George Wright at the Oriental Wurlitzer (1967)
Prior to George Wright’s first
Portland concert May 21, 1967, he requested certain unification changes.
Complying with his requests, he was satisfied with the organ but suggested
the Harmonic Tuba could be improved with more careful regulation, and the
15” Tibia Clausa could be made to sing more if I actually lowered its wind
pressure and opened its toe holes. With his keen ear, we accomplished
these tasks and all was in readiness for his concert. Knowing the
criticism I’d received, George announced the critics were wrong and that he
approved and liked the results of my work. I felt vindicated. I
had satisfied George Wright—to hell with anyone who didn’t like it.
Not knowing when, or if, I would ever get the chance to
buy the Oriental Wurlitzer, I started collecting components to assemble my
own theatre organ. As a prime example of how crazy I was (many would
say I still am), my first purchase was the 32’ Diaphone octave from the
Portland Liberty Theatre. I bought it from the Granada Organ Loft Club
in West Seattle in March 1965, for $50 cash and $200 in contributed organ
work for the club.
Friend, organist, and teacher,
Andy Crow, was giving lessons to the family of Howard Vollum,
co-founder of Tektronix and one of the original financial backers of the
Rodgers Organ Co. He had a large custom Rodgers organ in his home.
After a music lesson, Howard’s wife mentioned to Andy how much he liked the
organ, and she wanted to surprise him with a real organ—a pipe organ—for his
upcoming birthday. Andy knew the Style 285 Wurlitzer in the San
Francisco Paramount (Granada) Theatre was for sale, as the theatre was soon
to be demolished. Howard learned of the “surprise” and the question
came up – if he were the successful bidder, who could dismantle the organ
and bring it to Portland? Andy Crow quickly recommended me as the
person who could do it all.
Removing Xylophone, SF Paramount, (April 1965)
I met the Vollum family and was awarded the job, if
their offer was accepted. Howard’s offer of $14,000 was successful,
and I had a job beginning in April 1965 that would last four years. It
involved moving, releathering, installing, and enlarging the instrument with
several low pressure ranks in a gymnasium size building, newly constructed
on the Vollum estate. I dedicated so much time to the Vollum
instrument that I gave up all my church service work, but never took any
time away from the Oriental, Paramount, and Oaks Park Wurlitzers.
I didn’t have too much to do with the Oaks Park
Wurlitzer until Don Simmons became head organist there. He had been
playing at the Imperial Roller Rink on its composite William Woods 8-rank
organ, combined with the 3/10 Wurlitzer that was originally installed in
Portland’s Hollywood Theatre. William Woods used Gottfried pipework in
his instruments but his chests were cheap, fashioned after Marr & Colton.
The Gottfried Clarinet sounded more like a clarinet than the Wurlitzer.
The Gottfried Kinura out-squawked the Wurlitzer and the huge-scale Tibia
Clausa out-wailed the Wurlitzer 10” Tibia Clausa in the reverberant acoustic
of the Imperial Roller Rink. To balance things a little better, I exchanged
the 10” Wurlitzer Tibia Clausa from the Imperial with the slightly larger
scaled 15” Foundation Tibia Clausa from the Vollum organ. Both organs
benefitted and their respective owners were satisfied.
Don Simmons really missed that super squawking
Gottfried Kinura when he came to play at Oaks Park. I had a large
scale Robert-Morton Kinura that I believe came from the St. Francis Theatre,
San Francisco. I exchanged it with the Wurlitzer. Everything
seemed to be OK until the owner, Bob Bollinger, found out about it. He
was furious and demanded I immediately return the Wurlitzer Kinura.
The problem was that I had already sold it. I needed to come up with a
Wurlitzer Kinura, fast. I knew (the late) Richard Raupach had one he
bought for $10. He wouldn’t sell it to me but would loan it.
But, to assure I returned the same Kinura, he scribed each pipe with his
initials.
