It's a Wurlitzer

The giant of the musical instrument collection makes tunes—rootin'—tootin' or romantic

  • By Mary K. Miller
  • Smithsonian magazine, April 2002, Subscribe
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The Smithsonians Wurlitzer (its console above with the Star-Spangled Banner) likely played the national anthem before movies.
The Smithsonian's Wurlitzer (its console above, with the Star-Spangled Banner) likely played the national anthem before movies. (Eric Long/National Musuem of American History, SI)

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Of all the musical instruments in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of 5,200 violins, pianos, banjos and others, the largest—it fills three rooms—represents a unique period of nearly forgotten American history.

It’s a Wurlitzer theater organ. In the early 20th century, thousands of these gigantic pipe organs were installed in movie theaters throughout the United States, Canada, England and Australia to accompany silent movies. This one worked its wonders in the Fox Theatre in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The Smithsonian’s instrument is a rare, completely original Wurlitzer donated by the estate of Lowell Ayars, a New Jersey music teacher, in 1993. Ayars kept it in museum-quality condition during the 30-some years it was played in his home. When Ayars died in 1992, he willed it to his friend Brantley Duddy, and Duddy contacted the Smithsonian, which gratefully accepted it for the musical instrument collection of the National Museum of American History. For now, it sits in storage, its burnished white-and-gold console protected by a sheet of plastic. But there are plans to restore it to glory.

The Ayars organ, a Model 190 (serial number 2070), was built by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York, in 1929 for the Fox Theatre. After the theater became a department store in 1959, the organ briefly went into storage until Ayars bought it and installed it in his New Jersey home.

As theater organs go, this one is modest in size, its pipes fitting into a space about 15 feet wide and 13 feet deep. It sports two keyboards (called manuals), 584 individual pipes organized into eight ranks, and four tuned percussion instruments as well as special effects. The largest original Wurlitzer still in operation—with more than 4,000 pipes in 58 ranks, ranging from 32 feet in length to the size of a pencil—is also the most famous: the Radio City Music Hall Wurlitzer in New York City, which was installed in 1932.

Between 1911 and 1943, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company built more than 2,000 theater organs, most of them about the size of the Ayars, for smaller, neighborhood theaters. The first silent films had been accompanied by a pit orchestra or, for the more frugally minded impresario, a lone piano. When the theater organ came along, with its ability to imitate an orchestra and create special sound effects, every movie house owner had to have one.

At its peak in 1926, the company was shipping a Wurlitzer a day, mass-producing one of the most technologically advanced machines of its time. The theater organ is related to the classic church pipe organ, whose basic design has been around for more than 2,000 years. Air blown through pipes, each tuned to create a different musical tone, creates the sound. Blowers located under the ranks, or sets of pipes, force air into them when valves are opened as the organist plays the keys and stops (tabs the organist flips up or down to activate different ranks of pipes).

In a church organ, this rather simple mechanism can produce only a certain number of sounds. To the dismay of lovers of the traditional organ, British inventor and telephone engineer Robert Hope-Jones electrified it and created a switching system to allow any combination of pipes and effects to be played at once. His instruments could produce numerous inventive sound effects, including train and boat whistles, car horns and bird whistles, and some could even simulate pistol shots, ringing phones, the sound of surf, horses’ hooves, smashing pottery, thunder and rain.


Of all the musical instruments in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of 5,200 violins, pianos, banjos and others, the largest—it fills three rooms—represents a unique period of nearly forgotten American history.

It’s a Wurlitzer theater organ. In the early 20th century, thousands of these gigantic pipe organs were installed in movie theaters throughout the United States, Canada, England and Australia to accompany silent movies. This one worked its wonders in the Fox Theatre in Appleton, Wisconsin.

The Smithsonian’s instrument is a rare, completely original Wurlitzer donated by the estate of Lowell Ayars, a New Jersey music teacher, in 1993. Ayars kept it in museum-quality condition during the 30-some years it was played in his home. When Ayars died in 1992, he willed it to his friend Brantley Duddy, and Duddy contacted the Smithsonian, which gratefully accepted it for the musical instrument collection of the National Museum of American History. For now, it sits in storage, its burnished white-and-gold console protected by a sheet of plastic. But there are plans to restore it to glory.

The Ayars organ, a Model 190 (serial number 2070), was built by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of North Tonawanda, New York, in 1929 for the Fox Theatre. After the theater became a department store in 1959, the organ briefly went into storage until Ayars bought it and installed it in his New Jersey home.

As theater organs go, this one is modest in size, its pipes fitting into a space about 15 feet wide and 13 feet deep. It sports two keyboards (called manuals), 584 individual pipes organized into eight ranks, and four tuned percussion instruments as well as special effects. The largest original Wurlitzer still in operation—with more than 4,000 pipes in 58 ranks, ranging from 32 feet in length to the size of a pencil—is also the most famous: the Radio City Music Hall Wurlitzer in New York City, which was installed in 1932.

Between 1911 and 1943, the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company built more than 2,000 theater organs, most of them about the size of the Ayars, for smaller, neighborhood theaters. The first silent films had been accompanied by a pit orchestra or, for the more frugally minded impresario, a lone piano. When the theater organ came along, with its ability to imitate an orchestra and create special sound effects, every movie house owner had to have one.

