Post by gavbrown on Feb 20, 2016 23:01:24 GMT
Hi colleagues, here is a musical story from my life that I share with you in the hope that you will enjoy it. This really happened to me -
In 1927, one of the movie theaters in my home town acquired a movie theater organ. These were expensive instruments ($25,000 at the time, imagine what it would cost today) which were played by musicians while silent movies were shown. This organ was a very complex instrument: it had 3 keyboards and 2 pedal boards (a pedal board is played with your feet). You changed instruments on all 5 keyboards by flipping switches. In addition, the organ was mounted on 4 metal poles, which it could rise on, so as to create a dramatic effect: initially the organ would be low in the ground, and then would rise on the poles as the movie opened. All around the sides of the front of the theater were the organ pipes, just like in traditional organs, which the sound would emanate from. One month after the theater purchased the organ, the first sound movie was released, “The Jazz Singer,” which instantly made the organ obsolete, and it was dismantled shortly thereafter. Originally, when the organ was dismantled, the parts were put in storage, where they remained for decades, until an organization started up in the 70s to revive the organ and put it into my high school, because my high school had a theater which was capable of allowing it to be installed. It didn’t get much use there (why would it?) but as I was pianist, I sought and got permission to play it. I used to go in after school hours and noodle around on it. It had a sound which, if you turned up the volume, was loud enough that you could feel the air from the organ pipes blowing. I found a video of a guy playing the organ, about a minute long. You can easily see the 3 hand keyboards, and you can see the guy playing the pedal boards. At the very end of the video, you might notice the organ descending a bit -
In 1927, one of the movie theaters in my home town acquired a movie theater organ. These were expensive instruments ($25,000 at the time, imagine what it would cost today) which were played by musicians while silent movies were shown. This organ was a very complex instrument: it had 3 keyboards and 2 pedal boards (a pedal board is played with your feet). You changed instruments on all 5 keyboards by flipping switches. In addition, the organ was mounted on 4 metal poles, which it could rise on, so as to create a dramatic effect: initially the organ would be low in the ground, and then would rise on the poles as the movie opened. All around the sides of the front of the theater were the organ pipes, just like in traditional organs, which the sound would emanate from. One month after the theater purchased the organ, the first sound movie was released, “The Jazz Singer,” which instantly made the organ obsolete, and it was dismantled shortly thereafter. Originally, when the organ was dismantled, the parts were put in storage, where they remained for decades, until an organization started up in the 70s to revive the organ and put it into my high school, because my high school had a theater which was capable of allowing it to be installed. It didn’t get much use there (why would it?) but as I was pianist, I sought and got permission to play it. I used to go in after school hours and noodle around on it. It had a sound which, if you turned up the volume, was loud enough that you could feel the air from the organ pipes blowing. I found a video of a guy playing the organ, about a minute long. You can easily see the 3 hand keyboards, and you can see the guy playing the pedal boards. At the very end of the video, you might notice the organ descending a bit -
