ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From: Al Haker, November 2005
The Wurltizer at the College of the Ozarks, near Branson, still plays and it
is a miracle that it does. It gets very little maintenance. Through the
generosity of Wallace Dittrich, treasurer of the St. Louis ATOS chapter,
enough money was given to allow Marlin Mackley of St. Louis to work on the
organ. The students at the college get their tuition paid through a work
share program. So three or four students, usually from the music
department, would be assigned to Marlin for a week to fix broken parts and
to improve the sound of the organ. I went there a couple of times with
Marlin several years ago to help tune, releather the xylophone, move some of
the percussions out of the chambers and just routine maintenance. Marlin
has not been there for a couple of years nor have I.
Dr. Bruce Gerlach is head of the music department at the school. He and his
predecessor have always been very supportive of the Wurlitzer. Dennis
Ammann has palyed a silent movie program there for several years and gets a
pretty nice audience of both students and others from the area. There has
been a renewed interest in improving the organ thanks to Mr. Dittrich and
Dr. Gerlach.