ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Jon C Habermaas, April 1999
There were three consoles at the Chicago Theatre after the original console.
The original console in 1921 was to the the right as you looked at the stage and the
orchestra area was an oval.
In 1924 a new relay and two consoles were
installed and the water lift was moved to the left side of the pit and the
console on the independent lift became Helen's console. A new orchestra lift
was installed and the second console was set on the right side of the
orchestra lift and that console went up and down on the orchestra lift. This
is the console that was Jesse's console.
In 1929 Art Kearney bought this
console from the theatre for his studio and asked Pete Howell to build him
an organ to play from that console. That console is now at Mundelein in the
seminary auditorium.
The slave console was a movable console which played on
the stage. The stop keys did not control anything and the organ was
registered through the combination pistons.
All three consoles were wired
into the combination action setter boards located in the basement and the
combinations moved the stops on both consoles.
The slave console is now
somewhere in Ohio.
What was considered Helen's console is still playing the
organ in the theatre.
In 1985 CATOE started what was to be a complete
restoration of the organ. Part of phase one was a rebuild of the console and
installlation of a solid state relay and combination action. The relay spec
was set-up to keep the organ as it was during the Crawford era and the only
modification was to reconfigure the stops
effected by changes in the Crawford era to make the stop layout more in line
with the traditional Wurlitzer stop layout.
Some of the changes made during the
Crawford era was the replacement of the Foundation Salicional with a 2nd Saxaphone
and the addition of a Solo tibia. A second Tuba Mirabilis and Posthorn (liberated
from the Uptown Organ) were wired in parallel with the original Tuba Mirabilis and
Posthorn. (These added ranks were from 8ft as the 16 ft pipes remained in the
Uptown) Using a very narrow definition of what is an original installation the change
of the relay would eliminate the Chicago even though great pains have been taken
to keep this organ as historical as possible and still provide a reliable playing
instrument. The original 1921 console and relay was replaced in 1924 so from
that viewpoint the organ wouldn't have been an original in the Crawford era.
From: Tim Jones, March 2006
The Marbro slave console went, as best I have been told, from Marbro to the
Chicago as the slave for that Wurlitzer, as by that time, one of the
"original" consoles had been taken out.
Later, Stan Todd bought it and moved it to Millville, OH for the Shady Nook
restaurant. Since it was just a shell, Peterson installed their first solid
state relay for that organ. It had no combination action, so must have been
quite an experience playing it (taking into consideration what was or was
not playing, and the forklift for the lift)..
The restaurant closed somewhere around '98 or '99. The place is still
there, but there have been rumors that some pieces/parts of the organ have
been taken out. I wish I knew what left the building, but current
whereabouts is unknown. One could assume it is possibly still there. Someone should probably try to preserve what's left of the Moon River
organ..