Leon Cole, a wonderful organist who was widely known in Central Tennessee, toured with a Hammond and played horse shows, carnivals, political events, etc.. He told me that the Roxy had an Orchestrelle. He said he used to play it. We were both playing at the Montomery County Fair at the time (1956, maybe). He for the horse shows and I for everything else, as I recall. It’s been a long time. Wow.
There is no evidence of the Roxy’s having an Orchestrelle in the Aeolian records. I would doubt the Roxy had anything like a Morton or Wurlitzer. The cost was prohibitive for a pipe organ. Orchestrelles offered players which could be used when there was no live organist. Also, there was the matter of space for a pipe organ. I was too young to have been in the Roxy that burned in the 1940’s, although I well remember seeing the ruins, and was old enough to be at the opening of the present theater.
It is hard to believe that they would have had the space for a small pipe organ. Some companies that made Orchestrelle-type instruments used reeds, like harmoniums. In fact, there was a difference in Orchestrelles between the reed models and a “Pipe Orchestrelle”.
I played the organ at the Capitol. They tried an electronic Wurlitzer in about 1956/57. I was eighteen and at Austin Peay. O.C. Terrell managed (owned?) the theater at the time and was who asked me to play there. I was paid in gasoline from his service station on 41-A near Beech Haven.
The Capitol was opened in the early 1930’s. There is a sound, B&W film made of the Capitol’s opening with interviews of businesspeople and “acts” by some of the local talent. It’s a treasure if anyone would know where it is.
I remember it well. I left Clarksville in 1960. The Capitol was still going great!
The immediate predecessor to the Roxy was another Roxy that had replaced the Lillian which burned in the mid 1940’s. New and fireproof!
The Capitol, now defunct, was a true Art Deco building from the early 1930’s. Somewhere there is a film that was made of its opening. It is a B&W sound flick featurning some of the vivid personalities in Clarksville at that time. I remember seeing it.
Leon Cole, a wonderful organist who was widely known in Central Tennessee, toured with a Hammond and played horse shows, carnivals, political events, etc.. He told me that the Roxy had an Orchestrelle. He said he used to play it. We were both playing at the Montomery County Fair at the time (1956, maybe). He for the horse shows and I for everything else, as I recall. It’s been a long time. Wow.
There is no evidence of the Roxy’s having an Orchestrelle in the Aeolian records. I would doubt the Roxy had anything like a Morton or Wurlitzer. The cost was prohibitive for a pipe organ. Orchestrelles offered players which could be used when there was no live organist. Also, there was the matter of space for a pipe organ. I was too young to have been in the Roxy that burned in the 1940’s, although I well remember seeing the ruins, and was old enough to be at the opening of the present theater.
It is hard to believe that they would have had the space for a small pipe organ. Some companies that made Orchestrelle-type instruments used reeds, like harmoniums. In fact, there was a difference in Orchestrelles between the reed models and a “Pipe Orchestrelle”.
I played the organ at the Capitol. They tried an electronic Wurlitzer in about 1956/57. I was eighteen and at Austin Peay. O.C. Terrell managed (owned?) the theater at the time and was who asked me to play there. I was paid in gasoline from his service station on 41-A near Beech Haven.
The Capitol was opened in the early 1930’s. There is a sound, B&W film made of the Capitol’s opening with interviews of businesspeople and “acts” by some of the local talent. It’s a treasure if anyone would know where it is.
I remember it well. I left Clarksville in 1960. The Capitol was still going great!
I grew up in Clarksville, leaving there in 1960.
The immediate predecessor to the Roxy was another Roxy that had replaced the Lillian which burned in the mid 1940’s. New and fireproof!
The Capitol, now defunct, was a true Art Deco building from the early 1930’s. Somewhere there is a film that was made of its opening. It is a B&W sound flick featurning some of the vivid personalities in Clarksville at that time. I remember seeing it.