Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan
Wurlitzer, opus #1894, 1928, style: "Fox Special"
MAIN Chamber 10" wind
Pedal Accomp Great Bombarde Solo
8 Vox Humana 6" 8 4 16 8 8
8 Dulciana 8 8
8 Salicional 8 8 8
8 Viol d'Orchestre 85p 8
8 4 16 8 4 2 8
8 Viol Celeste 73p 8
8 4 16 8 4 8
8 Lieblich Flute 73p 8 4 8 4
16 Concert Flute 97p 16
8 8 4 3 2 8 4 2 T
8 Horn Diapason 73p 8
8 4 16 8 4
16 Open Diapason 73p 16 8 8
8 Krumet 8 8 8
16 Tuba Horn 85p 15" 16
8 8 8t 16 8 4
FOUNDATION Chamber 15"
Pedal Accomp Great Bombarde Solo
8 Vox Humana 6" 8 4 16 8 8
16 Clarinet 73p 10" 16
8 8 8t 16 8
8 Musette 10" 8 8
8 Gamba 73p 8 8 4 16 8
4 8 8
8 Gamba Celeste 73p 8 4 16 8 4
8 8
4 Harmonic Flute 73p 4 2 4 2
8 Solo Brass Trumpet 8
8 16 8 16t 16 8
16 Tibia Clausa 97p 16
8 8 4 8t 4t 2t 16 8 4 3 2
16 8 4 16 8 4 2
32 Dia. Diap. 85p 25" 32 16 8
8 8t 16 8 16 8 8
SOLO Chamber 10"
Pedal Accomp Great Bombarde Solo
8 Vox Humana 6" 8 4 16 8 8
8 Quintadena 8 8
8
8 Brass Saxophone 8 8t 16 8 8
8 Orchestral Oboe 8 8
8 Kinura
8 8
8 Solo String 73p 8
8 16 8 4 16 8 8
8 Solo String 73p 8
8 16 8 4 16 8 8
8 Oboe Horn 8 8 8
8 French Horn 8 8 8
8 Brass Trumpet 8t 8
16 8
16 Tibia Clausa 97p 15" 16
8 8 4 8t 4t 2t 16 8 4 3 2
16 8 4 16 8 4 2
ORCHESTRAL Chamber 25"
Pedal Accomp Great Bombarde Solo
8 Vox Humana 10" 8 4 16 8 16 8 8
16 Post Horn 73p 15" 16
8 8 8t 16t 16 8
16t 8
16 Solo String 73p 16
8 8t 16 8 8t 16
8
16 Tibia Clausa 97p 16 8
4 8 8t 4t 16 8 4 3 8t 16 8 4 3
2 16 8 4 2
16 Tuba Mirabilis 85p 16
8 8 8t 16 8 16 8
4 16t 8
Accomp to ... 8 4
Great to ... 8 4t 16 4
8 8
Bombarde to ... 8 8t
16
Solo to ... 8 8 8t 16 8 16t
8t 16 8 16
Solo (Pizzicato) to ... 8t
("3" = 2-2/3, "T" = 1-3/5, "t" = second
touch)
In addition, there were 7 Tibia Clausa tabs for the Pedal, playing via a
Pizzicato action, 1 each for 16', 1 each for 8', and one that drew the
other 6.
Tremulants:
Main: Main, Vox, Tuba
Foundation: Foundation, Vox,
Tibia
Solo: Solo, Vox, Tibia
Orchestral: Orchestral, Vox,
Tuba Mirabilis, Tibia
Blowers: 2 50hp Spencer Orgoblos (1 was a spare)
The chambers were arranged as follows.
On the left side the 32' Diaphone
bottom octave was unenclosed in its own chamber, followed by the Main
and
Foundation (above the Main). On
the right side, the Orchestral chamber is
located above the Solo chamber.
The organ included a 2nd 4-manual console (a slave, with dummy stoptabs)
and the usual set of percusions, including a 13-note set of "Tuned
Tympany"
drums playable in the pedal.
The "matrix" style of stoplist fails to show several details:
1. The two Solo Strings in the Solo chamber were operated together in
every
case; the stop tabs were labelled "Strings".
2. The Great 16' strings (except for the 25" pressure Solo String)
were all
operated by a single tab labelled "String Ensemble 16'".
3. The Solo manual 8' strings were also on a single tab: "String
Ensemble 8'".
4. The Solo manual Vox Humanae were also an "Ensemble".
5. Some of the 4' Viol d'Orchetre and 4' Gamba tabs seemed to operate
the
associated Celeste ranks as well.
6. Some of the 4' Piccolo tabs seemed to operate several 4' Tibiae
Clausae.
The Detriot organ was the second "Fox Special", the first
being opus #1458,
1926, for the New York Paramount Theatre. This one was followed by opus
#1904 (1928, Brooklyn Fox), #1997 (1928, St. Louis Fox), and #2012
(1928,
San Francisco Fox). It is
interesting to see that Wurlitzer built these 4
all in 1928. A sixth Fox Special
was to have been built (for Newark, New
Jersey), and Wurlitzer in fact purchased the sixth pair of 50hp blowers
for
it, one of which finally ended up powering the Radio City Music Hall
organ.
The San Francisco Fox instrument was similar, except that the Solo
String
(25") was swapped with one of the Solo Strings in the Solo chamber
and the
32' Diaphone was located behind the procenium rather than at the left
side
of the balcony. The Brooklyn
instrument had an extra rank, a Concert Flute
Celeste that was permenantly wired in parallel with the Concert Flute.
This instrument was also arranged differently, with parts of it above
the
procenium arch; it also included a String Chamber.
The Moller company supplied lobby organs for three of the Fox theatres:
#5286 for St. Louis, #5387 for Detroit, and #5497 for San
Francisco. These
were all 3/12 organs with Artiste player units and each cost $10,000 in
1928. Only the Detriot lobby
organ remains. Moller then went on in
1929
to build its #5566, a 4/42, for the Atlanta Fox theatre, at a cost of
$42,000.
Larry Chace (also RLC1@cornell.edu) (posted to PIPORG-L on 12/20/95)