Wurlitzer Style D Description

THEATRE ORGAN HISTORY

The theatre organ was used to accompany silent films in the early years of the twentieth century. The first instruments were photo-players based on a piano with some pipes and traps added. Player piano type rolls were supplied for automatic music accompaniment. As theatres become larger, more capable instruments were required. The first complete organs were church organs with traps added, installed about 1910 to 1914 and were not particularly successful. The Wurlitzer company bought the Hope-Jones Organ Company in 1910 and began the development of the complete "orchestral" type of organ specifically designed for use in the theatre. After four years of difficult development of the instrument and the market, volume production of theatre organs began. The peak period of theatre organ production was from 1915 to 1929. The development of sound films and the depression ended the production and use of theatre organs about 1930. A few instruments were built after 1930, primarily for use in Britain.

THEATRE ORGAN TONAL STRUCTURE

(Adapted from "Two Centuries of American Organ Building", William Harrison Barnes, Belwin Mills Publishing Co., 1970, with additions)

Despite its short life span, the theater organ went through a complete tonal evolution. The very first organs used in theaters were simply "romantic" church or concert organs combined with the traps and effects found in amusement park band organs. The best of them, the Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra, was the most adaptable to theater use because it was the most orchestral of the romantic organs used in churches or concert halls and offered the best substitute for the live orchestra in a theater.

Robert Hope-Jones was the father of the theatre organ. His organ building company was purchased by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in 1910. The period from 1910 to 1914 comprised a period of development of the business of theatre and concert organs. Originally Hope-Jones built only church organs so that a period of development was required to adapt the organ for more general use. The fast growing movie industry's requirement for music supplied a new market for an orchestral type instrument.

There were three basic "eras" of theater organ tonal development. The first complete theater organ was not really developed until about 1915. Theater organs of this period were characterized by well balanced, crisp orchestral sound, and generally reflected their origins in romantic church organ design. Some even had several straight ranks. Keen "pencil" strings, heavy, smooth-toned reeds, and several foundation sets were the basis of the specifications. Initially, the Tibia was considered a foundation stop and used little as a solo voice.

Around 1921 the theater organ completely broke away from the church organ. Theater organs were more unified and included more solo stops. However, the Tibia was still only one of a collection of solo stops. Note that the first Style D Wurlitzer was shipped in 1921 and is the smallest Wurlitzer to have both a Tibia and a Diapason. The stop list of the Style D still reminds one of the romantic orchestral organ design of the time; however, the voicing covers a wider range of tone color than a romantic style church organ.

In about 1926, the Tibia took over the theater organ tonal scheme completely. It was unified to all useful pitches and tremulated to the extreme. The trend was to lushness and power rather than articulation. This was the era of the ballad style of playing typified by Jesse Crawford.

The finest examples of the three periods of tonal evolution appeared, strangely enough, in one city on the same street. They are all Wurlitzers on Market Street in San Francisco: the New California Theater 3-3/5/32 (1917), the Granada Theater 4/32 (1921) and the Fox Theater 4/36 (1928).

Although there were many more bad than good theater organs, there were many that had musical validity. Wurlitzer brought the "art" to its highest level, and their finest instruments included the Paramount Theater in New York City (1926), and the Paramount Theater Broadcasting Studio (1929). Three motion picture studio installations in Los Angeles (Paramount, Warner Brothers and Fox) were other good examples of refined theater organ tone.

The Style D. Wurlitzer is the definitive specimen of a small theater unit. It was one of the most popular models manufactured by any company because its six ranks were so well selected and scaled that a true balance was achieved. (One hardly missed the additional reed stops and strings found on more complete instruments.) The 6 ranks of pipes of the Style D Wurlitzer organ are:

ALLAN & NANCY PLUNKETT'S STYLE D WURLITZER

The Style D Wurlitzer that I have was built in April 1927 and is of the original tonal design developed to play all types of music required for film accompaniment I purchased it from Don Wigent of Detroit, Michigan on June 24, 1978. He had obtained it from a church about 70 miles from Detroit in 1970. Don, who is a blind piano tuner, had originally installed it in his house in the basement, doing all the winding himself using carpet roll tubes for the wind conductors.

He told me that the organ had been installed in the church (name unknown) about 1940 and was in use for 30 years. The church installer removed most of the traps leaving only the chimes and chrysoglott. The second touch, the second touch stop tabs, and the tremulant tabs had all been removed. The second touch contacts and wiring were all intact.

The original theater installation is unknown. Don thought that it was in the Detroit area but I have been unable to verify this.

The original console cable tag survives and contains the following information:

x2452 (written on the top right corner)
schedule number 500
No. 432
Date 4/26/27

The console has been completely refinished with the finish restored to the original mahogany. It is installed in a separate room of its own around the corner from the swell shade opening.

Referring to the Wurlitzer list on the internet at theatreorgans.com, it appears that my Style D Wurlitzer is most likely opus #1669, shipped to the Temple Theatre in Willard, Ohio on 7/14/1927. The wiring schedule number corresponds, the locale is the closest to Detroit, and the disposition is unknown.

The organ was used in a church for 30 years until 1970 so that most of the original percussion's were lost. The church was located about 75 miles away from Detroit, Michigan so that the organ had little exposure to city smoke and the consequent acids which deteriorate leather. It is now playing with about 75% of the original leather showing the excellent quality of the original Wurlitzer action.

