1928 Wurlitzer Fox Special Organ, Fox Theatre, St. Louis, Missouri, Part 2 of 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- Brent Johnson talks with Al Haker and tours the 1928 IV/36 Wurlizter Fox Special at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri. Steven Ball closes out the video. This is the second of a two-part series.
Specification of the organ: sltos.org/instruments/fabulous-fox-theatre-mighty-wurlitzer/
Fabulous Fox website: www.fabulousfo...
Steven Ball's website: www.stevenball....
Remembering Stan Kann: • Remembering Stan Kann ...
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Beautiful!
Thanks so much to everyone involved.
I was so fortunate to hear Stan Kann play this fabulous instrument many times. No one knew this organ better than he did!
The words MIGHTY & National Treasure sum up the respect for the engineering, the labor and magnificence or this musical wonder. So many people to THANK, starting with you Brent & Al, all the funders of the video, in memory of Stan Kann (and all the organists & preservationists). My son attended Wash U and we ate at Pape’s but somehow never knew about the Fox Wurlitzer. It’s a concert & tour I’ll look forward to soon. Thanks again to Brent, Al and everyone (yes, TH-cam too, initially known for Cats on Keyboards!) for making this tour possible. How else could we truly appreciate this instrument and what it takes to maintain it properly (including the insulation Al added to the upper chamber!).
This Wurlitzer organ was installed at the height of the depression I believe? This instrument is totally amazing. Just imagine how much it would have cost in 1928 ? Even here in the UK the modest size Wurlitzers like at the famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom cost more than the price of a good sized house! These fox specials are truly Wurlitzers finest achievement in theatre organ building and were specifically voiced under the guidance of Jesse Crawford! Possibly the greatest theatre organist of all? Thankfully, this organ and theatre survive .
I remember Stan playing that organ before the movie in 1970 - when I visited that theater on a daily basis. Thanks for doing this.
What a phenomenal undertaking for 1928.
In February, 1959, Stan Kann himself gave me a personal tour of the instrument. I was just 20. He was a charming, generous, and kind man.
I have always loved this theater, and it’s Wurlitzer. Many cherished memories. ❤️
My late dad, was an amateur theatre organist and had heard this organ play early in it's heyday. He would be most thrilled to know that it's playing again for all to enjoy. Thanks!!
I am in total AWE! I was totally unaware there was still a theater organ still operating with its original design. I just assumed that all the theater organs had been computerized. It's unbelievable it still works but I'm sure glad it does. I will need to make a trip to Saint Louis to hear and SEE this organ. Thank you for this incredible tour.
A lot of theatre organs have been given digital relays etc but a number of them are still on their original relays.
Mind boggling information and incredible detail on this beautiful and historical musical instrument! Just WOW!
Amazing, and not a computer in sight! :-)
a work of art
👍 Fantastic video....everything you ever wanted to know about TO (behind the scenes)
What a great video, well done the team that made it. The tour round the organ lofts wow what a fantastic instrument, long may it be kept in it present condition. What happens when the present technician is no longer able to care for it, please don’t let such wonderful instrument decay into failure and disuse. Its highly unlikely living in the UK that I shall ever have the pleasure of seeing it or seeing being played live. To many of these famous instruments have disappeared from some of the famous cinema’s and music halls in the UK. There used to be a radio programme on BBC radio each week called the ‘The Organist Entertains’ but in its wonderful wisdom the BBC took it of air. So there seems not out let to see or hear these wonderful instruments. We do have in Norfolk the Thursford Collection, but tickets to hear that Organ played are booked years in advance. Thanks again.
You can hear the Thursford Collections Wurlitzer twice a day from about April to September just for the cost of entry to the museum, which you can purchase on the way into the museum. This year would have been Robert Wolfes 40th season there. You can also hear Blackpool Tower Ballrooms Wurlitzer every day of the week all year round except Christmas day. I think that the Wurlitzer at Brentford musical museum at Kew Bridge is also used on a daily basis. Then there are dozens of concerts and events on up and down the UK most weekends.
