Wurlitzer Opus 2170, a three manual, eleven rank Balaban 1A model, was originally installed in the Paramount Theater, Charlottesville Virginia in 1931. This was a late model that did not use primary actions on their main chests. Organs sold to the Paramount chain had these design changes to cut production time and cost. Many of these late models used parts and pipes from re-posessed organs, a common practice for organ builders at the time. Three years later, the theatre suffered a stage fire. The story continues with this article from the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
BLAZE AT MIDNIGHT DAMAGES PARAMOUNT THEATRE
Cause of Blaze is Undetermined Today; Three Were in House
With stage furnishings, sound equipment and piano gone and considerable damage done seats and rugs, the Paramount Theatre was closed today following a fire at 12:15 a.m.
The ruin of tangled wire, charred hangings, broken display letters and fallen curtain supports remained, all that was left of the city’s largest theatrical stage, though damage to the house itself was slight, and confined to seats on which scattered sparks had started smoldering fires. Fallen plaster and damage to the organ was expected to swell the loss today, all of which was said to have been covered by insurance.
Theatre Unoccupied
Three January 19, 1934
Three colored persons, Ed Wilson, Willie Newman, and Julia Jackson, cleaners, were in the theatre at midnight when smoke was first noticed there.
As one of these ran to telephone the fire department, the blaze burst forth in the drapes on the stage. Before the arrival of firemen this hanging had fallen to the floor in flames, igniting the organ, parts of the flooring and the screen.
Spectators who arrived before water had been turned on were met by dense clouds of acrid smoke from the burning hangings. With fuses gone, lights could not be furnished for the firefighters.
It was at this time that patches of plaster, loosened by extreme heat in the building, fell with a clatter on seats and in the aisles, while firemen darted about in the murk unable to see above them. A few moments after second-story exit doors had been opened, releasing smoke from the building, the first illumination was obtained. This was furnished by lurid red floodlights, which picked out firemen in strained postures waiting with hose in hand for water to be turned on.
Flames which came from beneath the theatre’s Wurlitzer were attacked from the fifth row of seats with one stream of water. Meanwhile, another hose poured a steady deluge into the blaze from the stage.
Crowd Arrives
Word that fire had been discovered in the downtown section spread in the district, and many persons arrived on the run, hatless, without coats, and rubbing sleep from their eyes. University students, saddened at seeing a favorite amusement place in danger of destruction, lined Third Street or attempted to gain entrance through the front doors in spite of the smoke.
The affair was not without its humorous incident. With keys furnished by Marsh Gollner, manager of the place, side doors were opened to release smoke which still filled the lower part of the building. Behind one of these Fire Doors Chief Page was found crouched close to the floor. Though loudly protesting, he was immediately hauled forth onto the pavement by excited comrades who thought he had been overcome by smoke.
Policemen finally cleared the building of persons standing about with wet handkerchiefs to their faces, and the firefighting went on at a less feverish tempo when all danger to other equipment was seen to be slight. Scheduled for appearance on the ruined stage today were “Alexander’s Variety Wonders,” acrobats who have visited the city before.
Officials of the Business and Professional Women’s Clubs announced today the donation by Weldon Wade, of the Harry Miller Theatrical Company in New York, of complete furnishings for the theatre which were shipped here to be used in the production of the Charity Frolics which this organization is sponsoring. Fire insurance adjusters were at work on the estimates of damage late last night and this morning.
After the fire, it had been decided the destroyed Wurlitzer console would be replaced with a Kimball console. The story goes that the Kimball Company’s bid beat the Wurlitzer Company in price and delivery date. So the console was a custom replacement built specifically to match the WurliTzer’s original specifications plus a few Kimball standard features added.
Fast forward to 1964. The Paramount’s WurliTzer was purchased by Mr. Hugh Cummings of Burlington, NC. Piedmont Chapter charter member and Secretary/ Treasurer volunteered to remove the organ from the theater. Much of it was transported it in the back of his station wagon one load at a time to a storage site in the basement of a textile warehouse in Haw River N.C..
