Wurlitzer theatre organs in the United Kingdom

Main article: Wurlitzer § Theatre organs

Wurlitzer at the Musical Museum, Brentford

A number of Wurlitzer theatre organs were imported and installed in the United Kingdom in the period from 1925 to just before the Second World War (1939–45).

The first Wurlitzer theatre organ shipped to the UK was dispatched on 1 December 1924, and shipped in via Southampton Docks. A very small, six-rank instrument, it was installed at the Picture House, Walsall, Staffordshire, where it opened on 26 January 1925. After a period in private ownership in Sedgley, also in Staffordshire, during the mid-1950s, it is now installed and operational in the Congregational Church in Beer, Devon.[1][2]

The second Wurlitzer theatre organ to be opened in Great Britain was at the Palace Cinema in Tottenham, North London. This instrument was inaugurated on 6 April 1925. Like the Beer Wurlitzer it was a 2-manual, 6-rank instrument. This organ is now located at Rye College in East Sussex.

The Trocadero Elephant and Castle Wurlitzer was the largest organ ever shipped to the UK, installed in 1930 for the grand opening of the 3,400-seater cinema.[3]

The Blackpool Opera House organ of 1939, designed by Horace Finch, was the last new Wurlitzer to be installed in the UK. The Granada, Kingston also received a Wurlitzer in or around 1939, but most of this came from an earlier installation in Edinburgh. This was the last Wurlitzer installation to be opened, with Reginald Dixon at the console.[citation needed]

Wurlitzers made regular radio broadcasts via the BBC, becoming stars themselves beside their organists. The more famous of these organs were at the Empire Cinema, London, and the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool, the latterly most regularly played by Reginald Dixon creating what became known as the "Blackpool sound".[4] In the late 1960s the BBC acquired a Wurlitzer from the Empress Ballroom Blackpool, which was installed as the new BBC Theatre Organ at the BBC Playhouse studios in Manchester until the studios closed in 1986.[5] It was introduced on 12 November 1970 as a gala performance edition of The Organist Entertains by Robin Richmond, with performances by Ernest Broadbent, Reginald Dixon and Reginald Porter Brown.[6]

Many Wurlitzer organs have survived and are installed in private homes, town halls, concert halls and ballrooms throughout the country. The Cinema Organ Society has an extensive list of British cinema organs.[7]

  1. ^ Friends of Beer Wurlitzer. "The Beer Wurlitzer". beerwurlitzer.org.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Devon History Society: The Beer Wurlitzer". devonhistorysociety.org.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  3. ^ The Cinema Organ Society Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Girdwood was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Tony Nuttall. The Playhouse Theatre, Manchester
  6. ^ 'Gala Performance of The Organist Entertains', BBC Radio 2, 12 November 1970
  7. ^ "The Cinema Organ Society". Cinema-organs.org.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2009.