Wow... This is definitely the most in-depth documentary on a theater organ I've ever seen. Thank you!
Very cool tour. Mighty Wurlitzer for sure
Im so happy somone thete cares for the organ..every theatre needs somone. There to over see and protect the organ..s or they be removed damaged..or scraped ....thanks you to all those volunteer s ..who give there time..to protect the theatres organs..if it wernt for them ..the organs would be sold off ..or....who knows..these are nat tresures...that cant be replaced..hopfuly the theatre owners get some tax breaks..to keep these theatres and pipe organs intact..great video..i hope young people can whatch this video in music class.in school..this was the first form of hi fi..
Awesomely mind boggling.
Wow, what a maze.... I hope it keeps on playing forever...
As long as there are talented organists out there, it will indeed play forever!
First time i was at the detroit fox i was 2 years old 10 year later tuning the the 32s . had one in our home. Not well liked by people. I have a love these places & the the battleship that i spent 2 years of my life fixing it up in up. Love these theaters . We have none in toledo ohio. The biggest theatre was torn down for a ****** parking lot. Very sad The toledo paramont ps bad at spelling i just fix things
@@hankaustin7091 We also need trained service people to maintain instruments like this one. Most computer tech's of today could learn how to repair theater organs that have been computerized.
@@mikerosser4349 Most computer techs wouldn't know jack. You need a very specialized sort of training to understand the antiquated electronics of a tonewheel organ.
Oh wow! What a magnificent instrument. The bill of materials for its construction must have looked like someone was building a mansion. The designers and builders were certainly masters of their respective crafts. Thank goodness it is back in operation again. It would be wonderful if those components stolen from some areas to get the main instrument operating could be replicated to effect total operation.
My one regret was that in too many parts it was either very difficult or impossible to hear what Mister Haker was saying.
Thank you for posting this wonderful documentary.
The tuba mirabilis wind pressure is 25". The english post horn is 15" wind pressure.
Phenomenally interesting .wish we'd one here , uk
I help to look after the 4/20 Wurlitzer now in Stockport town hall in England. When we did the "transplant" we converted it to a uniflex system. To see the original 1928 relay system in the Fox is a wonderful tribute to the technical team who work on it. Well done guys ~ keep it up , I know what it takes !
Great ,great,super video!!!! great,splendid job you guys are doing.Congrats and mamny many thanks!
Amazing organ and a sound of my childhood, excelent videos most educational thank you very much.
Without doubt the best pair of videos I have seen that really go in depth on what makes a Mighty Wurlitzer tick, brilliant.
You can not under stand the beauty this in instrument produces unless you hear it in person
Thank you Brent. I cannot believe that all of the old equipment works - it looks as if pipes are everywhere! Not to mention the combination action wing. We have a similar (but not as large) Grand Barton organ ( 18-23 ranks) in the Overture Center for the arts in Madison, Wisconsin. The organ's electrical switching system is sealed in a special room high in the building is so massive that it had to be put in place before the building was finished, and parts of the theater had to be built around it.
This is very interesting; how cool that you guys can play the organ right from inside it -- especially inside the chambers!
Fantastic video! Thank you for posting it, the organ is a magnificent piece of incredible craftsmanship!
Amazing!
What an outstanding film, full of sheer fascination and awe, the Fox instrument is surely one of the finest examples left of these fabulous organs. I simply cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this presentation, I’ve watched it over and over to absorb all the details in the filming and the dialogue, each time learning more and more. Steven’s outstanding playing brings it all together in an almost magical way, the delightful demonstration of the various ranks and their effects was absolutely educational as well as spellbinding. Seldom do we get the opportunity to hear these individual voices in isolation and without the trems etc! Best of all though was the voyage through this enormous instrument, looking up at the mighty 32 diaphanes was breathtaking. These craftsman were masters of their trade and obviously took enormous pride in their work, this as evidenced by the fact that the instrument is still operational today, obviously though with the great dedication and skill of people like gentleman who took us through the instrument. For sure, I’m now solidly hooked on the theatre organ and can’t wait to see more films like this one showcasing other great instruments! The brass trumpets are pure works are art, nothing less. BRAVO and thank you so, so much for making this outstanding presentation available to us all so freely, may God Bless all of you and all involved in the making of this video! Adrian in Bermuda 😀😀😀😀
I will build this super organ thanks for seeing this
This is lovely Damon. Thank You
amazing
Ty for this video..nice tour..keep the chambers locked..if anyone needs to get in to service fire alarms sensers. Sprinklers heads in organ chambers make shure no damage happens to chests pipes we had damage done in the theatre i once helped out in ..in a suburb of chicago ..i heard its getting a long over due restore..one pipe i made a tuning sleeve out of a coke can in the solo side..mar .colton..again ty.for this tour ..it wonderful that somone cares the that organ...