In 1974, Mr. Cummings plans for installing the organ into his local shopping center were abandoned. The reason for cancelling the installation related to the cost involved. With Piedmont member’s urging, he donated the organ to Elon College with the stipulation that PTOS would install it. The organ was installed in the War Memorial Gymnasium on Elon College campus, Elon College, N.C. The console was positioned on a custom built platform among the upper level stands. The chambers were fitted with not only the standard WurliTzer theatre shutters but on the side of the chamber were a set of WurliTzer Studio Shutters. This allowed even more openings for the sound to fill the Gym.
During this period, all repair efforts were directed at retrofitting the console with electric stop actions and expanding the bolster rail. Rewiring a large portion of the original WurliTzer relay and switching system damaged by ground water while in the basement of the Paramount was required as well. The organ was dedicated by Searle Wright on April Fool’s Day, 1980.
Four years later, the gymnasium was razed to make space for a new athletic building. Elon College gave PTOS the organ with the stipulation that it was to be removed immediately (the wrecking ball was scheduled to start in a week) and that PTOS would cover the costs related to her removal and storage.
On August 31, 1989, Mrs. Mary Beth Rainero from the Paramount Foundation contacted PTOS to see if we had a theatre pipe organ available and would consider installing it in Bristol’s Paramount Theatre (now Paramount Center For The Performing Arts). Transportation was donated by a local transfer company and on October 29, 1989, a 48 foot tractor trailer pulled up to the H.P. King Co. building in Bristol with the Wurlitzer.
Free work space never remains free or available for long. We were half way through the rebuild when the word came that we had to vacate our storage site immediately. New free space was offered a block away. Immediate help from PTOS volunteers, on the other hand, were not available in the middle of the week on such short notice. So with local volunteer’s unskilled direction, prison trustees from the city jail three blocks away relocated the organ to its new site. Happily, the move did not inflict any new damage.
On April 18, 1993, the newly restored Paramount WurliTzer was introduced to the public by Lee Erwin accompanying a Buster Keaton classic silent film, The General. Since then, the organ has been augmented with additional MIDI voices and regulated. The original WurliTzer relay was replaced with a Uniflex 2000 Electronic Relay System. Today, the organ is frequently used for pre-show entertainment, silent film accompaniment, and featured public offerings by Paramount Center’s House Organist, Mr. Rex Ward.
This installation would not of been possible if it were not for the donations from the citizens of the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee and Virginia.
Chapter President Buddy Boyd with a newly painted console shell sitting on the basketball floor at Elon College. He is waiting for the football team to come help move the shell into its position in the upper balcony. circa 1972
Volunteers help move the massive WurliTzer relay into War Memorial Gym’s Main chamber. Today a desktop computer does the work this leviathan used to.
A before photo of the Solo chamber in the Elon College gym’s installation.
How the Solo chamber looks today here at the Paramount.
A close up of the Paramount marquee before renovation. Notice the plant growing out of the wall over the Paramount’s “U”.
And how that marquee looks today.
Bristol Volunteer Lloyd Smith applies his special knowledge and experience to assembling the Wurlitzer’s new blower. What is not generally known, this blower used to be a smoke stack blower for a steel mill in Birmingham. Talk about re-inventing the wheel! Click here to read the Blower Story.
And below, how the blower and static regulator look today.
No this is not a work session. Here is Mac Abernethy Project Director and local volunteer Jimmy Repass taking a chance during the opening gala to view progress on construction in the new Main chamber in the Paramount.
A year later, this is the Main Chamber now. circa 1992
The Paramount as it looked under construction
The Paramount during renovation.
A view from a different direction as the interior looks now.
Here is a rare photograph of the Paramount Wurlitzer in its original home, the Paramount Theatre Charlottesville, Virginia. Note the organist, a sailor on leave during World War II.
The console as it used to be positioned at Elon College.
The console as she is today.