, churches, and other public places. "The Mighty Wurlitzer" theatre organ was designed, originally by Robert Hope-Jones, as a "one man orchestra" to accompany silent movies. In all, Wurlitzer built over 2,200 pipe organs (and indeed more theatre organs than the rest of the theatre organ manufacturers combined); the largest one originally built was the 4 keyboard / 58 rank (set of pipes) instrument at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Music Hall instrument is actually a concert instrument, capable of playing classical as well as non-classical repertoire. It, along with the organ at the Paramount Theatre in Denver Colorado[1] are the only Wurlitzer installations still in use that have dual identical, but independent consoles.

Other large Wurlitzer organs still in their original locations include the Chicago Theater in Chicago Illinois (the oldest); Byrd Theater in Richmond, Virginia; Fox Theatre in Saint Louis, Missouri; Lorain Palace Theatre in Lorain, Ohio; Weinberg Center in Frederick, Maryland; Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan; Shea's Theater in Buffalo, New York; Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York, Riviera Theatre in North Tonawanda, New York; the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee; the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama; Coleman Theatre in Miami, Oklahoma; the Denver Paramount Theatre in Denver, Colorado; the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay, Oregon and the Paramount Theater in Seattle, Washington, The Plaza Theatre, El Paso Texas, the Rose Theater (originally Riviera), the Orpheum Theater in Sioux City, Iowa, and the Orpheum Theater in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska. The Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids, Iowa was home to an impressive Wurlitzer organ on a lift that raised and lowered it from beneath the stage however, the console, lift, and blower of the Mighty Wurlitzer theater organ were destroyed by the 2008 flood. Smaller instruments in the UK exist in their original installations, such as the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn and the Blackpool Tower Ballroom in the UK. These instruments are still being played several times a week.

Much larger, and more versatile, theatre organs have been built in the last 20 years by well-heeled private enthusiasts, the largest being the magnificent 5/80 organ at the Sanfilippo Estate in Barrington, IL. Other examples include the San Sylmar, CA Nethercutt Collection 4/77, the Organ Stop Pizza, Mesa, AZ 4/78, and the John Dickinson High School Wilmington, DE 3/66 mostly W.W. Kimball. These were built by a combination of older organs, and new pipework to achieve results.

New digital recreations of these instruments have also reached technological peaks in the last few years. Companies such as Walker Theatre Organs, Allen Organ Company and Rodgers Instruments have utilized high-level, digital sampling of original pipe organ sounds to incorporate into their electronic instruments, resulting in very close duplications of these original musical wonders (with the usual electronic-organ limitations).

In the 1950s, the American Association of Theater Organ Enthusiats (AATOE) was formed to save and preserve theater organs that still remained. (There were other builders as well, including The John Compton Organ Co. LTD, Hill Norman and Beard, W.W. Kimball Company, M.P. Moller, Inc., Robert Morton Organ Company, George Kilgen and Sons, Marr and Colton Organ Company, the Bartola Musical Instrument Company (Barton Organ Company), and the Wicks Organ Company.) The AATOE is now know as the American Theater Organ Society (ATOS).[2] and there is smaller but comparable society in the UK, the Cinema Organ Society.[3]

Wurlitzers in Britain

There were a number of Wurlitzers in Britain in the period before the Second World War (1939-45). The first was a very small, six rank instrument installed at the Picture House, Walsall in the West Midlands. The organ is now located in the Congregational Church in Beer, Devon [1], a small fishing village on the south coast, where it is now being lovingly restored to its former glory. The percussions and "toy counter" division were removed and re-cycled when the organ was installed in the church, since it was not considered necessary for church purposes; although compatible replacements are now being sourced and fitted to replace those which were removed. Before the instrument was bought by the church it had been in a private residence in Sedgely, Staffordshire, after its removal from the cinema.