Great video. Thanks for posting both parts of this great video!
@ 1:33- the Opening theme from Metropolis... beautiful.
I'm speechless! This is just amazing. And I would like to know who is next in line to maintain this organ !!! It's fantastic.
I like that he plinked on the piano with something he was doing around the tubing, but I wish we could have seen it, and then I wish you would have done it right on some of the keys.
Wow, now that is one monstrous electo-mechanical device. Being as unique as it is there would be no schools or classes for that organ, so hands-on is the only way. Al must have been at it for many years. He looks like he is about my age so he must be getting ready to retire. I hope he at least one very devoted and sharp understudy. My background is with very old computer equipment that was also very electo-mechanical so I know how much maintenance that would require. Non stop., I wonder how good the drawings and schematics are for that? If I was many years younger that would be a lot of fun to work on.I hope the city of St. Louie has that theater well protected from ever being dismantled.Some day I would love to see that in person.
Oh, I should've commented about this earlier, but I was just thinking about that double-mouthed pipe: How interesting, I've never heard of one of those before! I wonder how they sound.
Yeah, it's very cool that they worked out enough of a partnership with you, the producers, to trust you with all the liability that came with making this tour. I wish I could have made this same kind of BTS documentary about the pipe organ and other things at the Harris Fine Arts Center at Brigham Young University, which just had its last-ever concert during the Christmas season last year (2022) and is now slowly demolished inside and is slated for full demolition soon to make way for the new arts building. I wish I had known well enough in advance that I could have even done a full walk around the public areas of the building! Right now I was only lucky enough to have seen that last concert and maybe gotten the project manager to walk around with his camera a little and show me some areas that I missed over the decades. Hmmphh!
Wow, I've seen these organs play pianos before (Carmex has a great video of that, with the piano right out in the open just next to the console), but it's so weird to see a piano stuffed right into the organ itself!
All of this because of Robert Hope-Jones!
In the earlier video it was stated they'd raided the spfx voicesinthe " junk drawer" for repair parts. I'd like to see all of those working again. Even if it takes replica parts.
Stan Kann played this Wurlitzer intuitively.
Wow, that was a cool tour! I'd really love to see an extension of it where we have 3 or 4 cameras operating at the same time while someone's playing a song: one which takes care of wide shots around the auditorium, one which is waved around the player at close or semiclose range and sometimes the inside of the console in case there are actions that we can see back there, and 2-3 that are inside the organ itself: one of them watching action in the bellows room and one or two watching action as the pipe valves open and close, and one in the percussion chamber watching those hammers it, and it moves to the piano chamber to watch the piano(s) play!
Wow, now I'm curious what it looks like just past that big door that "leaked like a sieve."
Many thanks for this very interesting and enjoyable video. You certainly couldn't be claustrophobic and work on this monster!
After watching both parts I was disappointed that the Pedal division was not really discussed or demonstrated as were the manual divisions.
This is true, we could have probably found some time in the tight schedule to demonstrate the 32s more, but there are no independent pedal stops in this organ. Everything comes our of the manual ranks that were discussed. Unlike other organs we've seen, we can't attack a Wurlitzer manual by manual, one must explore chamber by chamber, or as we did, by families of stops.
@@OrganMediaFoundation Yes, I understand. Thanks for your reply. I did take a look at the Specification link.
