ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Hank Dolive, July 2002
I have some first hand information concerning the Wurlitzer 3 manual Opus 1097 which
was originally installed in the Howard Theater, later renamed the Paramount Theater,
in Atlanta, Ga.
When the theater was demolished in 1959, the organ was purchased by Dr. Roy O. McClain,
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta. The organ was never installed in the
First Baptist Church, however. Dr. McClain purchased it for installation in the
basement recreation room of his home in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood in mid-town
Atlanta.
Dr. McClain hired me on several occasions to assist him with the restoration of the
organ. The organ had been unused for a number of years and all of the pipes and wind
chests were coated in dust, rat droppings, and roach carcasses. I spent days vacuuming
the organ. Most of the bellows were eaten away by the insects or vermin and all had to
be replaced. Dr. McClain purchased piles of deer hides for re-leathering the bellows
and I cut them to shape with scissors using the few intact bellows as patterns, and
glued the pieces onto the bellows frames with hide glue.
Dr. McClain had an area beneath his garage (adjacent to the basement rec room)
excavated and had the blowers installed there. He had the power company run in three
phase service to the house to power the blowers.
I was a college student at the time and had to return to school before the project was
completed. Unfortunately, I never saw the organ again and never heard it played, but
I greatly enjoyed the time I spent working on it.