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Article published Mar 3, 2009
Mar 3, 2009
Organ donation
‘MIGHTY WURLITZER’ RISING AT HANOVER
By Hannah Brencher SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
The 1940s were the last time that the Loew’s Poli Palace Theatre, now the
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restored Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts, offered the sounds of a pipe • VIDEO: The organ, seen and heard
organ. But with the recent arrival of the console for the “Mighty Wurlitzer” pipe
organ, the performance hall has come one step closer to reawakening the organ music of the past.
The Wurlitzer pipe organ was donated to Hanover Theatre by Donald Phipps, 76, of New Bedford, a board director of the Eastern
Massachusetts Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. Originally used to accompany silent films, the organ has been
arriving at the theater in pieces from Mr. Phipps’ shop in New Bedford since January 2008.
Once installation of the instrument is completed, Hanover Theatre will be home to the largest Wurlitzer organ in New England.
With four manual keyboards and 35 rows of pipes, known as ranks, the organ will surpass in size the 4/34 pipe organ at the
Shanklin Music Hall in Groton. Of the 6,000 Wurlitzer organs originally produced by The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. in the early 1900s,
the organ is one of 200 still in existence today. Installation of the Hanover Theatre organ has been under way 14 months, with the
help of several donations to fund the project. Mr. Phipps declined to disclose the cost of the project but estimated that an organ of
this kind would cost more than $600,000 to assemble today. The theater anticipates completion of the project by the end of this
year and hopes to debut the pipe organ with the adaptation of
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in December. The organist for the performance has not been determined. Other plans for
the organ are in development, including the possibility of a silent film series and organ recital.
Upon his retirement in 1990 as a business owner of Marine Electronics in New Bedford, Mr. Phipps made the Mighty Wurlitzer his
labor of love. “I would restore and install parts, and it just kept getting larger and larger,” said Mr. Phipps, who assembled his
Wurlitzer out of organs that were being removed from theaters all over Massachusetts, including the Strand Theatre in Quincy
Square in Quincy and the Scollay Square Olympia Theatre in Boston.
Several years ago Mr. Phipps began searching for a home for his prized organ. After ruling out several venues, including the
Boston Opera House after failed negotiations, Mr. Phipps began collaborating with Troy Siebels, executive director of the Hanover
Theatre.
“This is a multimillion-dollar organ. We couldn’t let the opportunity pass by,” Mr. Siebels said. Built of 2,500 pipes and able to re-
create the sounds of a fully tuned percussion, the organ will stand near 22 feet high and weigh more than 8 tons. Although most
of the parts that make up the organ are 70 to 80 years old, the control system of the organ itself is a contemporary computer
system capable of prerecording performances for later play, making it possible to have performances without an organist present.
The organ will be able imitate the sounds of an 80-piece orchestra. Bob Evans, president of the Eastern Massachusetts Chapter
of the American Theatre Organ Society and a member of the crew helping Mr. Phipps assemble the organ, said the organ is all-
acoustic, with no help from electronic sound. The organ is meant to play popular music, he said.
“This is not a church organ. People hear the word organ, they think that stuff in church. No way,” said Mr. Evans.
When completed, the organ will have two chambers to fit the pipes, on the right and left wings of the performance hall. Mr.
Phipps, along with other society members, volunteers to come to Hanover Theatre three times a week to work on the organ
installation. More parts still need to be transported from New Bedford.Of 35 sets of pipes, 16 have been set up. “Now we can
actually play it as we hook it up,” said Mr. Phipps. “The left chamber is about 95 percent complete.”
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Mr. Phipps and his crew expect to begin assembling the right chamber in several weeks, a process likely to take nearly six
months.
Although the installation has been extensive, Mr. Phipps and his crew, along with the Hanover Theatre staff look forward to the
night when the Mighty Wurlitzer rises out of the orchestra pit and its music fills the hall.
“When the whole thing is running, you will hear it from the other side of Federal Square,” said Mr. Phipps. “It will shake the
building.”
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