The second touch stop tabs had been removed with the tremulant tabs moved up to the accompaniment stop rail in place of three of the percussion tabs. The organ had been modified with a separate Wurlitzer 20"x30" wind regulator and tremulant for the Tibia stop. The wind channel for the Tibia was blocked off from the main and separate regulator and tremulant wind openings provided in the main chest. This modification is not difficult since Wurlitzer chests have each pipe rank on a separate section of the chest.

The second touches on the manuals and the associated stop tabs are restored to original condition. The original wiring for the manual second touches still existed but was disconnected from the spreader strips. Don Wigent had accumulated spare parts to restore the tremulant and second touch tabs to the original location. The pedal still has the mechanical second touch but is not connected electrically (at present).

The organ now has four wind regulators instead of the original two. The pedal offsets are winded from untremulated air using a church organ regulator (curtain valve type adjusted for 10" wind). A third Wurlitzer regulator was added to supply air to the Tibia. There are three tremulants, Tibia, Main, and Vox.

The tuning and voicing have been done so as to return the organ to its original tonal structure as much as possible. Lanny Hochhalter, the organ builder who installed the organ, believes that the instrument should be restored to maintain the originally designed sound quality. When the organ was restored to original condition by an expert (rather than myself), the deficiencies turned out to be primarily lack of proper cleaning and regulation of the existing pipe work.

The originally designed character of the organ fits very well the type of music that I like to play. The organ sound varies from that of a romantic church organ thru a crisp, bright orchestral quality to a lush theatre organ ensemble. I like to play light classics as well as popular music so that this instrument is ideal for my use. The combinations available make it possible to obtain a classical church organ chorus as well as the full theatre organ sound associated with the Wurlitzer instrument. The various stops combine to create a classical ensemble tone nearly as full as is possible with a much larger straight romantic style church instrument. Changing registrations to an orchestral style produces a satisfactory theatre organ sound. The variety of registrations available is less than a large Wurlitzer but greater than a straight church organ.

The theatre organ tonal structure has been enhanced by adding a 16' Tibia stop on the solo so that a more lush theater organ sound using 16', 8', and 4' Tibia tone can be obtained. The separate Tibia tremulant adds considerably to the fullness of the ensemble. The original unification of the flute rank has been retained so that the mutation and 2' pitches on the Solo manual are from the flute rank.

The pedal has been augmented by adding "Solo to Pedal" and "Accompaniment to Pedal" couplers. The pedal stops are on steady wind which improves the pipe speech.

The percussion's have been enhanced by adding a Welte glockenspiel, an Arndt Organ Supply triangle and tambourine. The original Wurlitzer chimes and chrysoglott are used. The chrysoglott is unenclosed to prevent loss of the sound.

The organ now speaks into a high ceiling entrance hall which serves as a mixing chamber for the sound before it goes into the rest of the house. The sound blends well and the mixing effect takes some of the edge off the direct sound without muffling the tone. The use of the entrance hall as a sound mixing chamber gives the organ a chance to blend before entering the listening area. The main chest is mounted about four feet above floor level to improve the sound projection. The wind regulators and tremulants are in a separate enclosed box under the main chest to eliminate spurious noise. The bass pipes are mounted directly against the chamber walls giving the pedal excellent projection without any dead sounding notes due to resonance effects. The wind conductors are plastic pipe except for the main blower line which is soldered metal. The metal blower wind line is covered with a sound deadening material to reduce blower noise. Mounting the wind regulators and the tremulants in an enclosed box under the main chest has made the chamber very quiet. The wind noise is almost inaudible in the listening area. The blower is located in a sound proofed room using the original horse hair pads to reduce the vibration transmitted through the floor.

The installation has been done by Lanny Hochhalter, an organ builder from Salem, Oregon. Lanny aided the architect in designing the chamber and the method of mounting the shutters to get the sound out. It was his suggestion to elevate the main chest and mount the shutters up high to get better blend of the sound. Lanny has cleaned the pipes and restored the original sound so that my organ sounds better than it ever has before. He (with his wife and assistant Judy) have done an excellent job. The organ sounds better than in either of the two previous installations where I did the pipe repair and cleaning. I can almost believe that it sounds as good as the organs George Wright plays on his recordings.

The complete organ specification as it presently exists follows. The pipes and wind chests are all exactly as original with only repairs to the leather as required.

SPECIFICATION OF STYLE D WURLITZER

GENERAL:

One Expression Pedal
One General Tremulant
One Tibia Tremulant
One Vox Humana Tremulant
Door Bell

CHAMBER LAYOUT:

Most Style D's were in a single swell box as is this one.
The ranks of pipes (all original Wurlitzer) are:
16'-2' Bourdon, Flute 97 pipes 10" wind, basses on separate regulator
16'-4' Diaphone, Diapason 85 pipes 10" wind, basses on separate regulator
8'-4' Tibia Clausa 73 pipes 10" wind, basses on separate regulator
8'-4' Salicional 73 pipes 10" wind, basses on separate regulator
8' Vox Humana 61 pipes 6" wind
8' Trumpet 61 pipes 10" wind

The percussion's are:

There are three tremulants, tibia, main, and vox humana giving a full blend of tone when all are used. 

CONCLUSION

I am very pleased with the sound quality achieved with the present installation. In my two previous installations, I did most of the tuning and pipe repair myself as I could not find anyone who was willing (or had the understanding) to work with a high pressure orchestral style organ. I believe that I have been very lucky in finding Lanny Hochalter who has the experience and ability to work with any type of organ. Any church that employs Mr. Hochalter to build or install an organ will get an excellent instrument. He is knowledgeable about all types of organs and can work with whatever style is desired.