I forgot to mention, my grandfather (Eddied Weaver) also played at the Lowes Theater in downtown Richmond.
He actually started out playing for silent movies. In Florida in the 20’s I believe, Conneticut, New York, etc.
I once even got to see him play a feature lenght silent picture. It was the Academy Award winning, “Wings”. A film about WWI pilots which, as I remember, was over three hours long and the musical score looked like a New York City phone book in large print edition.
I’ll shut up now and let someone else have a turn.
LeeWampler
ZedLee
I am so glad to see that people still apreciate the elegance and magic of the old movie houses!
I grew up in, around and under the Byrd Theater.
My grandfather, Eddie Weaver, wa the house organist for many, many, many years.
He would entertain twice nightly before the main feature with music,
song slide sing-alongs and his speciality, the parody.
Many times I would go along, climb down into the (dungeon) basement, go through the tiny door to the elevator shaft where the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ lived when it wasn’t performing, climb up next to my grandfather and ride to stage level where he would unleash the awesome power of the organ pipes, the ghost percussion section and the piano in the side balcony that seemed to play itself!
I once even met a celebrity there. When the James Bond film “Goldfinger” was playing, I met Harold ‘Odd-Job’ Sakata, the right-hand hench man for Goldfinger. I wasn’t allowed to see the movie so I didn’t know he was a “bad guy”. He was very large and scary at first but turned out to be very nice and gentle and gave me an autographed picture.
Ah, memories……….
Lee Wampler
zedlee
I forgot to mention, my grandfather (Eddied Weaver) also played at the Lowes Theater in downtown Richmond.
He actually started out playing for silent movies. In Florida in the 20’s I believe, Conneticut, New York, etc.
I once even got to see him play a feature lenght silent picture. It was the Academy Award winning, “Wings”. A film about WWI pilots which, as I remember, was over three hours long and the musical score looked like a New York City phone book in large print edition.
I’ll shut up now and let someone else have a turn.
LeeWampler
ZedLee
I am so glad to see that people still apreciate the elegance and magic of the old movie houses!
I grew up in, around and under the Byrd Theater.
My grandfather, Eddie Weaver, wa the house organist for many, many, many years.
He would entertain twice nightly before the main feature with music,
song slide sing-alongs and his speciality, the parody.
Many times I would go along, climb down into the (dungeon) basement, go through the tiny door to the elevator shaft where the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ lived when it wasn’t performing, climb up next to my grandfather and ride to stage level where he would unleash the awesome power of the organ pipes, the ghost percussion section and the piano in the side balcony that seemed to play itself!
I once even met a celebrity there. When the James Bond film “Goldfinger” was playing, I met Harold ‘Odd-Job’ Sakata, the right-hand hench man for Goldfinger. I wasn’t allowed to see the movie so I didn’t know he was a “bad guy”. He was very large and scary at first but turned out to be very nice and gentle and gave me an autographed picture.
Ah, memories……….
Lee Wampler
zedlee