ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

From: Ian McIver, June 2001

The Palace Ballroom console was a rebuild of the 2-decker panel console from Madame Tussaud’s. Opening the console reveals the original varnished wood exterior panels underneath the French surround. The proportions of the console are therefore slightly different from standard. The ormolu moulding is of a non-standard pattern.

The instrument was removed from the bomb-damaged Madame Tussaud’s, and was rebuilt and set up in the Wurlitzer factory in 1949 as a demonstration instrument.

It was sold to the Blackpool Tower Company in 1952. When installed at the Palace Ballroom it had an extra two-rank chest, with an English Horn (by Rodgers?), the other side of the chest being spare for any later addition. I am unsure whether that chest was added when the organ was set up in the factory. The organ was visited there a couple of times by the Theatre Organ Club, so someone might recall.

After being pulled out of the Palace Ballroom at the last minute, the organ found its way (minua the English Horn) to a residence in Yeovil, then to Hobart, Tasmania in 1975, where it is in St Michael’s School, with an Orchestral Oboe added on the old English Horn chest.

This page brought to you by:
VintageHammond.Com - We Buy-Sell-Trade Vintage Hammond Organs

TheatreOrgans.com operates KEZL-FM Culbertson, NE A Non Profit Full Powered Radio Station