Many Wurlitzers were in the larger cinemas and broadcasts were made by the BBC on a regular basis. The more famous of these organs were at the Empire Cinema in London, The Tower Ballroom Blackpool and at the Granada cinema in Tooting - which is currently undergoing a lengthy restoration.[4] It was recently played in public for the first time in 33 years. British organist Reginald Dixon was well known for his performances and broadcasts on the Blackpool organ.

The Trocadero Elephant and Castle Wurlitzer, was the largest organ ever to be shipped to the UK,[5] installed in 1930 in time for the grand opening of the 3,400-seater Cinema. Organist Quintin Maclean is always associated with the instrument. This was closely followed in size by the Paramount/ODEONS at Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle. The Cinema Organ Society[6] has an extensive list of British cinema organs.[7]

The Blackpool Opera House organ was the last new Wurlitzer to be installed in the UK in 1939 and was designed by Horace Finch. The Granada, Kingston also received a Wurlitzer in or around 1939, but most of this came from an earlier installation in Edinburgh. This was the last Wurlitzer installation to be opened and Reginald Dixon was at the console.

The Worthing Assembly hall houses the biggest Wurlitzer organ console in Europe, this console was installed in 1981 after being brought from Blackpool. This organ was originally built in the late 1890s and was re-conditioned and brought back up to service in the 1960s, it was then bought by the national organ trust in the 1980s and installed in Worthing in 1981, the organ has been slowly upgraded to an electric air pump system, programmable pre-sets and a full pipe system.

Many of these organs have survived and are installed in private homes, Town Halls, Concert Halls and Ballrooms all over the country. The largest fully functioning Wurlitzer in Britain today is the four-manual organ in the Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn, London (now a bingo hall).[8].

Electric pianos

Main article: Wurlitzer electric piano

From 1955 to 1982 the company also produced the highly regarded Wurlitzer electric piano series, an electrically-amplified piano variant.

Electric guitars

The Wurlitzer brand was applied to several lines of electric guitars during the 1960s. The first family of solid body electric guitars and basses were manufactured by the Holman Company of Neodosha, KS, from late 1965 until 1967. Models included the Cougar, Wildcat and Gemini, all of which had different body shapes. The majority of the Kansas made instruments were guitars, with only a handful of basses being manufactured.

The second family of guitars debuted in 1967, and were manufactured in Italy by the Welson company, and were semi-hollow in construction.

  • The Wurlitzer model 1015, originally produced in 1948, is the design which most people across the world associate with the term "jukebox," with bubbling tubes and columns which constantly change color. Reproductions of this design have been made by Wurlitzer itself as well as most other commercial jukebox builders. Current models are usually CD, though even digital download models are now available. The original played 78 rpm records.
  • In John Betjeman's documentary Metro-land (1973), Len Rawle performs on a Wurlitzer organ from the Empire cinema in Leicester Square, which he had installed in his house in Chorleywood.
  • The Mighty Wurlitzer is used as a metaphor for centralized control of media in politics and government.[9][10]
  • A Wurlitzer appeared in the film adaptation of V for Vendetta in 'V's home, the Shadow Gallery. Banned by the Fascist Government, Norsefire.
  • The Mighty Wurlitzer is the title of episode 16 in series 6 of The Goon Show, first broadcast on January 3 1956.[11]


References

  1. ^ http://www.paramountdenver.com/
  2. ^ ATOS - American Theatre Organ Society
  3. ^ The Cinema Organ Society
  4. ^ "The Tooting Project".
  5. ^ The Cinema Organ Society
  6. ^ The Cinema Organ Society
  7. ^ The Cinema Organ Society
  8. ^ Juliette Soester, Willesden Local History Society (2000). "The Gaumont State Cinema". Brent Heritage. Retrieved 2007-11-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ "Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty Wurlitzer". NameBase NewsLine. April–June 1997. Retrieved 19 December 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  10. ^ http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_mighty_wurlitzer
  11. ^ http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s06e16_the_mighty_wurlitzer |accessdate=30 March 2009
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