Pipe Study at Rodgers Organ Co
I knew if I put that Kinura back in the Oaks Wurlitzer I could never get it out again so I exchanged Raupach’s Kinura with the Paramount’s. To this day, it is the Paramount Kinura playing in the Oaks Park Wurlitzer. As soon as another Wurlitzer Kinura became available, I put it in the Paramount and returned Raupach’s.
When we all agreed the Vollum
organ had reached its goals and was as good as it was going to get, I would
have been out of a job if Howard had not called Rodgers Jenkins (of the
Rodgers Organ Co.) and suggested he hire me.
Rodgers Organ Co. Ad
While working as a Custom Organ Engineer at Rodgers,
the owner of the Oriental Theatre suddenly passed away. His heirs had
no sentimental attachment to the theatre and quickly sold it, with its
adjoining office building, to a developer. The developer planned to
raze the theatre and replace it with a parking lot—as an incentive to
attract more tenants for the office building. The heirs knew nothing
of the gentleman’s agreement I had with the now deceased owner, Cleighton
Weatherly.
By this time, the organ was well known, because of the many concerts presented by Andy Crow, George Wright, Gaylord Carter, and by serving as a major venue for both national and regional ATOS conventions. Furthermore, Jonas Nordwall and I frequently played 15 minute intermission programs on Saturday nights at both the Oriental and Paramount. (It didn’t take very long before everyone knew who was the more talented organist.)
 Dennis & Howard recording Jonas at the Oriental Theatre (1969) |
 Dennis & Stu Green examine the Oriental console (1966) |
 Dennis performing at the Oriental |
I was afraid I was going to lose
my dream organ. Being prominent Portland businessmen, both Howard
Vollum and Bob Rickett contacted the new owner of the Oriental, whom they
knew, and explained my situation. Through their intercession I bought
the Oriental Theatre Wurlitzer on January 7, 1970 for $6,000, without having to
go through the emotional trauma of an open auction. I often thought it
ironic that if I had not made so many alterations to the organ, or put it
the public’s eye by promoting concerts on it, I probably could have bought
it for less.
Carrying Tibia pipes out of the Oriental Wurlitzer
I was 28 years old, still living at home with my
parents, and finally growing up enough to realize I would never have enough
money to reinstall the Oriental Wurlitzer, and all the additions I planned
for it, in a building like Howard Vollum’s. The only solution was to
somehow incorporate the organ into a business, and hope that the business
would generate enough cash-flow to pay expenses. With that idea in
mind, and the help of my good friend (the late) Bill Peterson, we
successfully bid on all the projection, sound equipment, and the
popcorn/candy counter at the Oriental Theatre’s liquidation auction.
We secured a one year lease on the (closed) Colonial Theatre in North
Portland. The theatre had been stripped of all projection and sound
equipment and its proscenium arch had been butchered. With the help
from a lot of friends we brought the Colonial Theatre back to life.
The plan was—if the theatre could generate enough income to pay for
itself—we would try to buy or get a long term lease on the property. I would
install the Oriental Wurlitzer in the theatre’s existing organ chambers
(which at one time housed a small 2-manual Kimball) and across the stage
behind the movie screen. Bill would be the house manager and I, the
projectionist. Both he and I had daytime jobs, so we didn’t need to
draw any salaries from the theatre business.
I can't believe it's finally mine (January 1970)
Rodgers Organ Co. had just finished building the second of its three “Wurlitzer-inspired” custom theatre organs. Before the organ was shipped to its Omaha, Nebraska customer, Rodgers agreed to let me temporarily install it in the Colonial Theatre for a George Wright concert on December 6, 1970. George was so impressed with Bill’s and my efforts to make a new home for the Oriental Wurlitzer, he waived his entire fee and said, “Let’s just call it my contribution.”
Unfortunately, the Colonial Theatre was never profitable. At the end of our one year lease, we closed the doors and liquidated. It was a sad day.
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