Fantastic video, thank you! I live in Dallas, Texas, we had a beautiful Wurlitzer organ in our Palace theater that unfortunately was torn down and replaced with a highrise office building, so Dallas! Does anyone know what happened to that white Wurlitzer that came up from the floor? What a loss for Dallas.
The Dallas Palace lost its Wurlitzer as early as 1930. That organ, Opus 411, moved to a hotel in Los Angeles, then a radio studio in Rochester NY, then to Denver. The reason for its removal was its replacement by the much larger Opus 2125, nearly double the size, which likewise got sold on. Neither instrument is extant any more, both were scrapped decades ago, with some parts sold on for reuse in McWurlitzer bitsas.
I think it would be even more fun if he had also invited _you_ to actuate some of those pipes and hammers by wiggling local valves.
Yeah, I just think it's really ironic that supposedly the world's biggest theater organ isn't in a place like this, but is stuffed -- operationally, albeit -- into the warehouse where Carmex products are housed, rather than a place like this! I wish someone would come along and out-"RANK" (haha!) that organ by building this one or one like it out even more! And I wish we could see Console #2 hooked up to this one and played at the same time as from console 1!
Oh my heck, that deep crevice at 22:58 looks hella-scary! Do you know where the bottom of that is and how they'd retrieve a lost item from there?
"You have to go through this hole."
Oh my heck, I think I'd probably be too fat! I wish you had peered the camera into it before going through, so we could get a better frame of reference.
Right after sleigh bells: "Hm-hmm, OK."
Was that your gentle way of saying, "All right, enough of those, I got the point"?
I wish you would've pointed your camera down to where hoses exit the console to the pipes that make their way to the bellows room. I've always been curious how the console is mated to the rest of the organ, especially when it's somewhat portable in comparison.
Organs like this have an electrical “umbilical cord” that connects the console to the relay system. The wind is provided by a 50 horsepower blower (with a second identical blower for backup) down in the basement. From there, wind lines carry the wind first to the regulators (which control the various wind pressures), then to the wind chests. There are the many tremulants in this organ which are placed between the wind lines coming from the regulators on to the wind chests:
Fantastic- tremendous call for air supply! Were are the air intakes located in the building?
Any reason why the doors to the chambers are so hard-core? They don't need to be air tight do they?
I believe it was because theaters would use fire-proof doors between rooms whenever possible.
I hope Mr. Haker has an apprentice. Even if he is able to maintain the organ until he is 100 there is not enough time for someone else to learn.
I don’t think you ever demonstrated the sound effects :(
Can you please re-edit and reupload this video to duplicate the final statements from the right channel to the left?
What is the name of the gorgeous piece you hear playing when we're looking into the back of the console?
@MariePage, a little research has revealed that you are definitely correct. It's from Gottfried Huppertz original score for the film. Good ear! 😄
"This is the piano chamber -- what we call the 'piano chamber'."
Uhh... he did well enough to just say it directly; no need to go back and insert "what we call...." What did he think he needed that for if "piano chamber" is the _official_ term?
Just imagine growing up today where the government no longer teaches cursive script, and the future needs someone to maintain this without understanding the labels or nomenclatures.
No demo hot wiring on the solid state refurbs
Are there many pipes laying out of their place, because of misplaying notes?
No. All the pipes are in their proper positions. You have faulty hearing if you think you heard ‘misplaying notes’.
@@lkrupp215 i mean there are Pipes laying on the windchests, when they walk through the rooms. And Brent or Dr. Ball said something about some misplaying notes i might remember.
@@lkrupp215 eg 17:35 or 24:08 there are pipes laying down on the chests
Oh my heck, I hope I wouldn't be too fat to get through 22:07 and 22:35!
They built this monster without an owner's Manuel . It would be about the size of Rhode Island. Old tech is more impressive than going to Mars.
Hmm, I wish he had played the horseshoes/hooves for us.
Fish-Eye lense not a good choice in a compact chamber - Everything looks bent! :)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Theater Organists are GODS (or, at least, Extra-Terrestrials)."
.