A Look Inside The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama

posted by ThrHistoricalSociety on October 13, 2015 at 6:23 pm

Enjoy this report on Fox News about the Birmingham Theatre’s Wurlitzer, lovingly named Big Bertha. Larry Donaldson, crew chief for Big Bertha’s volunteers, leads a tour of the four story maze of pipes and valves. https://www.facebook.com/aaronlee64/videos/10150548844926506/

The Alabama Theatre website shares this information about their Wurlitzer: The Alabama Theatre Pipe Organ is Wurlitzer Opus 1783. The legendary theatre organist, Jesse Crawford, laid out its design for use in delux venues for Publix Theatres, thus the designation by Wurlitzer as Style Publix 1. Its basic design included 4 manuals (keyboards), 20 ranks (sets of pipes), 8 sets of tuned percussion units, and all the sound effects needed to accompany silent movies. Twelve additional ranks of pipes have been added to expand the tonal capabilities of the organ, making a total of 32 ranks (2336 pipes).

Visit their website to learn more at http://alabamatheatre.com/about-the-alabama/#top

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ABOUT THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA: Founded by Ben Hall in 1969, the Theatre Historical Society of America (THS) celebrates, documents and promotes the architectural, cultural and social relevance of America’s historic theatres. Through its preservation of the collections in the American Theatre Architecture Archive, its signature publication Marquee™ and Conclave Theatre Tour, THS increases awareness, appreciation and scholarly study of America’s theatres.

Learn more about historic theatres on our website at historictheatres.org