At its peak in 1926, the company was shipping a Wurlitzer a day, mass-producing one of the most technologically advanced machines of its time. The theater organ is related to the classic church pipe organ, whose basic design has been around for more than 2,000 years. Air blown through pipes, each tuned to create a different musical tone, creates the sound. Blowers located under the ranks, or sets of pipes, force air into them when valves are opened as the organist plays the keys and stops (tabs the organist flips up or down to activate different ranks of pipes).

In a church organ, this rather simple mechanism can produce only a certain number of sounds. To the dismay of lovers of the traditional organ, British inventor and telephone engineer Robert Hope-Jones electrified it and created a switching system to allow any combination of pipes and effects to be played at once. His instruments could produce numerous inventive sound effects, including train and boat whistles, car horns and bird whistles, and some could even simulate pistol shots, ringing phones, the sound of surf, horses’ hooves, smashing pottery, thunder and rain.

The new organs either incorporated or at least imitated other musical instruments—from piano and violin to trumpet, drums, cymbals, even bells and chimes. Hope-Jones dubbed it the Unit Orchestra: with it an organist could imitate an entire dance band or orchestra.

In 1910, after his company foundered, Hope-Jones was bought out by the Wurlitzer Company, which, with elegant-looking products and aggressive advertising, dominated the theater organ market. Even today, many people remember the slogan: "Gee Dad, it’s a Wurlitzer."

Wurlitzer’s time in the limelight was brief. The sound of Al Jolson’s voice in The Jazz Singer of 1927 spelled doom for the theater organ. Soon Hollywood was putting sound in every movie it produced. By the mid-1930s, most theater owners had replaced their organs with speaker systems.

Of the more than 5,000 organs manufactured in the early 1900s, only a few hundred remain in public venues; a few others, like the Ayars organ, were rescued by private collectors. Only a handful are in their original theater installations. Richmond, Virginia, has three theaters with original organs, the Chicago Theatre still has its Wurlitzer, and some of the truly grand movie palaces have original organ installations, including the Fox Theatres in Atlanta, St. Louis and Detroit and the Orpheum in Los Angeles.

Forty years ago, Carsten Henningson, owner of Ye Olde Pizza Joynt in Hayward, California, and a devoted organ enthusiast, decided a Wurlitzer might help boost business. It did just that, and the phenomenon spread throughout the state and beyond as dozens of moribund theater organs found new lives in restaurants.

At one such venue—the Bella Roma Pizza restaurant in Martinez, California—on a recent Sunday night, organist Kevin King put a Wurlitzer through its paces, bouncing in his seat as his hands played different keyboards, occasionally pausing to flip stops, while his feet plied the pedals. "You’re playing all the orchestra sounds plus some real instruments," he says.

Musical historians and theater organ buffs would like to see the Smithsonian’s Wurlitzer played publicly once again. Exhibits specialist and theater organist Brian Jensen helped bring the organ to the Institution. "Ours does not have all the bells and whistles of the larger organs found in big cities," says Jensen, "but it represents what was in 90 percent of the theaters across the country, in neighborhoods and smaller towns. Like the Star-Spangled Banner, it’s a recognized symbol of American culture."


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Comments (4)

The Mighty Wurlizter is a giant that has never fallen asleep--maybe had a more limitted number of callers for awhile, but when a Wurlitzer Party happens---as it does every single day throughout the world, all kinds of people come to see the magnificence of The Mighty Wurlitzer--and the other many fine theatre organs or "Unit Orchestras"! Many of these, as above, are preserved, and/or restored, rescued from destruction, and reborn under the skilled hands of modern organ high tech craftsmen...many new theatre organs are being built...pipe organs with tuned percussion, traps, all the bells and whistles~AND the digital age has added its two cents in the birth of the digital theatre organ--making possible the having of theatre organs where space and cost are of concern. A new generation of theatre organists are putting off their I-Pods and climbing up on the great Mighty Wurlitzers all over the world, and learning from the world's greatest theate organists how they can join the party. Check Out the website of the American Theatre Organ Society, A.T.O.S. and see just how Mighty The theatre organ still is today!

Posted by Janine Bryant on December 26,2009 | 12:03 AM

The image accompanying this article is reversed. The orientation of the pedalboard and swell pedals is the easiest "tell", although the flag should have been immediately apparent to the Smithsonian folks. The guidelines in the US Flag code call for the field of stars to be on the left as viewed from the audience when the flag is hung vertically.

Posted by Mike Bryant on December 21,2009 | 01:46 PM

This instrument was deaccessioned by the Smithsonian Institution in 2007 and was given to the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, a nonprofit corporation. The Wurlitzer is being installed in the former John Wanamaker Store in downtown Philadelphia (now a Macy's) and will play into the Greek Hall auditorium when restoration work is finished. Details are here: http://wanamakerorgan.com/wurlitzer.php

Posted by Ray Biswanger on February 10,2009 | 08:03 PM

It's been six years since this article was published- is the SI any closer to restoring and installing this wonderful instrument in an apppropriate venue? I think the MP3 crowd needs to understand where popular music came from. Thanks from someone born in the town these great instruments were crafted.

Posted by Patrick Ryan on December 11,2008 | 11:27 PM



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