ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Bob Loesch, Nov. 1997
Organ damaged by fire in late '60s or early
'70s, (entire solo chamber destroyed) and removed to Dick Villeman's shop
and rebuilt. The remains were bought by a San Francisco, CA resident for
installation in his home. Upon his demise in 1993, most of the remains
were bought by me, and are also awaiting installation here in Lakeport, CA.
From: Bob Loesch, December 1998
What I've listed as the 16' Tibia is actually the original Rialto Main
chamber's Bourdon. I'm installing the instrument in a rather small room,
and I've a smaller-scaled Bourdon (an Austin) to serve as the low end of
the Concert Flute, so I'm using the (much larger) Wurlitzer Bourdon as the
bottom of my Tibia, a typical Wurlitzer 10" from an unknown installation.
Mr. Wright DID have some few changes made, via Reisner electric switches.
There are two or three
added switches hanging on the relay wiring, but I haven't gotten to working
on the relays yet, so I can't tell you what they did. The console is
un-altered. Someone told me (apologies to whomever it was, I can't
remember) that he had changed the Accompaniment 16' Viol to a 16' Vox, but
I can't verify that, either.
The only thing to add is that, after Gary's death, the remains of the
Rialto 216 were broken up for parts. I was only able to acquire the
console and relay (which no-one seemed to want, as Gary's friend Bill also
had a 3-manual and a 4 manual console for sale), the Bourdon and Diaphone
16' octaves, and the VDO and Celeste. Everything else was sold off to
others, whom I cannot remember. A rather sad end for a great example of
what I consider the finest model Wurlitzer ever built.
From: Jim Spohn, November 2006
There were on the stage of the Rialto, a 16'String, Morton 16'Tibia and some other rank I don't remember.
Working for Villemin Organ Company, I removed what was left of the Rialto organ and installed it with a
new Solo division AND the console from the Pasadena studio organ into a home in Walnut Creek CA.
The burned chamber had most of the damage on the main chest (Not to be confused with the "MAIN" chest)and associated pipes.
The offsets were not burned but the water damage was the killer.
We salvaged the bars from the Marimba and the Xylophone and the Sleigh Bells.
The Xylophone bars and Sleigh Bells are on my organ at the Granada in Bakersfiled.
There were NO brass pipes in the chamber when the fire occured (Hmmmm)