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.

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