Read About the Mt. Baker Theatre's Mighty Wurlitzer
featured in our November 19, 2011 concert
For over 80 years, the Mount Baker's "Mighty Wurlitzer" has entertained and amazed a wide variety of audiences.
Wurlitzer’s 1,558th theater organ was built in 1927 in North Tonawanda, New York. It was one of fourteen organs built for the West Coast division of the Fox chain of silent movie palaces. The organ (and the Otis Elevator which still raises it to the stage today) was installed by a team of Wurlitzer specialists, just in time for its debut -- accompanying the early baseball comedy Slide, Kelly, Slide starring William Haines. At the keyboard for that opening performance was Mrs. Joy Brown, wife of a local piano dealer. But it was Eddie Clifford who played most often, providing musical accompaniment at the Mount Baker’s evening screenings through 1932. A young assistant named Gunnar Anderson played the matinees.
As silent movies gave way to the "talkies," the organ provided musical entertainment before the film and during intermission. But by the late 1930s, and through the war years, the Mount Baker’s Mighty Wurlitzer mostly fell silent.
After the war, Gunnar Anderson returned from his stint in the Navy and began a remarkable run at the MBT. He performed 15-minute musical interludes during movie intermissions, with performances continuing well into the 1970s. He also organized the organ’s 50th Anniversary (including a screening of the Frank Capra silent movie The Strong Man), and was instrumental in the founding of the Mount Baker Theatre Organ Society.
The MBTOS was founded in 1983 to help support and maintain the organ. Their monthly concerts, silent film screenings, and other events have introduced the organ to a new generation of listeners, and helped keep this unique art form alive. During the heyday of the silent movie, over 7,000 theater organs were installed at movie palaces throughout the U.S. Today, less than 40 remain in their original location. Bellingham is indeed fortunate to be home to one of these last surviving instruments.
For their invaluable assistance, the WSO thanks Jeff Fox and Vernon Greenstreet of the Mount Baker Theatre Organ Society. Visit them at www.MountBakerTOShome.com. See also a feature about the MBT's Wurlitzer on The Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society's web site.
