Organ-ic

LOVELY MONDAY: Isn't it grand? Just look at that magnificent musical instrument!

It's the Mighty Wurlitzer organ at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, and lucky us, we had (free!) front-row-and-center seats for a terrific accompaniment along with some silent movies on Monday midday.

A high-tech wonder then and now, there are over 20,000 moving parts on this machine. I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about it. ...

The Paramount Theatre is home to a very special organ, named the "Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ." According to the theater's website, it is one of the last three remaining organs of its kind to reside in its original environment. The Paramount Theater has owned the organ for as long as there has been the theater (1928), and the organ recently underwent a renovation. When we went on a tour at the Paramount Theatre, I learned that this involved replacing some of the 90-year old leather in the organ with new leather, which was not an easy process.

When we saw the organ in action, we learned that it had several instruments built into it, and had tubes connected to the walls of the theater. The person playing the organ could use switches to change between the different instruments. Today, there are electronic keyboards that can change between instruments with a few button presses, but the Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ is entirely acoustic.

The program we were fortunate to see featured some silent films from the early (pre-Steamboat Willie) days of Walt Disney. He did a whole series of silent shorts called "Alice 
... "

We got to see "Alice's Egg Plant," and "Alice the Peacemaker."  I'll let Annabelle tell you about one of the amazing shorts. 

Alice’s Egg Plant is a short film by Walt Disney. It’s silent, because it was made back in 1925, when it wasn’t known how to add sounds to movies. The movie starts with Julius, a cat, going to the egg plant to check on the hens. It turns out they’re having a party next door, but he sends them to the plant. All of the hens seem to be doing well except for one who has a bit of trouble laying an egg, but eventually gets it. The next day, an evil chicken comes and convinces the chickens to go on strike, just when an order for 5000 eggs comes in! Alice, the owner of the plant, and Julius see two chickens fighting and come up with a plan. The two chickens will have a boxing match, and admission is one egg. This allows them to get all the eggs they need, but when they drive away, all the eggs spill!

You can find the cartoon on YouTube, but the version I found is marred by a jarring, bad soundtrack. You're better off with no sound! And you should keep in mind that the original had no sound - it was up to the instrumentalists in the theater to chime in - literally!

A gifted percussionist at the Paramount had this set up. 

So many little whistles and horns and such. The things that look like clam shells are called temple blocks. Distinctive sound - like horse hooves clomping along when struck with a drumstick.

While we were waiting for the show, Annabelle started sketching ponies. I suggested she try to sketch the organ instead. 

If you want to hear the organ, you could check out this NRP podcast featuring some of its sounds: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/24/147371942/one-of-last-movie-theater-organs-pipes-on

One of my favorite moments on Monday was when a young event goer asked the organist (a 30 something I'm guessing African American man) how long he'd been playing the piano. He responded that he'd been playing since he was a young child (in fact the percussionist's dad was his first teacher!), and noted that now he's a piano teacher and when students ask him how often they have to practice, he said, "Only on days you eat." 

LOVE IT!