ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Thomas Klose, Oct. 2001
By 1980 it was purchased by the Laukhuff Organ Manufacturing Company of
Weikersheim in Germany. It was meant to be installed in a public venue in
central Europe but the project had to be turned down after the sudden illness
and, I believe, death of one of the business partners.
The instrument was sold again at once, some say it was still on the ocean at
that time.
The new and present owner of Wurlitzer op. 2209 is a man called Retonio
Breitenmoser, a former ventriloquist and magician from the Swiss county "Appenzell"
who is also in car sales and restaurants and at one time tried to make
his fortune in Las Vegas, AZ, casino business which wasn't successful and
ended up in bankruptcy.
As far as I know the Wurlitzer is still in store in Switzerland, but fellow
enthusiasts who visited the place told me the components are not in the best
shape. As I haven't seen what is left over I can only quote from others' reports. Again,
some say the pipework could have suffered from bad crating during the time the
shipment was on the ocean. The storing conditions are believed to leave much to
desire (humidity up to 90% and pipe crates stored beneath other parts).
Some years ago an amount of 120,000 sfr was asked for the Wurlitzer. Meanwhile
figures around 80,000 sfr have been passed to my ears.
An interesting detail that I did not find finally confirmed is that there
seem to be no silent movie effects included in this job.