ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: X, September 2005
The organ is not a Style "E" but is in fact an "EX" as it is a divided organ.
(attached is a photo of the console taken within the last week) You can see the two swell shoes,
as well as the ivory chamber indicators above the stop tablets. The organ is currently installed
in a single chamber, and only one swell shoe is opeative at the monent. But when the organ was
installed in the Bijou Theater in Boston, it was in two chambers.
The story I got from the seller
is interesting. His dad was an organ maintainer in the Boston area, and had the contract for the
RKO theaters in that city. (RKO as I am sure you now stands for Radio Keith's Orpheum, and was
the company started as a live theater production company many years before, by one B.F, Keith)
When organs were phased out, the repairman/tuner was still owed a substantial amount of money,
but with no signs of ever seeing any of this cash, the RKO folks offered him his pick of Wurlitzers,
in exchange for the back pay due him. He chose the Opus 1514 and removed it to his home.
(while he did have a home in New Hampshire, as the list states, the organ was installed at
his "in town" home near Boston in Massachusetts, not NH)
With the recent passing of the
organ man's widow, their children are now clearing up the estate, and the organ was donated to a
Theatre Organ club, to be sold and then provide the procedes of the sale to further the work of the
clubs already installed organs. I was the lucky first caller, and imediately agreed to the very modest
asking price. The club is offering to help load the organ, and friends and Pine Tree Chpater ATOS
members have offered their help to unload.
From: X, November 2005
It was purchased by Leon Brown of New Hampshire around 1950, when the Bijou Theater was demolished.
It was installed at the Brown family home (not Leon Brown's home, but his parent's home in Saugus,
Massachusetts as his New Hampshire home was unsuited to install a theater pipe organ properly.)
Mr. Brown passed away in the early 1970's leaving the organ to his sister who now lived in the
family's home in Saugus, Mass. His sister, Mrs. Diver passed away earlier this year (2005).
The organ was installed and playable until Sept. of this year, although it had not been maintained
since the passing of Mr. Brown in the 1970's.