Winter Garden Theatre

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Winter Garden Theatre 189 Queen Street, Brisbane, QLD - Installing the Wurlitzer 1924.

Acquired for installation coinciding with the opening of the Wintergarden was WurliTzer theatre organ opus number 748, style 185SP, an instrument of 2 manuals and 7 ranks.

This was one of the earliest horseshoe-style consoled organs to be installed in an Australia theatre. Its layout was unusual. The Vox Humana with percussion’s was situated in an “echo chamber” above the main proscenium, while the remaining six pipe ranks were in the main chamber to the left of the stage.

The console itself was alcoved at mid-height in the wall to the right of the stage. Installation was in the hands of Adelaide organ builder Eustace Dodd and the organ was thereafter maintained by Brisbane firm Whitehouse Bros. It also had a roll-player situated in the centre of the orchestra pit, operated by theatre staff at some daily sessions of the cinema; this accessory was continually breaking down and its use was short-lived.

The opening organist on 1st August 1924 was Byron Hopper from the U.S., and he was followed by Americans Leslie V. Harvey and Eddie Horton in 1925. Rita Henderson, a local organist followed. In 1930 Joseph Wayne also from the U.S. appeared, thence Charles Webb from Sydney, and in 1931 Brisbane girl Ellie Jones who remained until 1935.

In Ellie’s era the console was relocated to the centre of the orchestra pit, the orchestra having been dispensed with. Finally the organ was sold in 1938 and relocated in the Plaza theatre, Sydney (NSW), there replacing a Christie theatre pipe organ, enlarged to 8 ranks by the addition of a Tibia Clausa - Notes by Rod Blackmore.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -