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theatre organ is a uniquely American musical invention, necessitated as
a means to provide sound accompaniment in the silent era of motion
pictures, from 1910 1932. The theatre organ has been described as the
“heart and soul” of motion picture houses and movie palaces. Nearly
7,000 theatre organs were performing each day when the motion picture
screen finally learned to speak in 1927. Soon after, theatre organs
were abandoned, discarded, sold, given to churches and/or languished
for years dormant in their theaters.
Today
there are approximately 125 theatre organs in public venues nationally.
The majority of these are owned or operated by the American Theatre
Organ Society's local Chapters, which are Section 501(c)(3)
organizations. Wurlitzer was the world’s largest and most prestigious
manufacturer of theatre organs, producing 2,234 theatre organs from
1911 until 1941, which accounts for nearly half of the surviving
instruments today!
Originally
a 2/8, Opus 562, Style "F" (Wurlitzer's first model of this type) was
shipped from the factory on July 29, 1922 and installed by the grand
opening of the palatial Kentucky Theatre on October 4, 1922.
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The
Wurlitzer Company added a second Vox Humana on December 13, 1923 at the
request of Haden Read, Kentucky Theatre organist. In 1926, the
Wurlitzer Company enlarged the organ again with five (5) additional
ranks and a new three-manual "paneled" console (Job #703). This organ
became the "largest theatre organ in the South" according to a
Lexington Herald newspaper article (February 7, 1926).
This
project returns an original historic theatre organ back to its rightful
theater venue. Little remains of the once glorious "Golden Age of the
Movie Palace" and, unfortunately, no theatre organs remain in any
theatres in the state of Kentucky! This theatre organ project is a
special community initiative and a unique preservation project for our
state and will be a significant attraction for new visitors to the
Kentucky Theater and downtown Lexington.
On March 18, 2005 Governor Ernie Fletcher
(center) sign’s Senate Bill 148, with H. Steve Brown and Senator
Ernesto Scorsone (left) and Senator Alice Forgy Kerr, Senator Tom
Buford (right); Representative Ruth Ann Palumbo and Senator Julian
Carroll were unable to attend the signing ceremony, which designated
the Kentucky Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ as the
“Official Theatre Pipe Organ of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
On June 25, 1999 the Nation Trust for
Historic Preservation and the Whitehouse Committee to Save America’s
Treasures names the Kentucky Theatre’s 3/14 Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre
Pipe Organ as an “Official Project of Save America’s Treasures.
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