It's The "Other" General.... Talk about cinema verite - I just happened to be walking by and saw this amazing piece of mechanical history blasting in a parking lot and started shooting some video. It is a restored 1937 Wurlitzer automated organ. All mechanical and air pressure controlled. Check out the two sets of bellows- one on the bottom for power and the other on top for regulation. This thing was so loud that only afterwards did I realize that I should never have gotten right up next to it. Deafening!! Anyway, enjoy. What? What? Oh, just watch.
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Battle hymn of the glory
I came across this organ while I was browsing the web basically and I liked it
That's Seriously something you don't see everyday and think of how expensive these things were back in the day, all the man hours it took to make every moving part.
Fran Blanche, if you visit American Treasure Tour in Pennsylvania, you can see The General there too, as well as the last remaining Wurlitzer 175, black's 153 and 165, and more.
What a splendid apparatus. I appreciate the 'behind the curtain' view. That's how I roll!
What I like about Fran: She knows her geek fans want to see the workings behind the organ! I noticed the large plexiglass shield over the main pulley. I imagine that in 1937 that sucker was exposed, and people just had to know not to get anything stuck in there! (Well, maybe in '37 they might have had a metal cage around it.)
I love music machines. This one reminds me a lot of the video game Bioshock Infinite, heh
This band organ is a Wurlitzer Style 164 it's a very rare model and this is the only one I know that exists. It's called "The General" and is owned by The Neilson Collection aka American Treasure Tour.
Band Organs are outdoor organs, and thus use the parts of theater pipe organs(also built by Wurlitzer) that could project into essentially an infinite volume. Churches and Theaters are finite, of course and organs made for them set off the natural resonances within those spaces. This organ's characteristics are determined by the impedance matches possible in open air, thus it has those horns so prominently displayed. Also this one seems to operate with a full musical scale, at least in the middle ranges. Its much more common little brothers were made to a price point by reducing the minor keys available and thus had to have music written for them within those constraints.
' Loud' in a smallish volume was a selling point just as it was with early Rock and Roll. The era of the inexpensive home phonograph, even with electronic amplification was unable to reproduce such volume levels so these were popular well into that era when multi-player big bands cost a lot more to engage for an outdoor event. It even required one less paid performer than a theater organ would. This was the Great Depression, after all.
This would be cool in my room – annoy the neighbours
If you like to know about this organ, ask away, I am the one who runs it