"The workweek had been long and grueling for Bob Quick. So on a recent Thursday, the weary Commerce Lexington chief wondered as he entered the historic Ohio Theater in Columbus if he could avoid nodding off. This was, after all, to be a silent film accompanied by an organ. It seemed guaranteed to induce a catnap. Two hours later, Quick was not only wide awake, he was actually energized by "one of those 'complete experiences' you rarely have. It was fabulous," he recalled.
Quick was among a group of Lexington business and civic leaders invited along on a trek to Columbus, Ohio, to immerse themselves in the awesome and sometimes surreal powers of a vintage theatre organ. It was, recognized Steven Brown, president of Kentucky's Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Organ Project (KMW-TOP), the only way to cut through the clutter of today's digital age and make the point that the theatre organ is something rare and wonderful to behold.
Brown, longtime board member Ed Commons and other backers of the project, on a mission to return the instrument to its original home in the historic Kentucky Theater, led the Lexington group to Columbus — with transportation provided by Gray Construction on its corporate plane — to experience firsthand a performance of the Ohio Theater's awesome Morton theatre organ.
In this age of the iPod video, TiVo and state-of-the-art digital cinema, the thought of a 1928 black-and-white silent film accompanied by an organ can seem pretty archaic. Yet to a person, the Lexington group sat enthralled as Greta Garbo and John Gilbert filled the silver screen of the Ohio Theater, enveloped in an otherworldly "real time" soundtrack being produced by a man perched before a machine that had dramatically risen through the stage floor, its quartet of keyboards and vast array of tabs and buttons illuminated in a soft, low-wattage glow.
The theatre organ is an American invention; a vision of wizardry designed to provide a sonic dimension of emotional highs and lows, comedy and mystery, tension and serenity to silent films. Nearly 7,000 were performing daily during the 1920s until rendered "obsolete" by the invention of mechanically linked recorded sound for motion pictures.
No digital reproduction of the sound that filled the cavernous, ornate Ohio Theater that evening could possibly do justice to the visceral experience. "This instrument creates sound instead of recreating it," emphasized organist Clark Wilson. In a very real sense, the audience is sitting inside a gigantic speaker, instead of in front of it, experiencing the incredible array of sounds emanating from towering banks of pipes, horns and percussion instruments being played by the keyboardist who, as Clark put it, is "keeping one eye on the keys, one eye on the screen and one eye on the music." Wait a minute — that's three eyes. Well, watching one of these artists in action almost convinces you that he must have at least three eyes and at least as many pairs of hands and feet.
"I've heard recordings of it," said Howard Stovall, a partner in the Kentucky Theater Management Group who made the trip, "but actually feeling it; and that's what it is — you feel it," he said, voice trailing in awe as he thought about what had just happened. Stovall is confident the organ will attract crowds to the Kentucky Theater. "The key is going to be getting people to hear it for the first time. You can't describe this," he said.
Stovall's thoughts were echoed by Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau President, David Lord. "I see the organ developing the Kentucky into even more of an attraction than it is today. It's unique, authentic and will bring a richly rewarding family experience for both us locals and visitors to the Bluegrass. I can see festivals and meetings of movie organ lovers being developed."
A devastating 1928 flood in downtown Lexington silenced the Kentucky Theater Wurlitzer. After languishing abandoned and slowly deteriorating in the theater for nearly fifty years, the organ was removed in 1977, destined for delivery to Chicago to begin a new life as a pizza parlor's novel attraction. But before the moving truck arrived, wealthy Fayette County landowner Oscar Wilson, who had loved the instrument since first hearing it in 1926, intervened. Wilson purchased the big Wurlitzer and had it rebuilt and installed in his Winchester Road mansion. Later in life, Wilson donated the massive instrument to the University of Kentucky. UK, in turn, has provided the instrument to KMW-TOP under an agreement ensuring its reinstallation at the Kentucky Theater. It is now in the expert hands of Carlton Smith Pipe Organ Restorations in Indianapolis.
According to its literature, KMW-TOP is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit corporation formed to "fund, preserve, restore, reinstall and operate the historic Kentucky Theater's Wurlitzer theater pipe organ." The organization hopes to complete the $704,400 project by 2009. Fundraising that began in 1998 has generated an estimated $325,000 from a range of contributors. Among them are the GTE Foundation, Toyota, the W.T. Young Family Foundation, LFUCG and the Lexington Arts and Cultural Council. A bill sponsored by Senator Mitch McConnell would secure an additional $180,000 in matching funds if approved as part of the 2007 federal budget. McConnell says he was moved to support the project by the designation of the Kentucky Theater Wurlitzer as an "Official Project" of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "Save America's Treasures" initiative.
To the delight of backers, the power of the theatre organ to impress has even reached across generations. Laney Helmers was so wowed by a performance in Toronto while on a trip with her parents earlier in the summer, the Lexington girl recently celebrated her 8th birthday with a party at the Kentucky Theater, asking her friends to contribute to the Wurlitzer fund in lieu of gifts. She raised $435 for the restoration project.
Once the organ is reinstalled in the Kentucky, plans call for historic cinematic presentations of silent films; a subscription concert series showcasing the Wurlitzer in performances by national and internationally recognized theatre organists; a silent film festival to be marketed regionally and nationally; weekend mini-concerts; and regular duty in pre-show concerts before the Kentucky's Wednesday evening classic film series.
Quick said he now understands how the Wurlitzer fits into the big picture of a transforming Lexington economy and culture. "We're a unique community," he said. "We're the sum of many parts, and this (organ) is an experience that should be one of those parts. If we could just get more people to experience it," he added, "it's a pretty neat thing!"
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